antinomianism

Doctrine that Christians are freed by grace from the necessity of obeying any moral law, such as the Ten Commandments or church law. The term was first applied in the Reformation to Martin Luther's collaborator Johann Agricola (1492–1566), who thought antinomianism followed from Luther's doctrine of justification by faith.

St Paul has been called an antinomian because he said that Christ's teachings superseded the Mosaic law of Judaism. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the term was used of Anabaptists, Familists, Ranters, Independents, and other radical sects.