Antinomianism
Short answer: Antinomianism is the teaching that grace frees Christians from any obligation to obey God's moral law, so that sin no longer matters for the believer. Romans 6:1-15 answers this by asking a rhetorical question and then refusing it: shall we continue in sin so grace may abound? Paul answers, may it never be. His argument is not that Christians must keep the law to be saved, but that they have died to sin and now belong to Christ. Grace does not lower God's standard; it changes the person. The passage presents baptism as union with Christ's death and resurrection, and it ends by commanding believers not to let sin reign in their mortal bodies. Antinomianism fails because it misunderstands what grace does, not merely because it breaks a rule.
The charge Paul is answering in Romans 6
Romans 5 ends with a stunning statement about grace abounding where sin increased. Paul knew exactly how a careless hearer would respond, and he raises the objection himself in Romans 6:1: shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? That is the antinomian conclusion drawn from free grace, and Paul does not treat it as an interesting thought experiment. He treats it as a contradiction of the gospel itself.
The word antinomian comes from two Greek terms meaning against law. Historically it labels anyone who says the moral law has no ongoing claim on the Christian because grace has replaced it. Paul does not defend the law as a means of justification, but he refuses to let grace become a cover for sin. His answer in Romans 6:2 is a flat denial joined to a reason: how could those who died to sin still live in it?
That reason is the hinge of the whole chapter. Paul is not saying sin becomes impossible for believers, nor that they never stumble. He is saying the old relationship has ended. A person who has died to sin cannot logically treat sin as a master to be served. Antinomianism is not merely a bad habit; it is a failed logic, because it assumes the old life is still in charge.
Buried with him: what baptism is meant to show
Paul presses the argument further by pointing to baptism. Romans 6:4 speaks of being buried with Christ through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we also might walk in newness of life. Baptism is not magic and it does not save by the water itself, but it is the visible sign of a real union with Christ.
The point is direction, not perfection. Newness of life is a new pattern, a new allegiance, a new master. If someone claims to be buried with Christ and raised with him while deliberately continuing in the very sin he died to break, the sign and the life contradict each other. That is the inconsistency Paul exposes, and it is precisely the inconsistency antinomianism institutionalizes.
Notice how pastoral and personal the language is. Paul says we, not they. He includes himself among those who must reckon this true. The teaching is not aimed at outsiders but at believers who need to understand what happened to them in Christ. Baptism, rightly understood, is an argument against antinomianism every time it is administered.
The old self was crucified, so stop letting sin reign
Romans 6:6 states that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. The imagery is decisive. A crucified person does not continue as before. Paul follows this in Romans 6:12 with an imperative: do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lusts.
This is where antinomianism shows its weakness most clearly. Paul's answer to cheap grace is not a list of regulations but a command grounded in identity. He does not tell believers to become something they are not; he tells them to live as what they already are. The imperative rests on the indicative. Because you died with Christ, do not live as though you had not.
Paul is also honest that the body is mortal and that sinful desires remain present. He does not claim that temptation vanishes. He claims that sin's reign can be refused. That is a very different thing from sinless perfection, and it is also very different from the antinomian claim that obedience is optional because grace covers everything automatically.
Grace is not a license, and Paul says so plainly
Romans 6:14 gives the ground of confidence: sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Antinomianism grabs that phrase and runs with it, as if not being under law means there is no moral expectation at all. Paul anticipates exactly that misuse and rejects it in the next verse, Romans 6:15, asking whether we should sin because we are not under law but under grace, and answering with the strongest possible no.
Being under grace means the penalty and power of sin have been broken, not that God's character has changed. God still calls some things good and others evil. Grace does not redefine holiness; it produces it. A person who says grace permits sin has not understood grace at all, because grace is God's action to rescue people from sin, not to make peace with it.
Jude 1:4 describes the same error in vivid terms, speaking of ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency. That is antinomianism named and condemned. It is not a minor theological misstep; Scripture treats it as a denial of the Master who bought us.
Lawlessness, obedience, and the shape of saving faith
1 John 3:4 defines the issue sharply: Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. John is not reintroducing law as the basis of salvation. He is saying that sin is by nature a rejection of God's authority, and that a life of settled lawlessness is incompatible with abiding in Christ. First John repeatedly ties assurance to practice, without ever making practice the ground of acceptance.
This creates an important distinction. Obedience is the fruit of salvation, not its cause. No one is justified by keeping the law; that is the error of legalism. But no one who has been genuinely united to Christ treats obedience as irrelevant; that is the error of antinomianism. Galatians 5:13 makes the balance explicit, calling believers to freedom while warning them not to use that freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but to serve one another through love.
Where lawlessness is welcomed as normal Christian experience, something has gone wrong with the understanding of the gospel. John goes so far as to say that no one who remains in him keeps on sinning in that settled way. Faithful Christians differ on how to apply that verse to specific struggles, but the direction is not ambiguous.
How antinomianism actually appears today
Antinomianism rarely announces itself by that name. It appears in milder forms: the assumption that because forgiveness is free, repentance is unnecessary; that because we are under grace, ongoing patterns of sin need no attention; that preaching holiness is legalism and preaching repentance is guilt manipulation. Each of these can sound spiritual while quietly emptying the cross of its purpose.
Galatians 5:19-21 lists the works of the flesh and warns that those who practice such things will not inherit God's kingdom. That is not a threat to believers who stumble; it is a warning to anyone who treats sin as their settled pattern while claiming grace. Second Peter 2:18-22 likewise describes false teachers who speak great swelling words of emptiness and entice people through licentiousness while promising freedom.
The corrective is not to add law back as a savior, but to recover the New Testament's own logic: grace teaches us to deny ungodliness, and the Spirit produces real fruit. Antinomianism and legalism are opposite errors, and Scripture rejects both. The gospel does what neither can do: it makes sinners righteous and then makes them holy.
Why antinomianism fails at the pastoral level
Antinomianism is not only theologically wrong; it is pastorally destructive. If sin no longer matters, then repentance loses its place, confession becomes unnecessary, and growth in holiness is treated as optional. But the New Testament consistently connects confession with cleansing and repentance with restoration, which assumes that sin remains a real problem that needs a real remedy.
Romans 6 ends in the next verses on a note of service. You are either a servant of sin leading to death or a servant of obedience leading to righteousness. There is no third category of autonomous freedom where a person decides for themselves whether sin is serious. That may sound restrictive, but it is actually freeing: the person who belongs to Christ is no longer a slave to the thing that was destroying them.
A church that tolerates antinomianism will eventually produce either complacent members who never grow or confused members who cannot tell the difference between grace and permission. Both outcomes dishonor the Savior who died to make us his own, and neither reflects the newness of life Paul describes in Romans 6. Grace is not a smaller thing than we thought; it is a greater thing.
Biblical fidelity check
Romans 6:1-15 establishes that Christians have died to sin, are united with Christ, and must not let sin reign in their bodies. It does not establish that believers achieve sinless perfection in this life, because Paul goes on to describe an ongoing struggle in Romans 7 and calls for continual reckoning and obedience. It also does not establish that the Mosaic law is the means of justification, since Paul explicitly says believers are not under law but under grace. The passage rules out any use of grace as permission to continue in sin.
A common misreading treats the phrase not under law but under grace as teaching that moral commands no longer apply to Christians. That reading is wrong because the verse itself is followed by a direct rejection of that exact inference. Paul refuses the conclusion before his readers can draw it. Another misreading treats the chapter as teaching sinless perfection. That is wrong because Paul commands the Romans not to let sin reign, which would be meaningless if sin had already been entirely removed from their experience.
Other passages that speak to Romans 6:1-15
Several related studies help fill out the picture. What Does 1 John 1:1 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application grounds the discussion of fellowship and truth in the apostolic witness. What Does 1 John 1:8 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application shows why denying ongoing sin is itself a form of self-deception, which guards against both antinomianism and perfectionism. 1 John 1:9 Meaning: Confession, Forgiveness, and Cleansing explains the ongoing remedy for sin in the life of a believer. And What Does 1 John 2:15 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application addresses the call to love the Father rather than the world, which is the practical shape of refusing sin's reign.
Frequently asked questions
What is antinomianism in simple terms?
Antinomianism is the view that Christians are not bound by God's moral law, so grace removes any requirement to obey. The term comes from Greek words meaning against law. In practice it treats sin as harmless for believers because forgiveness is guaranteed. Romans 6:1-15 rejects this by arguing that those who died to sin cannot go on living in it. Scripture treats this not as an acceptable theological option but as a distortion of grace itself, condemned in passages such as Jude 1:4.
Does Romans 6 teach that Christians can reach sinless perfection?
No. Romans 6 teaches that sin's dominion is broken and that believers must refuse to let sin reign in their mortal bodies. Paul speaks of the body as mortal and of obedience as an ongoing choice, which assumes temptation and struggle continue. Romans 7 describes a real conflict with sin in the believer's experience. So the passage teaches decisive change of allegiance, not the complete removal of sinful impulses in this life. Holiness is real and progressive, not instantaneous or absolute.
How is antinomianism different from legalism?
Legalism treats law-keeping as the basis of acceptance with God, adding human effort to grace. Antinomianism treats obedience as irrelevant because grace covers everything. Both misread the gospel. Romans 6 rejects antinomianism; Galatians rejects legalism. The New Testament answer is that salvation is by grace through faith alone, and that this same grace produces obedience through the Spirit. Obedience is the fruit and evidence of salvation, never its cause. Keeping these together prevents swinging from one error into the other.
