Modern-Day Legalism (Part 2) Series

A. You lack joy. “Legalism wrenches the joy of the Lord from the Christian believer, and with the joy of the Lord goes the power for vital worship and vibrant service. Nothing is left but cramped, somber, dull and listless profession. The truth is betrayed and the glorious name of the Lord becomes a synonym for a gloomy killjoy. The Christian under law is a miserable parody of the real thing.” (The Paralysis of Legalism, April, 1963)

– A legalistic home is one where joy and love are seldom shown or spoken. The home will have an unbalanced emphasis on rules and may be unable to provide biblical answers to legitimate questions. Kids are likely to rebel when they leave.

– It's impossible to be legalistic and joyful at the same time. Joy comes from knowing that your sins are forgiven, misery comes from trying to earn forgiveness from God. Legalists don't smile, they just grimace. Legalists either live in a state of perpetual discouragement or self-righteous hypocrisy.

– Legalism can take a vibrant faith and make it dull and lifeless. Instead of finding freedom through Christ, many believers become burdened by the church and the external conformity they feel pressured into..

B. You feel like you’re never doing enough. You always have this vague, nagging guilt that comes from feeling like you're not doing enough for God. You're not evangelizing or praying or reading your Bible enough. You should be fasting more and serving more. Remember that time you were able to rest in God's presence? Oh wait, that never happened because you can't rest, you need to do more!

– You feel that God is always unhappy with you. You know that technically, God accepts you because of Jesus' death for you. But just because God accepts you doesn't mean he has to be happy with you. You feel like you got into God's kingdom through a technicality or loophole, and now he just tolerates you, like some sort of divine probation officer.

C. You’re hard on others. Criticism is the native language of the legalist. You aren't aware of God's grace toward you and so you don't give much grace to others. You're like a shark who can smell the slightest drop of sin in the water. When you see someone struggling with sin or not adhering to the standards you hold high, the criticism frenzy begins. A legalist is always hyper-critical of anyone who doesn’t conform to their rules.

– Legalism makes us narrow and divisive. The legalist insists that everyone live up to the standard they have adopted. In other words, everyone needs to be like me. When we think this way, we miss the delight of diversity in the church.

III. The Snare of Legalism

– Here are a couple of statements that remind us of the subtle dangers of legalism. These keep us grounded and balanced in treating this topic fairly and accurately.

A. Remember that standards are not sinful. The first snare of legalism is that it tempts us to throw out all standards and convictions. Probably the greatest misunderstanding there is in regards to legalism is that legalism is simply being overly strict. We love to label anyone that dresses more conservatively, prefers a certain style of music, or who doesn’t mind attending church every time the doors are open a legalist. The thinking goes that anyone who has more rules and standards in their life than I do must be a legalist because they are more strict than me. Listen carefully now...it’s easy to swing the pendulum too far the other direction. It’s easy to find someone who confesses to have "really struggled with it" in the past, and who now is apparently delivered of its powers. The way they show everyone they are not a legalist is by dropping every single boundary line and standard of separation they once had. It’s easy to hear someone like me preach on legalism or hear some other Christian you know wax eloquent about how it’s “rules over relationship” so that you come away thinking that “Jesus loves me so much, He doesn’t care how I live or what I do.” Besides, "legalism is bad, and most Christians are judgmental prudes. But Jesus is totally cool. Maybe I should I get a tattoo just to prove to everyone that I am totally not a legalist" – or so the thinking goes. That’s not true and that’s not what the Bible teaches at all. The antidote to legalism is not dropping every standard you have in your life. You can have standards and not be a legalist. In fact, I biblically recommend it.