A Case for Antinomianism

I have been struggling lately with the relationship between the gospel and sanctification. At least for the moment I have settled on the belief that accepting the free gift of salvation does give a person a license to sin. I know this is a very unpopular belief, but it just might be true. If you are wondering about my salvation at this point, hang in there, all doubt will likely be removed one way or the other by the time you are done reading.

I might suggest that this is exactly what Paul teaches in Romans. God's grace is made grear through the sins of man. It is by grace we are saved, works play no part in our salvation, yet as soon as a person accepts the gift of salvation the church immediately places all kinds of expectations on this new believer. It is almost as if God's grace allows you to enter into the kigdom of God, but once you are there you can only stay if you are capable of following all the rules. It seems to me that expecting holiness from people flies in the face of the gospel itself.

Now that I have convinced you that I am traveling down the highway to hell at a rapid pace, let's try to understand what Paul teaches. Progresive sanctification is not something we simply ignore. Instead it is something we honor God with. Sanctification does not happen because Christians are compelled to become holy as part of the gospel message, it happens because Christians realize the love shown them by the gospel and they respond in thanksgiving. We express love to God through obedience. This should clear up any misunderstandings about the great commandment. We are commanded to love God and we do that through obedience. This is what Paul speaks about in Romans 12:1-2 and 8:1. We should not continue to sin because God's grace is shown through it, His grace is shown enough as it is. We should live right; our lives should be a living sacrifice, an offering of thanksgiving.

Perhaps the reason we struggle with sanctification in our churches is because people don't understand the motivation behind it. The motivation for holiness in our lives is nothing other then love for our savior. The goal then is not a certain level of sanctification or holiness, but instead it is to express love and thanksgiving to our savior for the love He has shown us.
Maybe we should just tell people once they become a Christian they have license to sin as much as they want, and in the same breath talk about what it means to love God and express that love to Him. If we love God we will obey Him. (1 John 5:1ff)