Legalism and Antinomianism

We need to avoid two extremes in obeying God’s commandments, however. One is legalism, which adds man-made requirements to God’s commandments. The other is antinomianism, which denies the authority of the law as a rule of life for Christians. Today, our greatest problem is antinomianism. We will not be ruled by God. we fancy that our own instincts are so sanctified that we can safely follow where they lead. This thinking can lead us into swift current of worldliness. As soon as a believer rests his oars in his battle to keep God’s commandments, he yields to the world and is swept downstream. He is then overcome by the world rather than overcoming the world in Christ.

Joel R. Beeke, Overcoming the World
(P & R Publishing, 2005), p. 31.

Recommended:

Joel Beeke, Overcoming the World

Vincent Cheung, The Sermon on the Mount

Ernest Reisinger, The Law and the Gospel