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As you can tell, we are in the same passage this morning as we were last week. But this morning, rather than doing a full exposition of the passage, we’re going to focus on one aspect of it. We’re going to focus on the bonds of legalism. The fact is that true legalism is bondage. It is contrary to the grace of salvation and will ruin lives. It is dangerous and can be very seductive. And when legalism gets its hooks in you, it places you in terrible bondage. I don’t want any of us to be chained in the bonds of legalism this morning. I want each of us to experience the true freedom that only comes from the grace of Christ. But before we can break those bonds of legalism this morning, we need to know what they look like.
So what is legalism? The reason we came back to this same passage again this morning, is that it gives us a very clear picture of what legalism is. The Jews that John speaks of in this passage are clearly Pharisees. Figuring out who the Pharisees are can be a little bit difficult. When you get to the New Testament, they just seem to appear out of nowhere. They are all over the pages of the Gospels, but they’re nowhere to be found in the Old Testament. Where did they come from? You remember for years in the Old Testament, the Jewish people rebelled against God. They worshipped idols and basically violated every point of God’s law. So, after years of putting up with it, God punished them. He sent them into exile. But years before, God had promised that He would not leave them in exile. So after a period of time, He allowed them to return to the land of Israel. He allowed them to rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem. And then the Old Testament biblical record stops. For 400 years, the biblical record is silent between the Old and New Testament. And that’s when the Pharisees came into being. They originally formed as a good thing. They were originally a group of Jews who had learned their lesson. They understood why God had punished them and sent them into exile. And they were bound and determined not to let that happen again. They were going to do everything in their power to keep the Jews from breaking God’s law again. And the way that they came up with was to build more laws. Picture it this way. If the law said that you were not allowed to touch this pulpit, how is the best way to make sure that doesn’t happen? Build a fence around it. But then, after you get the fence built, you think it might not be big enough. So you build it higher. Then you think—somebody might still want to climb that fence, so let’s put some barbed wire across the top of it. But, you know how determined some people can be. If you tell them they can’t do something, they will do anything they can to break the rules. So maybe it’s best if people can’t even see the pulpit. So then you build a concrete wall outside of the fence. That way people can’t even see it. And so it goes. And goes. And goes. Until you’ve completely forgotten that the reason you weren’t supposed to touch the pulpit was because the finish was wet. That’s what the Pharisees had done. In the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments, they continually built these accretions around the law until the only things people could see were the endless rules and regulations. They had forgotten the purpose of the law in the first place. And they had turned it into a way to make themselves good enough for God. And anytime that people come up with a list of rules and regulations in order to earn favor with God, some things are always going to happen.
First, man-made preferences will be equated with God’s standards. I prefer short hair. If it was up to me, I’d shave it all off. But here’s the point. That is my preference. If a man walks in here with hair down the middle of his back… if I’m a legalist, I say, “you need to get a haircut.” That would be imposing my standard on him. What is worse is if I assess his spiritual condition by the length of his hair. There is an old saying that if you have hair on your face, there must be sin in your heart. That is legalism. That is taking your personal preference and holding it up as the standard of godliness. What is our standard? The Bible. And I’m sorry, in its proper context, the Bible doesn’t say anything about hair length. It also doesn’t say anything about women wearing dresses or music styles or even Bible translations. Any time that you elevate your personal preference to the level of God’s standards, it is legalism. The same kind of legalism these Pharisees were displaying.
Another thing that happens when we create lists of rules and regulations on top of Scripture is that we always seem to leave ourselves a loophole. Legalism always leaves loopholes. Remember the lawyer that came to Jesus in Luke 10? He asked Jesus, “What do I need to do in order to inherit eternal life?” First off, he thought he could do something to earn God’s favor. Sounds like a legalist, doesn’t it? But Jesus fired a question right back at him. He asked him, “What does the Bible say?” Of course, like any good legalist, he was more than ready to show his knowledge. He said, “Love God and love your neighbor.” Jesus said, “You’re right—now go do it.” Whoa—wait a minute. That’s not supposed to be the answer. That can’t be the answer, because it is impossible to love God like that and love all people like that—all the time. So he went looking for a loophole. What was the next thing he asked Jesus? He asked Him, “So, who exactly is my neighbor.” Then Jesus told him the parable of the Good Samaritan. Legalism always looks for a loophole. The Law said that travelling was forbidden on the Sabbath. The Pharisees built up all these laws that specifically defined what it meant to travel. So they came up with a law that said you could only walk up to around half a mile. But here’s what they did to come up with loopholes. On Friday afternoon, before the Sabbath started, they could go to any of the places they wanted to go on the Sabbath and place a plate of food there. If their food was in that place, they could technically consider that place to be their home. And if it was their home, they weren’t travelling—no matter how far away it was. If they set out enough plates, they could have walked all over the Roman Empire on the Sabbath. Legalists have no concept of the intent of the law. They are only interested in the letter of the law. And when you are only interested in the letter of the law, then you are really only interested in how you can find a loophole in it. This issue always comes up when you’re talking about dating. Young people always want to ask the question, “How far is too far?” Is this too far? Is that too far? Give me specifics! What can I touch and what can’t I touch? That is legalism. And more than that, it’s legalism that is looking for a loophole. What is the biblical standard? Holiness. Purity. Honoring God with our lives and bodies. Purposely, intentionally fleeing temptation. Not looking for a loophole.
Legalism elevates our standards to God’s standards and legalism looks for a loophole. Legalism also elevates our pride. One thing about a legalist—he will never issue a law that he isn’t already keeping. That’s why legalists focus so much on dress codes and grooming standards. Those things are easy. You’ll never hear a legalist place as much emphasis on the fruit of the Spirit as they do on external things. Why? Because if I stand in front of you with no jewelry and no tattoos and short hair, you can see how “holy” I am. I can lift up my holiness in front of you. But if I stand in front of you and talk about the fruit of the Spirit… I am humbly exposed before you when I speak of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. And what does Paul go on to say? He says, “against such there is no law.” No amount of legalistic accretions can give you the fruit of the Spirit. No, all it can do for you is exactly what it did for the Pharisees in our passage. It will cause you to completely miss out on the grace of Christ. If all you are focused on is following a bunch of rules and regulations in order to be a good person, you will miss out on the only person who is good. If all you’re focused on is your standards and your preferences and your loopholes, you will miss out on the only one who will give you His goodness. You will miss out on Jesus just like the Pharisees did. That’s what legalism will do for you. We’ve seen what legalism is, but we need to make sure and have a balanced picture here this morning.
Now that we know what legalism is, what is it not? If the Pharisees in our passage have clearly shown us what legalism is, Jesus clearly shows us what it is not. First, holding people personally accountable to a biblical standard is NOT legalism. Jesus never shied away from calling sin sin. The way that verse 14 is worded tells us something. When Jesus said, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee,” it indicates that the man’s physical condition had been directly caused by previous sin in his life. Seeing the man’s personality in these verses, he had a bad tendency to blame everything on other people. He had probably spent the past 38 years blaming his paralysis on other people as well. But Jesus indicates that it was his own sin that had caused it. Not all sickness and disease is as a result of our own sin. But much of it is. If I continue to engage in the sin of gluttony, I might end up with heart disease or diabetes. That would be a direct result of my sin. Just like this man’s paralysis seems to be a direct result of his own sin. And Jesus called him out on it. Jesus confronted sin. Confronting sin and calling out sin for what it is, is NOT legalism.
Not only is confronting and calling out sin for what it is NOT legalism, identifying and holding to a biblical standard is NOT legalism. We need to be clear on one thing. Jesus did not violate God’s Sabbath law. God’s law said that you couldn’t carry a burden on the Sabbath. Do you honestly think that mat was a burden? Do you honestly think that any reasonable person would consider that to be work? Of course not. Jesus had not yet fulfilled the Old Testament Sabbath law, so it was still in effect. Jesus did not break it. He didn’t break any Old Testament laws. Not only did He not break Old Testament laws, He showed us what the true standard really is. In verse 14, he told the man what the true standard is. “Sin no more.” The standard is perfection. Pointing out the biblical standard is not legalism. Jesus did that. And so should we. God is a holy and pure and righteous and perfect being. As your creator, He demands the same behavior from you. That is the standard. It has nothing to do with the length of your hair or the style of music you prefer. It has to do with the condition of your heart. You have to have a pure and sinless heart. If you have any doubt as to what that means, go read the Sermon on the Mount again in Matthew 5-7. It means that you can’t ever have lust in your heart. You can’t ever have anything but love for your enemies. You can’t ever have a hint of revenge for any wrong that is done against you. You can’t worry—ever. That is the standard and Jesus never backed off of it one bit. As a matter of fact, He turned up the heat every chance He got. It was not legalism when Jesus told the man to never sin again. And it’s not legalism when He tells you the very same thing. But wait a minute. I said that legalism is bondage. And you can clearly see that it is. It is bondage of preferences, and bondage of never ending laws and loopholes, and bondage of pride. But if legalism is bondage, then isn’t perfection 1000 times worse? Turn with me to Galatians 3:21-27.
GALATIANS 3:21-27
Righteousness doesn’t come from the law. No amount of legalism cannot produce the kind of holiness and righteousness and perfection that God requires. If anyone could have done it, the Pharisees could have. By all outside observation, they lived perfect lives according to the law. But living as a perfect legalist can do nothing to change your heart. You can be the very best person you know. If you were to compare yourself to anybody else, you would come out on top. You can unselfishly give your time and money and effort to help other people. You can be the best mom or dad in the world. You can be raising perfect little angels. You might never have a harsh word to say about anybody. But those things will never save you. They might make you a great legalist. But great legalists aren’t perfect. And people who aren’t perfect will suffer the eternal wrath of God. So if that is where you find yourself here this morning, what do you need to do? First, you need to listen to your schoolmaster. Paul says in verse 24 that the reason God gave us the law is to be a schoolmaster to teach us that we can’t do it. When you see the perfection that is required by a holy God, compare yourself to THAT standard—not to other people. You will fall short, just like I fall short. And when you listen to your schoolmaster and see how far you fall short… the next thing you need to do is live in your Savior. Verses 26-27 give two wonderful pictures of what that means. When you come to faith in Jesus, you will be immersed into Him. Water baptism is a picture of that. Just as the baptismal waters completely cover a person, when you come to faith in Jesus, He will completely cover you in His righteousness. If the picture isn’t clear enough, He goes on to say that when you come to faith in Jesus, you put on Christ like a new robe. You still have no righteousness of your own that you can hold up and say, “Look how good I am.” Instead, what you have is the righteousness of Christ. So you can say, “Look how good Jesus is.” No legalism. No loopholes. No pride. Just grace. “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” Will you take hold of that grace this morning?
