Neonomianism or Antinomism - Which is Worse?

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. I�m hitting this Facebook Live thing again, but I don�t see anything there. That�s all right.

It says, �Tag Friends. It�s got certain pictures. I don�t know any of this stuff. All right. Can I tell you? I think, this is just generally speaking, I don�t have any, I ain�t got none, I don�t have any empirical data, but I think Twitter people, I don�t think they have such thin skin as the Facebook people do.

So what I end up doing is I�ll have a quote, let�s say, or a video or some scud, usually late at night, and I�ll post it to HootSuite, and HootSuite says, �All right, we�ll post it to Twitter and Facebook simultaneously.

Oh, we have people watching, actually. Well, welcome. I�m glad. All our big donors are watching. But when I post something on HootSuite to both Twitter and Facebook, Twitter people, they don�t really bat an eye.

I mean, they�re not offended. I guess they just scroll past it, but Facebook people, man, maybe this is why I don�t do these things as often is because I think sometimes you have kind of thin skin, and we need to have thick skin and a sweetheart, right?

How about a sweetheart? Speaking of sweetheart, my wife and I have really picked up the dancing, and we are learning now Viennese waltz, and that is hard to do. I mean, I�m in pretty good shape for 58 years old, I think, but you got to really move when it comes to that.

Anyway, but we typically go swing dancing on Sunday night after church. Be careful, because there�s Steven there, there�s Susan. Actually Susan and her husband, Michael, they go dancing with us on Thursday nights for the Viennese waltz, and so it�s fun to dance with the colonel and his wife and the rest of the group.

Anyway, you can write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com, or mike at nocompromiseradio .com. Don�t forget there are some videos on the YouTube site, and what do we have today? We�re going to do something kind of fun.

At least I think it�s going to be fun. Steven just said there are no safe spaces at NoCo. Well, that�s because, you know, you�ve got to have all kinds of little things here. I think this is backwards, so it doesn�t really show, but I think I posted this on Facebook or something, and somebody said that was a violation of one of the commandments.

It probably is, but people send me this little NoCo swag stuff, and I just thought this looked like Mary. That�s not Jesus. That�s Mary there, so see, I�m not breaking any commandments when I�ve just got this picture of Mary.

I mean, look at how long her hair is. I don�t know what the mustache is. There is a little mustache on there, so I�m not quite sure. Anyway, what we try to do on the show is I try to get you to think about the Lord Jesus.

Forgiveness, Assurance, and the Love of God in Christ

I just received an email today, matter of fact, and here�s essentially what the email said. I have a very dear pastor, and he teaches me the Bible, and he tells me about the context and Greek words and everything else, and then this person said, �But he doesn�t tell me about Jesus, and I need to be reminded that my sins are forgiven, and that even though I�m sinful, that I have not lost my standing with the Lord.

And when I read it, I thought, �You know what? I could just cry. I could cry for lots of reasons when I read that email, because she was writing with sincerity and with a real desire not to criticize her pastor.

I don�t know who her pastor even is. I didn�t want to ask for the website, but I wanted to cry for two reasons. The first reason was that the lady was so dear, and she, like every other Christian, needs to be reminded that they�re forgiven.

When you look at Romans chapter 8, there�s nothing that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. I mean, if it was separate me from my separate God with me and myself and my love, but it�s not my love.

It�s the Lord�s love, and nothing can separate us from that love. And I think to myself, �People need to be reminded of that, because we sin, unless you have some kind of whacked-out Wesleyan perfectionism, Keswick crazy view that you don�t sin.

But if you do sin, and I know you do as a Christian, I mean, unbelievers do too, but as Christian people, we sin, but we need to be reminded that there�s no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. And so, when I got that email today, literally, I almost cried.

And then the second reason I almost cried is because I thought, �For how many years in my own ministry, my ministry, did I forget to tell people that I�m sure I regularly did. I�m sure I regularly talked about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

I wanted to be that guy that Acts 17 would allude to, where Paul talked about the resurrection so much that people thought that he was talking about two separate deities, Jesus, masculine noun, resurrection, in the Greek, feminine noun.

And here�s this guy, Paul, and he runs around talking about two gods all the time, Jesus and the resurrection, the male god and his female consort, resurrection. I regularly talked about the resurrection and the Lord Jesus.

And of course, if you�re preaching through Mark or other books or Ephesians and you think about the triune plan of God and God chooses us in Him, He chooses us to the praise of His glory. I mean, I know I talked about the Lord, but I don�t think I reminded people enough about how your sin, Christian, does not separate you from the love of God, that your sin does not change your legal status before God.

And so, I think if you remember, NoCo listeners, that there�s a difference between ground of salvation, that is the perfect work of Christ Jesus. How do you stand before God legally? By what means do you approach God?

And it�s the merits of Christ Jesus. And then there are evidences that follow. Then there�s fruit that follows. And if you want to use Luther�s slogan, you can. You�re saved by faith alone. That�s the ground.

Faith alone, faith shorthand for faith in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And that faith won�t be alone, right? Because there will be fruits, our evidences. And when we sin, which one do we go back to? And that�s why even last show, and just remind the listeners here, this Assurance of Faith book by Louis Burkhoff, The Firm Foundation to Christian Hope.

Louis Burkhoff. I mean, I think I paid 15 for it. You can get it on monergism .com for free. There's both a PDF and an EPUB. But this is such an important topic, and this lady, she needs to be reminded.

And so here's what I�d say to you, now co-listeners, and now even viewers. When you have a Bible study, and you�re sitting there with your spouse or your children, or you�re teaching preschool, you�re teaching Sunday school, you�re doing VBS, you�re going to the rest home, you�re preaching for Sunday night, you�re doing a home group, I want you to regularly remind your people about who Jesus is.

And then when you talk about him, it will simply and naturally lend itself to talk about what he did, right? Because here's who Jesus is, and here's what he�s done. And Christian, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, zero.

And I know that sounds scary to some people, but we�ve got enough Roman Catholicism built into our system. Hey, if we tell people that, they�re going to go wild. But it�s very clear. What does Paul do in the book of Romans?

He lays out what justification is. And then he even, in chapter 5, gives the benefits of justification, right? You have peace with God. Can you imagine? War is over. You have access to God. And he just goes on and on and on about the fruit of justification.

And so, what does that make you want to do? I think it makes you want to live heartily for the Lord, and it makes you want to obey him. But at the end of chapter 5, after everything�s said and done, the response to this gospel message that your legal standing before God is based on the work of another, and you�re just simply trusting in that work.

It says in chapter 6, verse 1, what should we say then? I mean, Paul knew they were going to be asking questions. What should we say? Are we to continue in sin that grace might abound? By no means. Of course not.

You can ask the question, but you shouldn�t. And when you understand what God has done for you, you�re going to want to live. Remember Heidelberg Catechism, �Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude. You�ve had so much guilt in your life.

Think about the skeletons in your closet. Yet God�s grace in Christ Jesus was so great, and he saved you anyway. And his Son paid for all that guilt in your place. And then, how should you respond? I mean, that�s the thanksgiving message really, isn�t it?

�Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude. That you�re so thankful, and part of that thankfulness flows out with evidences and fruit of God�s work in your life, but it has nothing to do with the ground or the evidences.

What did I just say? I�m so stupid. It doesn�t have anything to do with the ground of it. It has to do with the evidences. Sometimes I think I speak for a living, and then I can�t speak. I just got that reviewer from iTunes, and it said, �No Compromise Radio is a low-quality biblical podcast.

Hey, at least we�ve got the biblical down, and it�s a podcast, and probably pretty low-quality too. I mean, I�ve got this mixer here. I�ve got a little Marantz recorder. This is a very important item here.

We have a no-co, and so this tells me when the 24-and-a-half minutes is over. And a while ago, I was preaching through Hebrews 1, and Jesus is better than angels. I mean, can you imagine if you�ve ever met an angel, how wild that would be, how spectacular that would be, how awesome it would be?

And you think of John before an angel, and he�s on his face, and the angel said, �Of course, get up. Don�t worship me. I�m just an angel, but still, angels. And so I think I was talking about touched by an angel and little angel�s pins and all that, so then somebody came up to me, and what did they give me?

Now, here�s my problem with this little angel, one of my many problems. It looks like some kind of girl that�s some emoji angel or something. I don�t know what it is, but this doesn�t look like any angel that I know.

Does this look like maybe Gabriel to you, Michael? They have some other weird angel names in apocryphal and pseudepicryphal accounts, but anyway, that doesn�t look very masculine to me. I�m not afraid of that angel.

Back to the point here on No Compromise Radio. When you stand before God, you stand before God based on the work of another. Stephen said just about everyone here in Tulsa has met an angel. That is funny.

But you, as a Christian, like me, like that lady that emailed me, need to be reminded that you�re forgiven. Can you imagine the blessing that you have? Forgiven. Of course, if we dive down into our skeletons in the closet, it�s pretty amazing that God would forgive us those things.

Some things we haven�t even done with our bodies, but we�ve done just with our minds and God has forgiven us those things. Some things we don�t even know we�ve done against God and God has forgiven those things.

You think about the fury of the wrath of God poured out on the sun at Calvary because of those things. And you think, okay, what must hell be like? I think it was Arthur Pink who said that all the fury of hell and the wrath of God against sin and sinners in hell was condensed into three hours and poured out on Jesus.

I don�t know how technically correct that is, but in my mind, that gives a firm picture of what the sun must have done. And especially when you think of the sun and his intimate fellowship with the Father for all eternity, and even on earth, this intimate fellowship, and then the Father treats the sun like he�s a sinner.

Even though the sun�s not a sinner, he�s treated as if he were a sinner. And then I respond with what? What�s my response? Oh, I think I�ll just go sin more. Of course not. But I think that�s what some of our Neonomian friends are wanting to do.

They�re wanting to say, �Listen, if you preach this free gospel, this gospel that says, �Christian, God�s not mad at you. �Christian, God�s your Father. �Christian, you cannot sin God. �Christian, you are simultaneously just yet sinful, and you are a child of God.

I think when we talk that way, I think they�re very nervous. But if you think about it, all right, if this is the biblical gospel, and if you overdo it, you add laws in order to be saved. We would call that legalism.

I mean, lots of times we think legalism is you can�t do Viennese waltz, and a lot of times we think legalism is, well, you can�t drink, you can�t smoke, you can�t do this, that, and the other. I�m talking about legalism when it comes to the gospel, adding law to the gospel.

Think Galatians 1. But then you can also underdo things, and that would be antinomism. So, gnome is law, so you�ve got neo-gnome is a new law, anti-gnome is a no law, against law. And so, you�ve got the gospel at 6 o�clock, and then you�ve got errors of 5 o�clock and errors of 7 o�clock, and you can just see how time has gone back and forth debating these issues.

Why Neonomianism Is Worse Than Antinomianism

Well, which one�s worse? If I had to ask you the question, is neo-gnomism worse than antinomism, antinomianism? By the way, you want to find more things that I have on my desk? These are all thanks to people just like you sending things in.

See, I don�t get to do this with just the radio. I�m recording a radio show that will go up later this week. This is the Thursday Thanksgiving special. I would say to you that I think neo-gnomianism is worse than antinomianism, and you�re like, �Ah! Caught him

Now, let�s think through this for a second. Adding law to the gospel is sinful, it�s foolish, it�s stupid, it�s wrong. Taking away law after you�re saved, antinomianism, that�s sinful, foolish, stupid, and the other adjectives that I used.

Both of those are wrong and sinful. I do not deny that, and I do not want to be an antinomianism proponent, and I do not want to be a neo-gnomism proponent, nor I don�t want to be either. But if you had to choose, which one�s worse?

Which one would you choose? And I think it�s in our gut, just it�s in our instinct to immediately say they�re both the same. They�re an air of equal kind, both remedied by the gospel, and that part�s true.

They are both remedied by the gospel, and so if you meet a legalist, you need to give them the refreshing gospel again. And when you meet somebody that�s an antinomianism, you need to give them the refreshing true gospel again.

Here are the merits of Christ, here�s who Jesus is, here�s how he�s a law keeper, and here�s how Adam, the first Adam, broke the law, here�s how Jesus kept the law, here�s how now Jesus hands you the law that he kept, and it�s the same substance but in different form, that is, from the hand of the great Savior who�s obeyed the law for you, etc.

But I go back to the point again to those big four listeners today. Which one�s worse? Antinomianism or neonomism? And I think neonomism is worse because this adding law is a gospel issue. Let�s put it in the category of justification.

How are you right with God? How are you declared righteous in God�s sight? How are you going to stand before him blameless, to use the language of Jude 24 and 25? That�s a gospel issue, that�s a justification issue.

You can�t add any kind of works, right? Because Galatians is very, very clear that there is accursed, damned, that kind of language for anyone who wants to add to the perfect work of Jesus. Because it�s essentially saying Jesus�s work wasn�t good enough.

And he says in chapter 1 of Galatians verse 6, �I�m astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there�s another one, �but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be what? Accursed. So, if you add to the gospel, neonomism, legalism, this is the category of justification.

It�s damning, it�s awful, it�s sinful, it�s foolish, it�s accursed. But antinomism, I think it�s in a different category. I think that�s going to be in the category of sanctification. I don�t want a problem in either justification or sanctification.

But if you had to pick one, is there a priority, justification, sanctification? I think there is, and here�s why I think there is. Because without a proper view of justification, there�s no sanctification.

That is to say, if you�ve got to make an error in either justification or sanctification, make it in sanctification. I don�t want you to make an error in either, obviously. And by the way, you can�t make an error in glorification because he�s going to do that for you.

But if you�ve got to make a choice, you don�t want to mess up justification because the fruit of justification will spread forth in sanctification. So in summary, you�ve got the gospel, the perfect life of Christ, his merits, his law-keeping, therefore his earning of righteousness, he�s born of a woman, born under law, Galatians chapter 4.

And here this great God-man can be our representative because he�s human, and he can be our substitute with infinite amount of righteousness because he�s God, right? He�s completely God. He is, to use the language of the Reformation, truly God.

If we say fully or 100%, that�s kind of language of quantity, but let�s use language of quality. He�s perfectly God, perfectly man, truly God, truly man. He can be our representative, high priest, and our substitutionary lamb confirmed by the resurrection.

We know he was not sinful because God raised him from the dead, therefore he was sinless. Now, if we add things, we have antecedent things before you come to faith in this Christ Jesus. That�s called legalism.

That�s called neo-nomism. There are no antecedent conditions, nothing you have to prepare ahead of time in order to be saved because you�re dead in trespasses and sins. I don�t want to make an error in that regard because it�s dealing with the gospel.

It�s dealing with justification. So, I think to myself, why then do I have so many people running around saying antinomianism is the worst problem? It is a major problem. There are people that say they�re Christians and they�re not.

There�s no evidence. There�s no fruit. That�s true. But if you�ve got to categorize errors, neo-nomism is a lot worse than antinomianism. I can already tell I�m going to get accused of being an antinomianist.

I need help. Sometimes, you just talk too fast, I�ve had too much coffee. You can tell what kind of day it is today because if there were sunny days here, guess what he would be doing? Notice the name of this?

It doesn�t say Soren Kierkegaard. It�s something else. It�s a pontifice solar. Pope Soler. So, anyway, in summary on No Compromise Radio, there are errors. Obviously, since the gospel is the most important thing, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, I deliver to you as of first importance that what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and then he appeared.

This is of first importance. Out of everything in the world, that�s the most important to understand. It�s the gospel. And you can�t add law to it and have antecedent conditions. You have to do these things in order to believe.

You�re simply to believe. I know what you�re thinking. Maybe you tell people to repent. And even when you think of repentance, is repentance? You have to change your life and stop your sin and forsake your sin in order to come to Christ?

Is that what repentance means? Because how can an unsaved person do that? How can a spiritually dead person do that? It�s impossible. Repentance has to do with thinking about sin properly. That is true.

And if you want to tell people repent and believe, I�m with you. But if repentance means stop sinning, change your life, forsake sin, that�s neonomism. And I want to stay away from that error. I want to stay away from antinomism too.

But I think adding law to the gospel is a category of justification. And therefore, it is worse than saying there�s no law for the Christian and he can do whatever he wants and he can run around crazy because there�s no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

That�s a category error of sanctification. So when it comes to justification and sanctification, one is an act of God that He declares us righteous based on the work of another. And immediately, of course, we begin to be sanctified because the Spirit of God dwells within us.

We�re new creatures in Christ Jesus. And God the sanctifier begins to work in us. That is all true. And if you know somebody that says they�re a Christian that doesn�t act like it, you can ask them, you know, based on your own lifestyle and your own profession, how can you call yourself a Christian?

But we want to be very clear that 501 years after the Reformation that we understand what sola fide means. And it means what? Sola fide. Faith in this Jesus alone for your justification, for your legal standing, for the ground of your salvation is built on the work of Christ alone.

And what�s your response? Confidence. Trust. Belief. Reliance. Hearty trust. That�s all a confidence in. There is no you�ve got to forsake all these sins, you�ve got to stop all these sins, you�ve got to do this, that, or the other.

That�s the question I like to ask people. If somebody comes to you and says, you know, I�m enslaved to homosexuality and homosexual sin, do I have to stop my homosexuality in order to, homosexual activity, in order to become a Christian?

That�s a good question. Because the way you answer it is going to tell me everything I need to know about, do you understand the gospel or are you a neonomist? And if they say, well, I believe, but I�m still living with the guy, then we�ll talk about antinomianism.

But here on No Compromised Radio, we are after justification by faith alone. Sola fide. There are no antecedent conditions to eternal life before belief. It is belief. Remember Jesus describing in John chapter 3, remember Moses put the serpent up on the pole, lifted up in the wilderness, and they were required to what?

Recite Latin, stop sinning, stop complaining, put some balm on it, put some gauze on it, have some incense put on it? No. Why would you put incense on it? Have some incense, smells and bells? No. They were required to look.

Take God at His word and look. So let�s watch out for neonomism and let�s watch out for antinomism and let�s watch out for the latest No Compromised video with Betty�s watching, Debra Ann�s watching, Paul is watching, and I think Stephen�s always watching.

You have to watch out for him. No Compromised Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God�s word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.