learning to see and savor the glory of Christ.

I came across this two part series on legalism by Randy Smith on biblebb.com, and it’s helpful. He addresses what legalism isn’t, and what it is. Sadly, I fall so easily into wrong understandings of both when I forget that I, and we, have been freed from slavery and brought under the Lordship of Christ, to love God by keeping His commandments, and we also lose sight of the glory and sufficiency of the cross, thinking that we can somehow earn the love of God and that we can add to what Jesus accomplished on the cross because the anguish of His soul was not enough.

I appreciate that Randy makes it clear that legalism must not be confused with the importance of obedience to Christ. With some of our definitions of legalism today, we would even wrongly label Jesus as a legalist.

Legalism is not obedience to Christ’s commandments

Jesus Christ has become our new Lawgiver. He expects us to follow Him in wholehearted obedience. In Luke 6:46 He said, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Understanding our freedom in Christ (Jn. 8:32, 36) is contingent upon understanding our slavery to Christ. Paul (Rom. 1:1; Gal. 1:10; Phil. 2:7; Tit. 1:1), James (Jas. 1:1), Jude (Ju. 1:1), Peter (2 Pet. 1:1) and John (Rev. 1:1) all gratefully acknowledge themselves as a “bondservant” of Jesus Christ. He is our Lord. He is our Master. As Christians we are commanded to do as He says. We have been set free to do as He says. Anything less robs our joy and fails to display our love for the Savior. “If you love Me, (Jesus said) you will keep My commandments” (Jn. 14:15).

You wouldn’t believe the number of people who have sought to abide by these expectations of Jesus Christ, only to be called legalists by other people who profess to be His children. Instead of rightly encouraging these individuals in their Christian commitment, these obedient saints are discouraged (by being wrongly critiqued as legalists) in their pursuit of doing what God desires.

He also points out the abundance of warnings in scripture of turning obedience to God into an attempt to earn His love, forgetting that we’re saved by God’s grace and nothing that we do. We do this out of selfishness, to gain credit and praise, and it assaults our relationship with the living God. This is a great “test” from the sermon to see if we’ve fallen into the trap of legalism. I failed.

Let’s say you had a spiritually rich week. I mean, it was one of those weeks where everything clicked in your relationship with God. A mountaintop experience if you will. Great devotionals every day. A few evangelistic opportunities. A week of faithful service at VBS. You really felt the nearness of God’s presence. And here you are on Sunday morning as the culmination of a great week, excited to meet corporately with God in worship.

Then let’s pretend next week doesn’t go as well. Your prayer time pushed aside by other activities. You yell at your husband and discipline your children in anger. You exchange Wednesday’s prayer meeting for a movie that violated your conscience. And then comes Sunday morning. God appears so distant. You’re convicted about your sins. You even debate going to church, but confess your sins and ask God to mercifully accept your worship.

Now here’s the big question: Which Sunday did God love you more? If you pick one over the other, you have you fallen into the trap of performance which is the sin of legalism.

As I said earlier, legalists are self-focused. They are far more aware of their own sins than what Christ accomplished on the cross. God wants you to look to Him more than you look to yourself. There is absolutely nothing wrong with self-examination, but as one wise pastor once told me a few years ago, “For every finger you point to yourself, point ten to Jesus Christ.”

We must understand that God’s love for us is based on the work of Christ. We didn’t earn it; we simply received it. It is undeserved on our part, but unconditional on His. I think many Christians have it backwards. We do not avoid sin in fear of losing God’s love; on the contrary we look to God’s perfect, unceasing and infinite love as a motivation to avoid sin. God’s love is the impetus that compels us to give ourselves to Him (2 Cor. 5:14). For those in Christ Jesus, there is nothing we can do to make God love us more and nothing we can do to make God love us less.

Legalism also leads to loss of joy. If we are focused on rule keeping, if we are focused on earning God’s acceptance through our efforts, if we are focused on trying to meet the convictions and standards of others, God becomes a gloomy killjoy and the vibrant relationship we desire with Him becomes dull, distant and difficult to bear. As we spin the plates of legalism, our Christian walk increasingly becomes a burden with the continual addition of another plate. And to keep the plates spinning, we’ll focus more on the plates, our legalistic rulebook, than our intimate and exciting and joyful walk with the living God.

I definitely appreciated the comforting slap in the face this sermon gave me, and I pray that I remember that “We do not avoid sin in fear of losing God’s love; on the contrary we look to God’s perfect, unceasing and infinite love as a motivation to avoid sin.”.

The sermon can be found here: Legalism 1, Legalism 2.