I stumbled across a great blog post that relates with the theme of our last several posts: the Gospel’s work in believers. The post actually was first an article for Discipleship Journal. Let me quote a relevant portion of it here, but encourage you all to go over and read the whole thing. It’s also available as a .pdf scan from the magazine here.
Legalism is the opposite of living by grace. It is the belief that one can be justified (attain right standing with God) by following his rules. Paul addressed the error of this belief throughout the book of Galatians, explaining that it’s impossible to be right with God by obeying the law. We need grace.
Most evangelical Christians today know enough to avoid the most basic form of this error. We understand that our entrance into life in Christ””salvation””comes through faith in Christ alone, and not by keeping God’s law. Yet even when our theology of salvation is thoroughly grace-based, we can still fall into legalism. Colossians 2:6-7 says as we have received Christ we should also walk in Him, rooted and grounded in faith. That is, the way we walk in Christ should be consistent with the way we received him.
Many times, though, we fail to extend our understanding of grace and faith past the foundation of receiving Christ, to the daily matters of following him. Instead we begin to think that we stay right with God by keeping his rules. That’s what the Galatians were doing. After entering a relationship with God through grace, they thought they also needed to obey Jewish laws. Paul’s instruction to them””and all believers””is clear: just as we receive salvation by faith and grace, not by following rules, we also walk in Christ by faith and grace, not by keeping a list of commands.
Explore my other posts on gospel-centered living, and the dangers of legalism.
In reading about justification by faith in the sermons of Covenanter Minister Robert Traill (1682), I’ve read where he addressed this very question. He described a true believer as one who holds to two things. The second is the work of Christ which is the basis for our justification through faith. However, the first is one he considered forgotten, even in his time: “[The believer] hath seen so much of the holiness of God, and strict purity of His law, and hath seen so much of his own vileness and impotence, that he doth despair of ever making himself accepted with God by any thing he hath or can do. And this sort of despair (if we may give so ill-sounding a name to so good a thing) is so far from being inconsistent with true faith, that no true faith in Christ can be, or be acted, without it.” Anyone who believes that he has some, indeed ANY, goodness to please God understands neither the holiness of God nor the sinfulness of man, and therefore cannot understand what Christ has done for and in the true believer.
I think where legalism gets a foothold is in fear and misunderstanding of how certain scriptures relate to us because of a lack of context, this follwoing verse is one of the many thrown at me for the case of saved through works.
Matthew 7: 16-19
16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Does this mean if we don’t show fruit we are condemned? verse 15 shows he is talking about false prophets, so this fruit, though many use this as saying “they will know you are christians by your fruit” is not about what makes you a christain, it can be used for a useful way to identify christians, but in context its talking about false prophets. So many people see one verse and apply it on its own to themselves. i’m guilty of it, so is the next guy.
In Context doesn’t mean just a chapter either, its the whole word, which can be daunting sometimes but well worth it. Long Story Short… I think Legalism comes from misinterprutting by ignoring context. You can’t ignore by garce through faith.
J