The Deep End

Against the Law?

Question: What is antinomy?

Answer: Antinomy is when a statement or a proposition is self-contradictory. Common examples are when a “postmodernist” says, “There’s no such thing as absolute truth,” which begs the question as to whether that statement itself could even be true! Or, the classic example: “This sentence is false,” which leaves us scratching our heads and going “Huh?!” The Greek prefix anti means “against,” and the Greek word for “law” is nomos, so an “antinomy” is a proposition which is “against the law,” meaning against the logical law of noncontradiction. When used in connection with theology, antinomy has taken on the meaning of two Biblical statements which appear to be so at odds with each other that we can’t make sense of how they could both be right. I prefer the term “paradox” over “antinomy,” because there are no true logical contradictions in the Bible. For example, Galatians 2:20 appears on the surface to be full of contradictions: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” How could Paul be crucified with Christ, yet alive? How could Christ live in him, yet he not be alive himself? How could Christ’s faith sustain Paul if Christ had died? Of course, these turn out to be paradoxical, rather than contradictory, statements when we examine the surrounding verses, Galatians 2:19 and 21, and see that Paul was dead to the demands of the law, but alive by the grace of God to obey the righteousness evidenced by the law.