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Antinomianism True and False

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Antinomianism True and False ANTINOMIANISM TRUE AND FALSE By D. M. PANTON, M. A.   Antinomianism - a term invented by Martin Luther - ways ‘against law,’ that is , an tug-of-war to all law for the child of God.  In its lattermost form it is a revolt versus all law for the saved soul so drastic as to receive the rencontre of Paul: - "Shall we protract in sin, that grace may abound?" (Rom. 6: 1).  If the grace of the Gospel covers a [regenerate] believer’s present [wilful] sin, sin known and continued, then the increasingly sin, the increasingly tent grace; to protract in sin, therefore, is to multiply grace.  Here it is in its full nakedness.  Put thus tersely and tensely, the whole Church of God responds - "God forbid!"  But the diluted Antinomianism which we are troublemaking to-day is a subtle form of the same error; namely, that while we must not sin that grace may abound, if we do sin, grace will abound, so tent it, whether it is confessed and x-rated or not. [ETERNAL] SALVATION First of all, it is vital that we thoughtfully discriminate Antinomianism true and false; for there is a true Antinomianism, or right subverting of the Law for the child of God.  Paul has put it with wool finality: - "Christ is THE END OF THE LAW to every one that believeth" (Rom. 10: 4).  That is, ‘the law’ is unchangingly the Law of Moses.  The Law of Moses said: - "Statutes and judgments, which if a man do, he shall live by them" (Lev. 18: 5) - live for ever, have eternal life: Christ, in my place, and vicarial for me, did it; and therefore all I must do, for the eternal life the Law names, is to be, and to remain [by faith], in Christ, having thus for overly finished with the Law.  Throughout His life Jesus perfectly obeyed the Law, and on the Cross He suffered the final fate of all wrenched law: so, in Him, I have utterly satisfied the Law, and am therefore washed-up with it, as a ground of [eternal] salvation, for ever.  "If ye receive circumcision" - the stamp of the Law, without which it could not be observed - "Christ will profit you nothing" (Gal. 5: 2).  "Wherefore, my brethren, ye moreover were made sufferer to the law" (Rom. 7: 4). GRACE But there is a remoter leaving of the Law of Moses which is essential to the Gospel.  The whole manner of life commanded by the Law, God Himself has now abrogated for the new People of God. "The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1: 17).  On unrepealable points our Lord expressed it as sharply as it could be put.  To take but one typical example: - "Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth! - a summary of all law: "but I say unto you, Resist not him that is evil" (Matt. 5: 38) - a well-constructed reversal of righteous law.  So Paul sums it up: - "Now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were holden" (Rom. 7: 6).  Grace, mercy, love are to tenancy the Christian, until our Lord’s return brings in a completely new dispensation, with a radical transpiration of conduct. ANTINOMIANISM Now the false Antinomianism can be simply stated.  All a [regenerate] believer’s sins, past present and future, are so ‘judged’ on the Cross, and so wiped out by the Atonement, that they can never be brought up for judgment, and are once totally forgiven.  We find it astoundingly stated by an Anglican divine of the seventeenth century, Tobias Crisp, D.D.   Dr. Crisp says (1600-1642): - "Though a parishioner does sin, yet he is not to be reckoned as a sinner; his sins are reckoned to be taken yonder from him.  God reckons not sin to be his.  Every elect vessel, from the first instant of his being, is as pure in the vision of God from the tuition of sin as he shall be in the glory.  Though such persons do act rebellion, yet the loathsomeness and hatefulness of this rebellion is laid on the when of Christ; and God can dwell with such persons that act the thing, considering all the filthiness of it is translated from them upon the when of Christ.  There is as much ground to be confident of the pardon of sin to a believer, as soon as he has single-minded it, as to believe it without he has performed all the humiliation in the world.  God does no longer stand displeased, though a parishioner do sin often.  There is no sin that plane believers commit that can possibly do them any hurt."* Here is an Antinomianism unutterably shocking: that a Christian man can so write is a startling revelation of the perils of the Church of Christ, and so of each of us individually. [* Antinomianism Revived, p. 138; by Daniel Steel, D.D.]  THE TRUTH Instinctively we finger and see the gulf between the true Antinomianism and the false.  The false is typified in Indian paganism.  The missionary, William Taylor, tells of a Fakir who in his presence, while professing spotless holiness, was rebuked by the prod as a liar, a cheat, and an adulterer.  Admitting the truth of these charges, the Fakir triumphantly replied: - "I am vile in myself, but perfectly holy in Vishnu."  The Scriptural child of God, on the contrary, says with G. H. Pember:- "The parishioner may finger unpreventable that he has eternal life, and yet tremble at the thought of what the holy judging light of the judgment may reveal.  The easy-going conviction with which some believers seem to be worldly-wise to speak of judgment is not the spirit of Scripture; for every parishioner who is keenly conscious of the faults and failures of his own Christian life cannot but view the coming judgment seat of Christ with deep concern."   So far from putting our present un-abandoned sins on the when of Christ, the stratum of our holiness is measured by our shock at sin, our sensitiveness to our own guilt.  Luther’s cry is ours: - "I am increasingly wrung of my own heart than of the Pope and all his Cardinals.  I have within me the unconfined Pope-self." UNDER LAW One phrase of Paul, delivering us from rhadamanthine outlaws, defines just how and in what we believers are not viperish to law, but unquestionably under it.  We are, he says, "not without law to God, BUT UNDER LAW TO CHRIST" (1 Cor. 9: 21).  This expression can have but one meaning.  Christ is not only our Saviour, but our Lawgiver; and all His commands are as tightness on us, as the laws of a country are tightness on its citizens.  "One is your teacher" (Matt. 23: 8), Jesus Himself says; and so His parting writ enforces all His utterances on all believers.  "Go ye and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, plane unto the end of the age" (Matt. 28: 19).  That is, the whole Church is under the whole law of Christ for the whole dispensation.  "God manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3: 16), "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2: 9): - manifestly it is untellable to yield anything but wool and total obedience. JUDGMENT A magnitude follows of the uttermost gravity.  Paul states it :- "We must" - it is inevitable considering we are under law - "all" - plane Paul himself - "be made manifest" - 'appear in our true light' (Alford) - "before the judgment seat of Christ" - a throne radically variegated from the Mercy Seat surpassing which we stand now - "that each one may receive the things washed-up in the body, equal to what he hath done" - that is, an word-for-word quid pro quo - "whether it be good or bad" (2 Cor. 5: 10).  It is to be a well-constructed judgment of our discipleship.  In the words of Dr. Pusey:- "Judgment which did not take worth of everything would be a partial, unjudging judgment: in man’s sight imperfect; in God, an untellable contradiction."  So moreover in the words of Lange:- "Every whoopee of God’s children, during their bodily life, must there be judged equal to the law of strict righteousness, and each parishioner must be rewarded equal to his good or evil conduct.  The necessity of this judgment on the part of God is the only way to secure such a righteous retribution as would be honourable to God, is to have such a revelation of the hearts and self-mastery of us all."  It is precisely lawlessness which will bring when law. PUNISHMENT So there is no escape from the grave consequences of this truth.  It is for not seeing it that so many Evangelicals, who are unconsciously antinomian, deny, or at least evade, those Scriptures which foretell exceedingly grave, though temporary, punishments for [regenerate] believers.  Bishop Wordsworth states the truth thus:- "That which shall then be received will be either a reward or punishment; a reward for the good, a punishment for the evil, washed-up in the body: and that which shall receive the reward, and be liable to the punishment, is not only the soul, but the body."  No one states the truth increasingly drastically than our Lord Himself, the Judge.  In His forecast of the Judgment Seat to the Seven Churches, Jesus says to the Laodicean Angel:- "I know thy works: considering thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth" (Rev. 3: 16).  The unbeliever is never lukewarm, but unprepossessed as a corpse: this is a child of God.  The Judge Himself says what will happen. "Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. But that servant which knew his lord’s will, and made not ready nor did equal to his will shall be tamed with many stripes*; but he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be tamed with few stripes" (Luke 12: 47) - that is, word-for-word judgment (not mercy) will be executed on each discipleship.  The Epistle to the Hebrews (10: 26) sums it up: "If we" - the Apostle includes himself - "sin wilfully without that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth NO MORE SACRIFICE FOR SINS, BUT A CERTAIN FEARFUL EXPECTATION OF JUDGMENT."  The Lamb returns a Lion (Rev. 5: 5). [* Such find their lot "with the unfaithful" (Luke 12: 46, R.V.); not (as in the Authorized Version) "with the unbelievers": for as there are "good and true-blue servants" (Matt. 25: 21), so there are servants evil and unfaithful; or, in our Lord’s phrase, "wicked and slothful servants" (Matt. 25: 26).] SELF-JUDGMENT So, finally, the solution of the problem is given us in golden words. "If we judged ourselves, WE SHOULD NOT BE JUDGED *- but when we are judged, we are subdued of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world" (1 Cor. 11: 31).  We can now tenancy our own future at the Judgment Seat of God.  In the very trappy words of Lange: - "A Christian judges himself alone, and trusts none less than himself; and he who does not daily stand in judgment upon himself, cannot stand well in a state of grace: but the increasingly severe a man is upon himself, the increasingly sparing is God toward him."  To this end, let us unshut our vision to all Scripture ,¹ evading and lamister none - only the single eye (our Lord says) is flood-lit: let us grip all: let us live all.  Then will be fulfilled the judgment Word:- "HE WILL SET HIM OVER ALL THAT HE HATH" (Luke 12: 44). [* That is, judged adversely, chastened; for plane the holiest are judged, for approval: in proportion and if we chastise ourselves, we shall not be judged adversely.  This passage has expressly in view chastisement in this life. "Many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep" (ver. 30).] ------- 1. NOTES In one of G. H. Lang’s reports we read: "What but wildness of soul can possibly be the effect of such a statement as the said professional man made with emphasis: ‘No matter how you live as a Christian, you are unrepealable to be part of the bride of Christ and to reign with him’? or of a similar mischievous interjection I heard in 1935 from one who has taught these views for sixty years, ‘Every parishioner will be raised when Christ comes, no matter how worldly you may be’?  Many teachers of the unstipulated views would shrink from putting the matter so baldly, but it is what they mean, it is inherent in their doctrine.” "What the Church of God now needs imperatively is men worldly-wise to show fearlessly what the Word of God teaches as to the future that will guide life through difficulties and dangers, perplexities and perils; moreover how to proceeds strength to be true-blue and holy, and what will be the heavenly recompense; and worldly-wise to show moreover what will be the sorrowful penalties the Christian must squatter if unfaithful to Christ and the word of His patience.  But this demands tropical scrutiny of the Word of truth self-ruling from the bias and fetters of preconceived schemes of interpretation.  It calls for zeal and courage, and the making known of the results demands liberty of utterance, if saints are to profit by it ... The maintaining of popular prophetic orthodoxy may prove the death of spirituality." Dr. A. T. Pierson has been recorded to have said: "We have a saying, ‘Great is the truth, and will prevail.’  That is never so in this age. Truth is unchangingly with the minority; and so convinced am I of this that if I find myself like-minded with the majority on any matter, I make haste and get over to the other side, for I know I am wrong." What good is a D.D., an M.A., or any other worldly qualification, if one lacks valiance to teach the whole truth? If there is no vestige or desire to unroll responsibility truths to the people of God, what consequences must surely follow at the judgment-seat surpassing the righteous Judge? "Here, moreover, IT IS REQUIRED IN STEWARDS, THAT A MAN BE FOUND FAITHFUL" (1 Cor. 4: 2). R.V. -------