The Wrong Way To Be Right - Philippians 3:1-10 Series

And here is what most people fail to realize: it doesn’t have to be connected to any formal religion. Most secular people in our culture – even atheists and agnostics and naturalists take this exact same approach. They don’t consider themselves religious, but they are just as legalistic. They think they are so different from the religious people who believe in God. But in reality, they are following just a slightly modified version of the same religious system. The only difference is the people in formal religions have what I’ll call hard legalism, and others have soft legalism. Hard legalism has a very specific list of standards that are written down in a book, and it is the same for everyone in that religious system.

Soft legalism has a more general list of mostly unwritten rules. But they are rules nonetheless. Hard legalism says, “Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t chew, don’t go with the girls who do – don’t watch these kinds of movies or listen to that music, go to church every week, etc.” And the hard legalist thinks he’s a good person because he follows all those rules.

The soft legalist says, “I’m a nice person. I’m friendly, I don’t cheat anyone, I don’t do drugs, I give money to the Salvation Army Santa Claus guy in front of Walmart each year – I’m a good person!” It is exactly the same system – just different rules. Maybe it’s meditation, or some kind of prayer ritual, maybe it’s living up to the standards your parents gave you: Don’t trash the environment, be loyal to your family and friends, get educated, raise the minimum wage, recycle, make sure you vote (and you can vote for whoever you want, unless you vote for that other party – then you’re scum). They would never admit they think that way, because they like to imagine that they are open minded, but as soon as they find out you are aligned with that other political party, the one they don’t like, you are automatically in the “bad person” category in their mind. Why? Because voting the way they do is part of their resume for being a good person. It’s on their list. If you vote differently, you have to be a bad person – otherwise their system for being a good person falls apart.

It Doesn’t Work

Everyone thinks being a good person is all about picking the best list and then sticking to that list. But the Bible exposes the fatal flaw in that – the fatal flaw in every religion, every code of ethics, every method of trying to be a good person by following rules – hard or soft. And that flaw … should be obvious. The flaw is this: it doesn’t work. Making yourself good by keeping a list of standards doesn’t work. It doesn’t actually make you a good person. And deep down, we all know this. We know it’s not working. That’s why we have to work so hard to try to convince ourselves we’re good. When people fill out the form, the first thing they want to say is, “I’m a good person, I’m a good person,” like if we say it enough times it will somehow be true. But the reason we have such a hard time convincing ourselves that it’s true is because it’s not true. And it is obvious that it’s not true. Whatever your list is – even if you are one of those people who has come up with a really, really easy list with hardly anything on it, still – you’ve broken it. Haven’t you? You’ve done things that even your easy list says not to do. And you failed to do things that even your easy list says you’re supposed to do. And that didn’t just happen once or twice in your life; it’s happened thousands of times.