Antinomianism is the rejection of God's moral law as having any binding claim on the Christian. It typically argues: (a) Christ fulfilled the law, therefore we need not; (b) we are saved by grace, not law, therefore law is irrelevant to Christian living; (c) the Holy Spirit guides us internally, making external law unnecessary. Scripture refutes all three. Paul anticipates antinomianism in Romans 6:1 — "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" — and answers with a thundering "By no means!" Regeneration does not abolish the law's moral claim; it writes the law on the heart (Hebrews 8:10). The Ten Commandments represent God's permanent moral character; Jesus intensified them in the Sermon on the Mount, not abolished them. The law has three uses: civil restraint, driving sinners to Christ, and guiding the redeemed in grateful obedience (the third use — tertius usus legis — is what antinomianism denies).
• Romans 6:1–2 — "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" — The definitive apostolic rebuttal of antinomianism.
• Matthew 5:17 — "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." — Christ does not end the law's moral authority.
• Romans 3:31 — "Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law."
• 1 John 3:4 — "Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness." — Sin and lawlessness are identical; antinomianism licenses lawlessness.
• Jude 4 — "Ungodly people…pervert the grace of our God into sensuality." — The NT explicitly predicts antinomian abuse of grace.
Hyper-grace teaching: Christ's atonement means Christians need never confess sin or repent — all past, present, and future sins are pre-forgiven, making ongoing repentance unnecessary. This is antinomianism dressed in evangelical vocabulary.
"I'm not under the law": Misreading Paul's "not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14) to mean the moral law makes no claims on believers. Paul means the law as a covenant of works and curse — not the moral law as a guide to life.
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism turned inward: "God wants me happy" becomes the rule of life, replacing God's law with personal well-being as the ethical standard.
Antinomianism's pastoral damage: Cheap grace, passive Christianity, no conviction of sin, no sanctification, and eventually, no visible difference between the church and the world.
Greek: ἀντί (anti) + νόμος (nomos)
anti — against, opposed to
nomos (νόμος, G3551) — law, ordinance, rule; specifically
the Torah (Law of Moses); by extension, moral law
Same root: νομίζω (nomizō) — to follow custom/law
νομικός (nomikos) — a lawyer, expert in law (NT)
νομοθέτης (nomothetes) — lawgiver (Heb 7:11)
ἀνομία (anomia) — lawlessness (Mt 7:23; 1 Jn 3:4)
Historical marker:
Term coined by Luther ~1537 against Johann Agricola,
who argued the gospel made preaching the law unnecessary.
Luther wrote his Antinomian Disputations (1537-1540) against him.
The opposite error: Legalism (νομισμός) — treating law-keeping
as the ground of justification, not the fruit of it.