The Scourge Of Legalism Series

But we cannot mistake God’s laws as being at the heart of our relationship with him. Neither can we make the mistake of thinking that we are made right with God by obeying his laws or the rules we have added to them. That is a fundamental misunderstanding of the Christian faith. We are not saved by never sinning, rather we are made right with God by admitting our sin and receiving his forgiveness as a free gift, which was made possible by the atoning death of our Savior Jesus Christ. And when we receive this free gift, we find a new love for God growing in our hearts. The whole reason for the creation of the world, and the reason for Jesus Christ coming to earth to die for us, was that we might have a relationship with God, and he with us. The Gospel is encapsulated in the verse that says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God wanted your love and wanted someone like you to love. That is why you are here. That is your divine purpose on earth.

But there have always been those who misunderstood and tried to take this relationship of love and turn it into a code of conduct. The Pharisees were the perfect example of this. The Teacher’s Commentary tells us: “The Pharisees were earnestly concerned with the Law and with keeping its minutest detail. But the Pharisees tended to emphasize the ‘oral law’ of the Torah [the first five books of the Old Testament]. This oral law was composed of a vast number of interpretations and explanations of the Old Testament, which over the years continued to grow and grow. Tragically, the oral law increasingly focused on trifling details. For instance, the command not to work on the Sabbath was expanded and illustrated with hundreds of explanations and exceptions. According to the Pharisees, a person was allowed to spit on rocky ground on the Sabbath. But he could not spit on soft or dusty earth; the spittle might move the dirt and that would constitute plowing, for it might make a furrow ” If it made a furrow it could be considered plowing, and plowing was obviously a type of work — all because you spit in the dirt.

That’s legalism at its ridiculous extreme. Paul told the Colossians: “Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle Do not taste Do not touch ’? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings” (Colossians 2:20-22). The biblical principle can be summed up as: All things in moderation.

We don’t want to take this beautiful relationship that we are privileged to have with God and codify it and reduce it to an absurd list of rules. Jesus has come to love us, not to turn us into religious robots who are all alike. Saint Augustine used to say, “Love God and do as you please.” By that he did not mean that you could love God and sin all you want. He meant that when you love God, your pleasure is to do what gives God pleasure . It pleases you to do what pleases him. You don’t need a list of rules to make you do that, it is an obedience that comes from the heart. One lover is doing what pleases the other Lover.