Thou Shalt Not Anything. At All.

For this blog post I was working on a different subject* but in the middle of the research for that I suddenly realized God was telling me "Hey - do something else!" Will God let me go back to that subject? More than likely, it's important, but right now we're talking about something that hits closer to home (for now): LEGALISM

Some advice I got for this blog was "Don't be legalistic" which I didn't think would apply because I've never studied law. Then again I realized that I've heard the word Legalism many times in the Christian community and had no idea as to what was meant by that.  So what is Legalism in the Christian sense?

According to Matt Slick at CARM Legalism is defined as the excessive and improper use of the of the Mosaic law and this can take 3 different forms. The first form is believing that the Law must be kept in order to attain salvation. To a Jew this is fine, but to a Christian this is heresy. To both it's impossible. Paul emphatically states that it's impossible to attain salvation by keeping the law: 

"For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." Rom. 3:8

But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness" Rom. 4:5

“I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” Gal 2:21

Don't you think that God realizes that the law is impossible to keep throughout an entire lifetime? Just the bacon prohibition alone will subject me to the infernal regions for multiple eternities with no hope of parole, but  that's the hazards of being flawed human beings (and isn't that what the Old Testament is all about - to teach us that salvation through the law is beyond our abilities?) But to profess that a Christian can attain salvation through the law is a false teaching. Worse of all this belief denies salvation by grace through faith, a foundation of our Christian beliefs.

Example: (Over simplified but an example) You're a guy and you want to date a really totally awesome girl and she's sooooo crazy about you that she paid off all those embarrassing parking tickets you accumulated. But being a guy you keep screwing up here and there and she's upset. So to get in her good graces you wash her car, you cut her lawn, you bring her flowers, you paint her house, you clean her cat's litter box, but no dice, she won't go out with you. All she wants you to do is say "I'm so sorry I messed up all those times, and thank you so very much for paying for my parking tickets, will you please forgive me?" You say that, and mean it, and suddenly you're in a deep committed relationship with her. The chores meant nothing to her because they're just busy work, she wanted your heart, and that's what God wants. Not chores, but you.

The next form of Legalism is when a person is saved and tries to keep his salvation by keeping the law. Of course this doesn't make a lot of sense, you couldn't GET saved by keeping the law, how can you maintain that by doing the same thing? 

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Eph 2:8-9

This awesome beautiful person in my previous weak example was not initially impressed by your chores, why should you think that now that she's said yes to marrying you that fixing up stuff around the house mean anything more to her? She still wants your heart, not your hands. Now it is true that when you've been accepted into the family of God that you change and you'll want to keep the law - to do good works - but that's a side benefit of your relationship, not the key to attaining or maintaining the relationship. Some say that once you are saved you don't need to maintain your salvation, some say you do. We're not discussing that today, but if you're of a mind set that you want to perform maintenance on your salvation why not do what got you saved in the first place? Confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is your lord and savior and repent of your sins. 

⁹that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; ¹⁰ for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. - Rom. 10: 9-10

The last form of Legalism is where a Christian keeps certain laws and looks down on other Christians that do not 'measure up' to their own level of self perceived holiness. I've seen these people in action, it's like some kind of Christian sharia law, they'll look down on contempt at someone who enjoys a cold beer on a hot day or a glass of wine with dinner, but then they'll sit down and watch brain rotting sitcoms on television. Are either of those sins? To a non-Christian no, but to a Christian both are debatable  Personally I believe subjecting your brain to Family Guy to be a horrible thing to do while others will look at my glass of Merlot  jump up and shriek "REPENT SINNER!!!" 

Believe me, we'll be getting into judging and judgmentalism later, I'm arming up for that one, but right now wouldn't it be best to show those who don't measure up to your version of holiness the proper way to be a Christian and live your life as you would like to see others live theirs? Lead by example! As long as we are living by scripture how could you go wrong?

Heavenly Father:

     Thank you for this time on earth where we can not only read your word but to live it, to show those around us how you would like us to live. Please guide us as we draw closer to you and please help us remove the plank from our eye so we may go forth and help others remove the speck from theirs. In Jesus name we pray

__________________________________________________

*Martyrdom of Christians in North Korea