As the New Year approaches thousands of sermons will be preached calling the saints to a renewed vigor: have a consistent quiet time, serve in a ministry, tithe, love, serve harder, do more. Of course there is nothing wrong with calling the saints to be all God wants them to be, unless all this trying is done with the wrong motive. This Sunday I will be addressing the issue of having the right motive, or even better, not having the wrong motive... legalism.
Legalism is believing our effort is what brings us favor before God. This could be effort to earn salvation (justification) or effort to earn God's daily approval (sanctification).
Have you ever pondered how much God hates legalism? The Galatians had fallen into legalism. Paul calls it another gospel which will send the proclaimers to hell. In frustration, he asked the Galatians, "who has bewitched you?" He even wished castration upon the legalists who were requiring circumcision for salvation.
Why is God so upset with legalism? First, legalism is an insult to Christ's work on the cross. If we really need to do things to be accepted by God then Christ's sacrifice is not enough. There is no way around it; if we need to add something to please God, then Jesus didn't do enough. When he cried "it is finished," he really should have cried, "I started it, now you finish it." What a degrading thing to say about the cross.
Second, legalism lowers God's holiness and elevates our assessment of our own holiness. After all, to believe our efforts are actually satisfying his requirement to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves requires an amazing amount of self-deception.
Third, legalism shifts the focus from looking at our heart corruption to being satisfied with our outward performance. Jesus berated the Pharisees for cleaning the outside of the cup while ignoring the filthy inside. Of course, if we actually think we are going to satisfy a holy God a great strategy is to come up with some external rules we can actually pull off.
Fourth, legalism leads to judgementalism of others. If we are going to actually pretend to be acceptable before God, we need to convince ourselves that we are doing OK. The only way to do this is to shift the focus off of God's actual standard and put it on something we can actually measure... other people. You know you are a legalist if you spend a lot of time sizing up others, tearing down others, finding fault with others, and comparing them to yourself. It is a ruthless world for the legalist. How we are doing with God is directly dependent upon whether we are winning the competition against others. There is not a lot of room for love in the legalist's world.
Finally, most legalists are not happy people. Deep inside, in spite of all their efforts to convince themselves they are good with God, they know they fall short. This nagging doubt brings a joylessness that can only be eased in one way... making sure others are not enjoying the joy of salvation. So being critical, reminding others of where they fall short, and piling rules on others to bring them discouragement, depression, and joylessness are the tools the legalist uses to spread his misery around.
Flee the legalist. Don't let them bewitch you. Fight for your joy by living in the freedom Christ has purchased for you. How's that for a New Year's resolution!
