Antinomianism and legalism may seem like opposites, but antinomianism and legalism are simply sliding positions on a spectrum of lawlessness.

…[B]oth the legalist and the antinomian destroy the law, and both the legalist and the antinomian destroy the gospel.

Every legalist is a selective antinomian. To come up with a law that he imagines he can keep, he must perform radical surgery on God’s law. He cuts off the top of God’s law which he cannot keep even in pretense (love the Lord with all your heart, do not covet, every unclean thought is sin). To the bottom of God’s law he adds all kinds of external rules that he thinks he can keep (do not use alcohol, do not play cards). His version of God’s law is a mutilation which retains none of the law’s bite and power.

Every antinomian is a selective legalist. His style of opposing legalism is every bit as legalistic as the legalist’s opposition to antinomianism is. The antinomian can close his eyes to abortion but will demonstrate violently on behalf of baby seals. He can be very accepting of every moral aberration, but vehement in his oppression of any claims of absolute truth.

Brug, John F. Scylla And Charybdis, p 8
Winter 2006. Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly - Foreword to Volume, No. 1

This [the gospel being turned into a law for conduct] is, in fact, the ultimate outcome of every form of antinomianism among Christians. Because people cannot live without some standard, where the law has been discarded, the gospel inevitably becomes law… In the absence of law, the gospel is forced to take on a foreign work which it cannot do.

…“Love” is proposed as a substitute for God’s law as a guide to conduct. The antinomian temptation is to ignore principles of God’s law that seem to stand in the way of gaining new members because they are counter-intuitive to most people outside the church. Examples occur most often in the area of sexual morality, marriage and divorce, roles of men and women, and the doctrine of fellowship.

…The gospel does not provide the guide for Christian conduct. It provides the motive and the power. The law does not provide the motive for Christian conduct. It provides a guide. There is no sanctifying power in the law, but it does provide steady, sure direction. The law is like a set of railroad tracks, rigidly leading to the right place. But railroad tracks, like the law, have no power in them to produce movement. The power that propels the “engine” of faith is the gospel of Christ. Trying to promote Christian sanctification without the law is like racing a train where the tracks have been ripped up. Trying to promote sanctification without the gospel is like trying to push the train down the tracks by your own power without an engine.

Brug, John F. Scylla And Charybdis, pp 6,7
Winter 2006. Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly - Foreword to Volume, No. 1

Among the various forms of relative ethics, the most dangerous form of antinomianism for Christians is “situation ethics” which substitutes love for the law as a standard of conduct. The motto sounds so appealing—”let love be your guide.”

Brug, John F. Scylla And Charybdis, p 4
Winter 2006. Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly - Foreword to Volume, No. 1

[LCMS’ Piotr] Malysz tilts towards Earth’s transcendental-relational view. As a result he is not only critical of Luther, but, in my opinion, comes perilously close to denying the natural knowledge of God (p 220 ff.) This leads to his claim that “the essence of the fall lies not so much in the violation of God’s command, not even in the breach of trust, though it is this breach that unequivocally places all responsibility and guilt on man. Rather, the fall, and with it all sin, consists in a misinterpretation and rejection of the being of God. . . . Sin is by nature unrelational and counter-relational” (p 225)… He interprets the first and third uses of the law in terms of God’s creation-wide presence. This leads us to “appreciate the Law as God’s continuing willingness to deal with his rebellious creature as an expression of his love” (p 236). It is hard to see how such a philosophical approach to the topic, expressed in rather vague philosophical terms can bring to the church greater clarity than a simple approach focused on exegesis.

Brug, John F. Book Review: Gieschen, Charles A (ed.), The Law in Holy Scriptures, p. 151
Spring 2005. WLQ, Vol. 102, No. 2

Comment: Imagine listening to a sermon like that? Would you feel the conviction of sin?

Always consider the past in three ways: the evil committed, the good omitted, the time lost. Always consider the present in three ways: the brevity of the present life, the difficulty of salvation, the scarcity of those who are saved. Always consider the future in three ways: death, [of] which nothing is more horrible; judgment, [of] which nothing is more terrible; infernal punishment, [of] which nothing is more intolerable… There are three things above you, which you must never erase from your memory: the Eye seeing everything, the Ear hearing everything, and the Book in which everything is written.

Gerhard, Johann. Sacred Meditations, Meditation XXVIII
translated by: Wade Johnston
printed under: Dogmatics and Piety, p. 129
Spring 2004, Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Vol 101, No. 2