Podcast Summary: "Cures for Antinomianism"

Show: Renewing Your Mind (Ligonier Ministries)
Date: February 6, 2026
Featured Speaker: Dr. Sinclair Ferguson
Host: Nathan W. Bingham

Episode Overview

This episode delves into the Christian struggle with antinomianism—lawlessness or disregarding God's law—and explores its relationship with legalism. Drawing from Dr. Sinclair Ferguson’s series The Whole Christ, the conversation illuminates how believers should understand the law of God within the New Covenant, how grace resolves both legalism and lawlessness, and why God’s law remains central to the Christian life.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The New Covenant and the Law of God

• Holy Spirit’s Role:
  • In the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit indwells believers to write the law of God on their hearts.
  • Quote (Sinclair Ferguson, 00:00):

    “The promise of the New Covenant is that when the Spirit of Christ comes and indwells believers, he writes the law of God into our hearts.”

2. The Historic Marrow Controversy and Its Modern Relevance

• Legalism vs. Lawlessness:
  • Discussion of how Scottish church history’s Marrow controversy is still relevant today by raising issues of balancing gospel grace (against legalism) and obedience (against antinomianism).
• Legalism as the Underlying Issue:
  • Legalism distorts our perception of God and His commandments, sowing the seeds for antinomianism as a reaction.
  • Quote (Sinclair Ferguson, 01:45):

    “Legalism is the basic problem…distorts the commandments of God and gives her [Eve] the sense that God is not a gracious God giving kind commandments for their benefit.”

3. The Christian’s Relationship to God’s Law

• "In Law" to Christ Analogy:
  • Drawing from 1 Corinthians 9:21 and Romans 7, Dr. Ferguson presents a relational model:
    • We are married to Christ; the law is now our “in-law,” like a mother-in-law.
    • We are not saved by direct adherence to the law (Christ alone saves), but our new relational status means the law is now connected to us by virtue of our union with Christ.
  • Quote (Sinclair Ferguson, 04:00):

    “We are not directly related to the law, as though in order to be saved we needed to keep the law because Christ has kept the law for us.… The law becomes our in-law.”

4. Harmonizing Law and Gospel

• Law and Gospel United in Christ:
  • In union with Christ, the demands and the penalties of the law are fulfilled.
  • The outcome: the law’s requirements are now being fulfilled “in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3–4)
  • Quote (Sinclair Ferguson, 06:10):

    “The law and the Gospel harmonize in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ... The Gospel cure for our antinomianism is our union with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.”

5. Apparent Negativity Toward the Law in the New Testament

• Stages of Growth Illustration:
  • Ferguson compares spiritual development under the law to progressing through school—from restrictive elementary lessons to the freedom of university, all stages necessary but providing different perspectives on rules and freedom.
  • New Testament critiques of the law should be seen as comparisons—life under Christ is richer and freer, yet does not abolish the law’s heart.
  • Quote (Sinclair Ferguson, 09:44):

    “At each stage of my life, I was having the time of my life. I never noticed that there were any restrictions really placed on me... And it seems to me that that’s how the New Testament Christians... saw things.”

6. The Law Written on Hearts—From Eden to the New Covenant

• Romans 2:14-15 and the Image of God:

  • God’s moral law was originally written on humanity’s heart, echoed in cultures worldwide, even after the Fall.
  • At Sinai, God reclarified the written law, especially for a particular people at a particular time, due to human sin and immaturity.
  • Quote (Sinclair Ferguson, 14:10):

    “In the creation of man, God wrote his law into our constitution, so that instinctively we did what pleased God. It was in our DNA...”

• Law’s Negative Form for Underage Children:

  • The Ten Commandments are primarily negative not because God is negative, but because negatives help immature children learn essential positive values.

7. The Law's Ongoing Role in Redemptive History

• Distinguishing Types of Law:

  • Only the Ten Commandments were placed in the Ark of the Covenant, showing their centrality to God’s relationship with His people.
  • Ceremonial and civil laws were temporary, specific to Israel; with Christ’s coming, they are fulfilled or abrogated.

• Fulfillment in Christ and the Spirit’s Work:

  • Christ bore the condemnation of the law to bring us into union with Him. The Spirit now enables believers to fulfill the intent of the law as they mature spiritually.
  • The law written in our hearts is the same moral core given at Sinai—now transformed by Christlikeness for God’s family.

• Final Hope—Perfect Obedience in Glory:

  • In the new creation, believers will obey God's law with perfect joy and ease.
  • Quote (Sinclair Ferguson, 22:55):

    “So that we may be restored to Eden, but not only restored to Eden, prepared for the new Eden that will come when, thank God, by the Spirit, in the presence of Christ at last, the commandments of God will be easy to obey. That makes you say, doesn’t it? Even so, come Lord Jesus.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Legalism and Antinomianism:
  • “Antinomians are never fully and finally delivered from legalism. Only the grace of God in the Gospel can deliver us from legalism.” (Sinclair Ferguson, 02:40)
• On Law as a Relational ‘In-Law’:
  • “If you love your wife, through your wife, you are related to her mother.… You can’t say to Christ, I want you, but I don’t want your father’s commandments.” (Sinclair Ferguson, 05:10)
• On the Progress of Redemptive History:
  • “When you look back, you understand that the Mosaic administration, the law, in that sense, by comparison with the internationalism and the liberty and the sense of God being Abba Father, all of this is gloriously new.” (Sinclair Ferguson, 11:57)
• On the Restoration and Destiny of Believers:
  • “We may be enjoying the Christian life now, but it’s little compared to the glory that is to be revealed.” (Sinclair Ferguson, 13:29)
• The Hope of Glory:
  • “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” (Sinclair Ferguson, 22:55)

Key Timestamps

• 00:00–01:45: Setting up the problem—spirit, law, and the Marrow controversy.
• 01:45–06:40: Legalism and antinomianism; marriage to Christ and the “mother-in-law” analogy.
• 06:40–10:30: How law and gospel come together in Christ and in the Spirit’s work.
• 10:30–14:30: School-stage illustration; understanding negative New Testament statements about the law.
• 14:30–19:00: The law written on the heart (Romans 2); law, civil society, and original human constitution.
• 19:00–21:40: Sinai, the Mosaic law, and the progression from ceremonial and civil law to fulfillment in Christ.
• 21:40–23:45: The new covenant, the Spirit, and the final redemption.
• 23:47–end: Host wraps up the episode and previews future topics.

Summary & Takeaway

Dr. Sinclair Ferguson stresses that the cure for lawlessness (antinomianism) is not simple adherence to rules, nor disregard for them in the name of grace, but rather a robust spiritual union with Christ, worked out by the Holy Spirit. This union fulfills the law’s deepest requirements—love and holiness—and transforms the believer’s relationship to God’s law from obligation to joyful alignment.

The episode closes with anticipation of the future, when, in the fullness of Christ’s presence, believers will obey God’s law perfectly, with unbroken delight.
“Even so, come Lord Jesus.” (22:55)