Grace is Not Anti-All-Law

Being free from the Old Testament Law is not to be free from all duty, all duty to God, or all of God's Law.  It is to be free from the Old Testament, written ordinances of The Law.  Christians, on the other hand, are bound to the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2).

Antinomianism (and libertinism) heretically disregards all law, to the end that any duty is seen as sinful!  Legalism is surely as sinful as antinomianism!  We could not be saved by following the written ordinances of the Old Testament, but we cannot be sanctified without following all of God's will for us that we know by the Bible and by obeying the Word of God that is urged upon our consciences by The Holy Spirit!

If you mainly relate to God by proclaiming freedom from Law, then you are bound to Law in a reverse way, because you define Christ-likeness in terms of Law!  Be set free from the heresies of antinomianism and legalism by relating to Christ across the gamut of positions toward the Law - that He is our righteousness whether we are well sanctified or not.  THEN, sanctify.  Then you will be able to get your head clear of constant thoughts about the Law and accept whatever He is doing to you.  It will be soft, hard, painful and gentle, with concern about His will and with knowledge that He is in you to make you do His will and that He is transforming your will to be like His will (pray, asking Him to transform your will to be like His will).  Let your strange twisting of grace as well as your legalism fall off of you by the power of God and the knowledge of Him in all His facets, knowing that since He fulfilled the Law for us, He did love the Law.  Paul also spoke highly of the Law, but he made the distinction between the Old Testament written ordinance which we could not follow and the New Testament Law that is written on our hearts, and remember that Christ re-educated the Jews by making the Law even harder (lust is adultery and causeless anger is murder), which He can cleanse us from.

Be cleansed from sinning against God, Christian.  We can't follow the Law that Moses knew, but we can follow Christ from the heart.  Don't harden your heart or burn out your conscience - you need it!  Follow Him sincerely, and He will lift you up to greater ability to love Him more freely.  Freedom from The Law, freedom from sin, and salvation by grace alone does not free us from the need to exert work to brutalize the wickedness in our flesh.  Brutalize it.  Ask God to cleanse you with His good fire and to transform your mind by being awash in His Word, our Master Jesus, by means of reading, studying, understanding and knowing God's Special Book, The Holy Bible.

We understand His nature in the Old Testament and in the New, together.  We are free from our sin in Him, so exert freedom from it, and rejoice in Christ, dear Christian!

Gaze at the revelation of the glory of God in the pages of His Scriptures, and be transformed from one glory to the next by the good work of The Holy Spirit in all who belong to Christ!  Be actively caught up in the glory of Christ, not by imagining the imaginations of your filthy imagination of your flesh but in the Truth of Scripture, all of which speaks of Him.  God works in you His own good pleasure to work Him out in you as you gaze at Him and be lost in His glory.

Antinomianism, like legalism, is against love and grace.  Both types can be Christians so long as they confess and believe, according to the Scriptures, as per Romans 10:9, 10, 13 and 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, but we won't get proper sanctification without gazing at the image of Christ that is pictured in the words of the New Testament more fully than Moses knew when his face shone for a time after his brief interaction with God before fading away.  The written ordinances of The Law just aren't powerful to help us, because our flesh is weak, but Christ in us gives us hope of glorification, and The Holy Spirit is able to teach us about Him and to lead us into all right living in the sight of God.  Praise Him for His continuous, mighty acts of love!

[Reference: John MacArthur, 48-24 - "The Right Motive in Sanctification" - Galatians]

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