Antinomianism And Sanctification

Jul 13, 2025

004 Antinomianism And Sanctification

Romans 6:1-14

July 13, 2025

“The Necessity of Sanctification”

We are now 3 sermons into this study and thus far,

We have really just been sort of SETTING THE TABLE.

We looked at 1 Peter a couple of times.

After discussing some of the reasons why

We tend to view sanctification negatively

We saw:

1. God’s Promises Require Sanctification

2. God’s Presence Requires Sanctification

3. God’s Payment Requires Sanctification

It further reinforced what we have been saying from the beginning:

Hebrews 12:14 “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”

When we came back last Sunday morning

We focused in on that simple Old Testament command

Reiterated by Peter.

1 Peter 1:16 “because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

· This is where we identified the finish line.

· This is where we identified the goal or the objective.

· This is what we are called to strive for.

We talked about the holiness of God.

· Majestic Holiness – He is distinct and set apart

· Moral Holiness – He is perfect and without ethical or moral flaw

And that we are called then also to be set apart from this world

And to live moral and ethical lives seeking to imitate God.

And then last Sunday night

We started TAKING INVENTORY.

If holiness is the goal, where are we now?

And we looked at that famous verse in Isaiah 64

Isaiah 64:6 “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

And we realized that we are far from the holiness that is required.

We saw that prophetic response of Israel finally realizing that

They are unclean and their religious works have been of no value.

· They saw themselves as worthy of judgment.

· They saw themselves in need of forgiveness and cleansing.

Now there is an important distinction that should be made there.

It should have probably been made Sunday night, but we ran out of time.

Going back to that upper room conversation between Jesus and Peter.

John 13:6-10 “So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”

We talked about the danger of being unclean Sunday night.

Regarding heaven:

Revelation 21:27 “and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

We see being unclean as a terrible thing.

FORTUNATELY, AS BELIEVERS IN CHRIST

· We understand that we are no longer unclean.

· We understand that we have been justified through the saving work of Christ.

So in that way we DO NOT IDENTIFY with the confession of Isaiah 64.

They were still under condemnation, we are not.

We are forgiven through Christ.

But, where we do identify with them is in the recognition that

Our cleansing is only positional, not practical.

What I mean by that, is that

· We know we have been declared righteous and so before God we are

considered righteous,

· What we are lacking is the practical righteousness that God also requires.

JESUS HAS MADE US CLEAN.

We have bathed (to borrow Jesus’ analogy).

But we still need that cleansing

To become outward practical reality in our lives.

So WE CAN SAY with the men of Isaiah 64

“That while God demands holiness, we still have a long way to go.”

And, as we said Sunday night, it is important that you and recognize that

So that we will seek the help that is necessary to obtain it.

For while sanctification does require labor on our part,

WE ARE NOT ALONE THIS BATTLE.

There is Jehovah Mekadesh, “The LORD Who Sanctifies You”.

We find that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit

Are all at work to bring about this sanctification that is required.

So that has been THE GROUNDWORK we have laid to begin this study.

1. Sanctification is Required

2. The goal of sanctification is to be holy like God

3. We are a long way from that goal

4. But God is at work to help us and assure that sanctification is accomplished in us.

I hope you have picked up on all of that as we have started.

That’s just sort of the foundation for the study.

THIS MORNING, let’s start getting into THE MEAT of the study.

· Sanctification is taught throughout the Bible,

· There will be many passages we will look at before we are through,

· But in my mind the best passage to camp in first is Romans 6-8.

Romans 6-8 is all about sanctification.

Many of you have been attending on Wednesday nights for Youth + You and have been walking with the youth through Romans.

· Romans 1-2 = God’s judgment on sin and sinners

· Romans 3 = God’s redemption of sinners through Christ

· Romans 4 = Justification by faith alone

· Romans 5 = security of the believer because Christ is greater than Adam

But the application of Christ’s conquering work raised many questions,

Especially in the realm of sanctification

In Romans 6-8 Paul addresses the confusion.

And this morning we really need to set the table.

The STATEMENT THAT IS RESPONSIBLE for the entire segment is:

Romans 5:19-21 “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We won’t go back through all of that,

But hopefully you remember Paul’s point there.

Namely that

· Just as Adam’s work affected us all bringing sin and death to us.

· So also Christ’s work affected us all bringing righteousness and life to us.

Christ is that second Adam.

The work of one affected the rest.

Just as Adam was our representative before God who led us into death.

So also Jesus became our representative before God who led us into life.

In that way Jesus and Adam are alike.

But they are different in the fact that

Jesus’ work is much better and much stronger than Adam’s work.

Jesus’ work overcomes and overthrows Adam’s work.

Jesus takes that which Adam did and destroys it.

That is what verse 19 was summarizing.

(19) “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”

And then came the statement

That Paul will have to spend some time explaining.

(20) “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,”

First Paul reminded of the purpose of the Law.

· Namely that the Law did not come and bring salvation.

· “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase”

We saw that:

Romans 3:19-20 “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”

· The Law did not bring salvation.

· The Law brought only condemnation.

· Those commands did not make us righteous,

· They only revealed how sinful we are.

And so we could say that Adam led us into sin

And then the Law exposed that sin.

We were in a horrible condition.

BUT CHRIST CAME,

· He fulfilled the Law,

· He paid the penalty for our sin,

· He redeemed us.

AND HE DID THAT BY GRACE.

We didn’t deserve it.

We didn’t earn it.

It didn’t matter how much sin Adam was responsible for,

Christ was more powerful!

“Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”

Christ’s work is more powerful than Adam’s work.

(21) “so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

AND THIS IS THE FINAL EFFECT.

While we were in Adam, we were bound by sin, exposed by the Law, doomed to failure, and headed for condemnation.

“sin reigned in death”

But when by faith we were placed into Christ,

His grace overcame Adam’s work in our lives.

And now in Christ, we are free from sin, free from the Law,

Declared righteous, and recipients of eternal life.

“even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

THAT IS THE GOOD NEWS!

· Just as we were once in Adam and recipients of death.

· So now by faith we are in Christ and recipients of life.

· Just as Adam was our representative who condemned us.

· Now Jesus is our representative who redeems us.

And even though the Law may still point out our flaws,

It cannot condemn us because we are under grace.

And every time the Law shows another sin,

· The powerful work of Jesus (grace) covers that

· So that there is no condemnation for us in Christ Jesus.

That’s the good news of the gospel isn’t it?

· We are declared righteous (justified) by grace through faith.

· We are redeemed by the perfect and sacrificial works of Jesus.

Everyone in here who has placed their faith in the work of Jesus

Enjoys that grace and that justification before God.

And in many ways, Paul could have concluded his sermon right there.

BUT…

Paul knows that there are some who will read what he wrote

And distort it into something unintended.

There are some who will say: “Well if grace conquers sin every time, then I guess it doesn’t matter how much I sin!”

There are some who will not see the necessity of sanctification.

That is the very argument Paul anticipates in Romans 6

(1) “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?”

He’ll ask it another way

(15) “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?”

And AT THIS POINT I need to introduce you to

THE HERESY which Paul is fighting.

Martin Luther was one of the first to really give it a name.

He called it: ANTINOMIANISM

What in the world?

· It comes from the Greek word (NAH-MOS) which is the word for “Law”

· And it precedes it with the (ANTI) which means “against”

· So the word means “against the Law” or “no law”

Luther used the word antinomianism to describe people who wrongly assumed that the Law had no use in the life of a believer.

TODAY we don’t hear the word antinomianism so much, we might hear it rather described as “Cheap Grace” or “Easy Believism” or “Sloppy Agape”.

But it is all coming from the same concept or idea,

And you need to understand it

If you are going to understand sanctification.

So let’s discuss ANTINOMIANISM

Like any belief systems and heresies,

· They can be hard to clearly identify

· Because there are various factions and various degrees

· So you can’t just paint with a broad brush.

I’m not aware really of any who claim the title of antinomianism today,

· But it is clear that the heresy itself is alive and well,

· In order to protect you from it, is why we are studying sanctification.

But let’s give some general aspects of Antinomianism.

THE BEGINNING BELIEF WOULD BE THAT

Through the work of Christ the Law is gone.

· He fulfilled it totally.

· He accomplished it fully.

· It is removed.

And honestly that doesn’t sound wrong to us.

Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”

Colossians 2:13-14 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

Galatians 2:19 “For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.

Galatians 3:24-25 “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”

There are plenty of verses that can be quoted which celebrate the fact

That Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law on our behalf

And therefore we are no longer under it.

But where Antinomianism steps outside of the lines of orthodox theology

Is that they go further to stress that because we are not under Law

There is now no need for any good works.

“If it’s by grace then works should never come into the picture.”

There is no need to please God through good works

And there is no punishment for disobedience.

And again, that can be a fine line.

For we definitely hold that we are made pleasing to the Father

Through the works of Jesus Christ.

We DO NOT BELIEVE our works add to our salvation at all.

But to say works have no place at all sends up some red flags.

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Certainly after our study of Titus you should have a few red flags arising:

Titus 2:6-8 “Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.”

Titus 3:8 “This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.”

Titus 3:14 “Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful.”

The preaching of James comes to our mind.

James 2:17 “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

Or even the preaching of Jesus:

Matthew 5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

And if there is no aspect in which believers

Either please or displease or grieve God in their behavior

Then why do we read passages like this?

Colossians 1:9-10 “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;”

· What in the world is Paul praying for if there is no reality in which we please the

Lord through our obedience?

2 Corinthians 5:9 “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”

· What a weird ambition if pleasing God is not a Christian objective.

Ephesians 5:10 “trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.”

· What is that about?

Ephesians 4:30 “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

· If there is no law and no standard and no call to please and no threat of

offending, then what are all of those passages about?

Not only that, but why does Paul refer to salvation in terms of obedience?

Romans 1:5 “through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake,”

Romans 15:18 “For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed,”

· Paul explained salvation as “obedience”.

· Obedience to what if there is now no law?

Or why did Jesus speak of salvation like this?

Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

· Why does it matter of a person “acts on” the words of Jesus if obedience is of no significance?

Or when Jesus said:

John 8:31 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;”

Or:

John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

John 15:14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you.”

Or remember how John the Baptist spoke of salvation?

John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

So I hope you are getting the point.

There is an aspect in which we totally agree with the antinomian argument.

· We agree that no man is saved by works of the Law.

· We agree that Christ fulfilled the Law for us.

· We agree that our salvation is by grace alone apart from any works on our part.

· We agree that grace is greater than all our sin.

· We agree that we are made pleasing by grace through Christ.

· We agree that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

WE AGREE WITH ALL OF THAT.

BUT DO WE NOW…

· Completely throw away the law,

· Become unconcerned about obedience,

· Just do whatever we want;

· Claiming grace all the way to the end?

We say, “NO!”

(1-2) “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

(15) “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!”

Or as Paul already taught earlier in the book:

Romans 3:31 “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”

SO WHAT DO WE DO WITH THIS ANTINOMIAN ARGUMENT?

WHAT IS THE LINE WE WALK?

Antinomianism exists because of THIS CHIEF FAILURE in doctrine.

Antinomianism fails to discern

Between justification and sanctification.

While both justification and sanctification are aspects of salvation,

They are not the same thing.

Let me help you discern between the two.

We’re going to get a bit technical here, but you’re smart…

JUSTIFICATION = Christ came to remove THE GUILT of our sin.

Through His righteous life and sacrificial death,

Christ satisfied God’s righteous requirement and holy wrath on our sin.

The GUILT of our sin has been removed through His saving work.

We are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

SANCTIFICATION = Christ came to remove THE CORRUPTION of our sin.

That is to say, He is removing the stains sin left behind.

He is removing the effects of sin from our life.

In justification He removes the guilt,

In sanctification He removes the corruption.

So while in justification

Christ totally fulfills the requirement of the Law for us,

In sanctification

The moral Law of God remains as a guide to help us overcome sin’s corruption in our lives.

· We know what sin is

· We see where we need cleansing

· We use the Law as a guide to go to work on sin.

AND NOW, AS YOU WILL SEE,

Because of the work of Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit

We actually have the ability to do it.

Antinomians fail to see that.

They focus solely on justification and the grace involved there,

But fail to recognize that Christ’s salvation is also meant

To save us from the corruption of sin, not just the guilt of it.

Jesus came to be our righteousness before God in justification.

Jesus now works to produce righteousness in us through sanctification.

THIS IS WHY WE MUST STUDY SANCTIFICATION.

We understand the guilt of our sin being removed (justification)

We want to focus on removing the stain of it; the corruption of it. (sanctification)

SO JUST A LITTLE EVALUATION MOMENT HERE:

I know you want the guilt of your sin removed.

Do you want it’s corruption removed too?

That is really the point of sanctification.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I know you want the forgiveness, do you want the cleansing too?

That is why we study sanctification.

We are studying to see how Christ is at work

To remove the corruption of sin from our lives.

I HOPE YOU DESIRE THAT.

NOW, ONE MORE THING HERE:

(and we’re going to come back to this many times, so if you’re on information overload here, don’t panic)

When we discuss this sanctification we talk about it in two realities.

1) DEFINITIVE SANCTIFICATION

This is where say we “have been sanctified”.

· We see it as that which has already been done on our behalf by Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:2 “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:”

1 Corinthians 6:11 “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

That speaks of the sanctification that has already been accomplished

In our lives in a positional or definitive sense.

(3-11) “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Do you see all the definitive realities Christ has done in you?

· “have been baptized into His death”

· “have been buried with Him through baptism into death”

· “our old self was crucified with Him”

· “no longer be slaves to sin”

· “having been raised from the dead”

And then the point: (11) “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

See that is all DEFINITIVE SANCTIFICATION.

It’s what Christ has done in your life.

And then we speak of:

2) PROGRESSIVE SANCTIFICATION

That speaks of God’s ongoing work in our lives

To continue to make us more holy like Christ.

(12-14) “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

See that calling now to put sin to death and be more holy?

Philippians 2:12-13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

This is the ongoing work that we participate in

As we strive to put sin to death and walk in holiness.

NOW LET ME CONNECT THE DOTS A LITTLE

Last time we talked about how God is holy and we are to be holy like Him.

And when we discussed God’s holiness we said that God was:

· MAJESTICALLY HOLY – He was set apart, He is distinct.

· MORALLY HOLY – He is without moral or ethical flaw

Now look at what we just learned about sanctification.

We speak of DEFINITIVE SANCTIFICATION which coincides with God’s MAJESTIC HOLINESS.

· He is set apart, and through Christ He has set us apart.

· He is distinct, and through Christ we are distinct.

And we speak of PROGRESSIVE SANCTIFICATION which coincides with God’s MORAL HOLINESS.

· He is morally flawless and we are striving to become morally flawless.

· He is ethically perfect and we are striving to become ethically perfect.

DO YOU SEE HOW ALL OF THIS SORT OF FITS TOGETHER?

We see that Christ’s work on the cross justified us before God.

· He removed the guilt of our sin and we are now declared righteous.

We also will see that Christ’s work on the cross set us apart to God

· (DEFINITIVE SANCTIFICATION).

· He became our representative in death and resurrection

· He made us the set apart people of God.

We also will see that Christ is now working through the Holy Spirit to produce practical holiness in us,

· Like God is holy (PROGRESSIVE SANCTIFICATION)

· That we may please Him in the way in which we live.

WE ARE NOT ANTINOMIAN.

· While WE DO believe that works of the Law cannot contribute to salvation,

· WE DO NOT throw away God’s moral commands entirely,

· RATHER we see them as a clear depiction of God’s holiness and the standard

we are striving to uphold.

LOOK TOWARDS THE END OF THIS SECTION

Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

“Therefore there is now no condemnation” – that’s justification.

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” – that’s definitive sanctification

“For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh” – that’s definitive sanctification

“so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” – that’s progressive sanctification.

The Law is not removed, it is fulfilled first by Christ and then by us.

THIS IS WHAT WE ARE AFTER.

And this is what Paul is about to explain to us in Romans 6-8

· He will show us how Christ definitively sanctified us.

· He will show us how Christ is progressively sanctifying us.

· He will call us to join that work and strive for holiness.

I KNOW THAT IS A LOT OF INFORMATION,

And we’ll work through it in the coming weeks.

Let me leave you with this one parting thought

To sort of draw it together.

Ephesians 4:1 “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,”

Philippians 1:27 “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;”

Colossians 1:10 “so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;”

1 Thessalonians 2:12 “so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.”

Christ has done great things for you.

Not only has He removed the guilt of your sin,

But He is at work to remove it’s corruption too.

Join Him in this battle.

Strive with Him in this.

Pursue sanctification.

Don’t throw out the Law and try to trade on some kind of cheap grace.

Don’t adopt the mindset that because of grace you are now free to sin.

THAT IS NOT A CHRISTIAN MINDSET.

The Christian seeks to honor what Christ has done

By seeing its full effect realized in their life.