Legalism?
Antinomianism?
Or the Gospel of Christ?
"After conversion, what should govern the Christian's behavior?"
Down through the ages, extremists have answered this question either in a legalistic or antinomian (lawless) way. The legalist depends on obedience to law as a means of salvation. The antinomian (a person against the law) rejects moral law as binding on Christian conduct.
Legalists stress external obedience to God's law for fear Christians will take advantage of God's grace. On the other hand, antinomians resent external controls of any kind and therefore advocate that Christians are free from the demands of God's law. Both viewpoints, however, fail to understand the gospel and its power.
The gospel does not permit one to presume on the grace of God. Paul wrote, "What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!" (Romans 6:1, 2). The Bible warns against using grace as an excuse to take liberties with the gospel of Christ and the Christian lifestyle.
The legalist can therefore rest assured: The proper preaching of the gospel does not lower God's moral standards. In fact, just the opposite is true. The gospel believer is motivated by God's Spirit from within to shun the wrong and do the right - to trust and obey, to fulfill the spirit and intent of the law from the heart. If the legalist would realize this, he too might be more inclined to trust in God's grace than in his own performance of the law.
The gospel also brings liberty, but not as the antinomian imagines, because with the gospel comes responsibility. True, it does set the believer free from the condemnation of sin. Once freed, however, the believer is not his own master. He is set free from the old master of sin so that he may serve a new Master: the Lord Jesus Christ.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:15-18).
Thus, the believer is set free not only from the penalty of sin (justification) but also from the power of sin as God's Spirit begins to produce the fruit of righteous living (sanctification) in him.
Justification and sanctification go together. The gospel that saves also sanctifies. If the antinomian realized this, he too could experience the true liberty that comes from a Christ-conformed life, rather than the false liberty that comes from arbitrary and self-centered conduct.
The New Testament clearly teaches that Christian conduct springs from the gospel. When the apostle Paul addressed misconduct in the early church, he rarely appealed to the law and never resorted to situation ethics as the remedy. Instead, he consistently reminded Christians that the gospel has brought them into a new relationship with God.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).
Because of Christ, God regards Christians as dead to sin - new creatures, sons and daughters of God. When Christians realize this, as Paul points out, they can no longer continue to live like sinners. Their position in Christ requires a higher standard. Therefore, the gospel - not law, nor a person's own judgment - keeps the believer on the straight and narrow. And it does so in three ways.
Motivation
First, the gospel provides proper motivation for right living. It does this because the faith that saves is itself based on a personal identification with Christ. Through the gospel, the believer is united with Christ in the likeness of His death, burial, and resurrection (see Romans 6). Just as Christ died for sin, so the believer in Christ dies to sin, self, and the world. Just as Christ rose from the dead, so the believer in Christ rises to walk in newness of life. Out of love and gratitude for what Christ has done, the believer seeks to do what is right and pleasing to God. He serves the Lord because the gospel motivates him to do no less.
For the love of Christ constrains [compels] us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and arose again. . . . Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15, 17).
If the believer finds this not so, it is because he is failing to be what he has already become in Christ: dead to sin and alive to God.
Power
Second, the gospel empowers the believer to live right. The law - though holy, just, and good - could never do this because of the weakness of human nature (Romans 8:3). Through the gospel, the indwelling of God's Spirit transforms human nature, conforming it to the "mind of Christ." The Spirit's inner transformation of the believer's thinking, character, and behavior (mind, heart, and body) is one of the central ethical motifs of Christianity.
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you (Romans 8:10, 11).
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (12:2).
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).
Example
Third, the gospel directs our conduct by example. Paul said, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). The life of Jesus provides the believer with an ethical model. On the cross, Christ gave His all. Can the believer, who patterns his life after Christ's, do any less? By walking in Christ's steps, the believer is able to demonstrate the same love, compassion, obedience, and humble service that Jesus himself displayed to God and humanity.
The very name Christian means to be like Christ. Christlikeness comes by receiving the "mind of Christ" and by following His example. The Christian's ethics are first and foremost Christ-centered (what would Christ have me do?), rather than law-centered (what is the minimum I need to do?) or self-centered (what can I do and get away with it?).
Proper Response
In summary, when faced with ethical decisions (What should I do? How should I live?), the legalist often responds, "All the answers are in the law. If I do exactly what the law says, I can't go wrong." In turn, the antinomian says, "Having been set free, I can do whatever I want. The law is no longer binding. I'll let the situation determine my response."
But the gospel-believing Christian responds, "My position in Christ governs what I think, say, and do. I am saved, and with God's help, I'm going to live like it. To do otherwise would be inconsistent with my faith in Christ."
Can the proper motivation, power, and example for Christian conduct be found in any other source than the gospel of Jesus Christ? The answer is obvious. Therefore:
Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith . . . (Hebrews 12:1, 2).
