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by Jeff
Rath 9-98
Legalism in this day and time can come
in many forms: some people still try to do the Old Testament
law, some people invent new rules and require people to
follow them, and others mix the Old Testament law with
new rules, and mix in New Testament doctrine. This can
get very confusing because they can quote (or misquote)
scriptures to back up their legalism. Legalism can be
very mean, even vicious. Legalists will require that people
obey their doctrine and tradition or they will be ananthamized,
excommunicated, and kicked out. Legalists seldom miss
a chance to reprove others, but they usually walk by opportunities
to be compassionate to others. Legalists think that they
are better than others who don't do the works of their
law. Legalists use God’s Word to hurt other people. Legalism
puts people in fear - either you obey their law or you
suffer the consequences. Legalism is heavy and dark, and
it takes all of the joy out of a Christian's life. Legalism
is the doctrine and traditions of men taught as if they
were the Word of God. Legalism is the strict adherence
to a law without regard to the well-being and best interest
of the people involved. Legalism tries to get the flesh
to bring forth spiritual fruit by imposing rules and regulations.
Living Victoriously
1987 Victor Paul Wierwille
"A believer's peace is lost when he allows sincere,
religious people to put him under the covenant of works
of the Old Testament [legalism]. And when a believer loses
sight of the truth of his standing in Christ then he loses
sight of grace, mercy, love and the power of God. Then
he gets into confusion as to the truth, and his peace
evaporates, and it is gone."
Legalism destroys your peace, and it
leads to confusion as to your state and standing with
God. The sincere religious legalists love to tell people
that they are unworthy and that God is displeased with
them, or that God doesn't love them, or that God wants
to punish them.
Galations 3:24-25
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto
Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith
is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
The law was our schoolmaster until Christ,
but after Christ came we are no longer under the law.
Yet the legalists will continue to put people under the
law and ignore what Jesus Christ has accomplished.
Take God at His Word
1987 Victor Paul Wierwille
"Christianity is not a religion. There is a lot of
religion in so-called 'Christianity' today, but that is
not God's fault. Religion is what man does; Christianity
is what God wrought in Christ. Christianity is not a religion--it
is The Way, The Truth, and The Life--it is what God wrought
in Christ. It is a father and His family; God is our Father,
and we are His children. That puts us in the household
of God."
A lot of the religion that crept into
Christianity is legalism. The legalists will tell you
that only those who do the works of their law can be in
the household of God. True Christianity is not legalistic.
The Church in History
1996 B.K. Kuiper
"No matter how hard he [Martin Luther] tried, never,
it seemed to him, had he done enough to earn salvation.
In a letter he wrote to the pope after his conversion
he said: ‘I often endured an agony so hellish in violence,
that if those spells had lasted a minute longer I must
have died then and there’."
Martin Luther tried legalism; he pursued
it passionately, but he finally came to the Word of God
where he learned that man could not be justified by any
works of religion, but that man was justified by believing
and the grace of God. Martin Luther discovered that you
can never do enough to earn salvation, and that legalism
will make you miserable.
Rightly Dividing The
Word 1920 Clarence Larkin
"THE LAW demands holiness"
"GRACE gives holiness"
"THE LAW says--Cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things which are written in
the book of the law to do them"
"GRACE says--Blessed is the man
whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sin is covered; blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity."
"THE LAW declares--That as many
as have sinned in the Law, shall be judged by the law."
"GRACE declares--That there is
no condemnation (Judgment for Sin) for those who are in
Christ Jesus for they have passed from death unto life."
Another manifestation of legalism is
that they require people to earn from God what they already
have. In the Book of Acts the Apostle Paul would get the
gentiles born again and walking in the grace of God, and
then the legalistic Judeans would come and tell those
gentiles that they could not be saved unless they were
circumcised.
Acts 15:1
And certain men which came down from Judea taught the
brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the
manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
The word "brethren tells"
us that they were already in God's family, that they were
saved; and yet the legalists were telling them that unless
they endured a painful circumcision, they were not saved.
Legalists here wrongly divide God’s Word and use the Word
against people.
Galations 5:2-3
Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing.
3 For I testify again to
every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to
do the whole law.
Most legalists are smorgasbord legalists;
that is to say, they pick and choose what laws they want
to enforce. I challenge you to read the Old Testament
and try to do the law: if you eat a cheeseburger, you
break the law; if you miss the major judean festivals
such as Passover, then you break the law; if you miss
the sin offering, you break the law; and what about the
Day of Atonement and the Year of Jubilee? There are hundreds
of laws in the Old Testament; if someone wants to be a
legalist, then he is a debtor to do them all.
Galations 5:4
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of
you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Acts 15:10
Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke (the law)
upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers
nor we were able to bear.
Galations 5:1
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free, and be not entangled in the yoke
of bondage. [the law]
Legalists hate liberty - - because when
people are free, they can't control them and coerce them
into obeying their rules and regulations so that they
can try to squeeze some spiritual fruit out of the flesh.
Colossians 2:20-22
Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments
[elements] of the world, why, as though living in the
world, are ye subject to ordinances,
21 (touch not; taste not;
handle not;
22 which all are to perish
with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines
of men?
Here the apostle Paul is confronting
legalistic logic (or illogic), and challenging believers
not to follow commandments and doctrines of men. I remember
talking with a young man recently and he was telling me
about how what his group did not allow people to do was
not as bad as what other groups did not allow their people
to do . . . . gee, that is really comforting; his group's
legalism was easier to take than somebody else's! Let's
face it - - a little legalism is still legalism, and it
is still wrong.
The Subtle Power Of Spiritual
Abuse, 1991; David Johnson/Jeff VanVonderen
"The legalist will always want to see another punished,
or made to perform as a compensation for weakness or sin."
The Pharisees were legalists; they were
a continual hindrance to those who tried to move the Word
of God in the first century. They weren't satisfied with
doing the Old Testament law; they made up more rules and
regulations that went even beyond the law.
The New Manners And Customs
Of Bible Times 1987 Ralph Gower
"Pharisees . . . Their name means 'those who separate
themselves.' . . . They wanted to be legally pure, separate
from any form of defilement. They believed that the difference
between being 'clean' and 'unclean' depended upon that
law. What was 'clean' was obedience to the law; what was
'unclean' was disobedience to the law. This position regarding
the law created problems, however, for although there
are 613 commandments in the Torah (the books of Moses),
they are not always specific. If the Sabbath day is to
be kept 'holy,' then exactly what may be done and what
may not? There were lengthy discussions on such subjects
as whether or not it was lawful (or unclean) to eat an
egg laid on the Sabbath. The Pharisees developed a set
of regulations designed to save people from breaking the
law itself . . . the Pharisees had failed to understand
what the law was all about . . . The Pharisees seem to
have taken the law and changed it . . . into a great burden
-- 'This is what you have got to do; if you fail, God
will punish you' . . . It was so out of tune with what
God intended that Jesus attacked it."
The Pharisees were legalists who wanted
to be separate (sanctified) from all of what they considered
unclean, but they defiled themselves with their traditions.
Matthew 15:3
But he [Jesus Christ] answered and said unto them, [the
Pharisees] Why do ye also transgress the commandment
of God by your tradition?
Matthew 15:7-9
Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias [Isiah] prophesy of you
saying,
8 this people draweth nigh
[near] unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with
their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9 But in vain do they worship
me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
The Pharisees weren't the only religious
group that practiced legalism. As the early Christians
got farther away from the Word of God in practice and
in doctrine, then legalism would get more extreme. In
the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD there were other groups and
teachers who taught legalism and required their followers
to obey their rules and regulations. Some of these groups
took their legalism way beyond the Old Testament law.
A History Of The Christian
Church 1985 Wiliston Walker
"Marconite believers were required to abstain from
all sexual intercourse, even in marriage. Marcion's rigorism
is also shown in the requirement that his followers refrained
from eating meat."
A key word to notice here is "require,"
genuine men of God will teach His word and encourage people
to do it, whereas legalists require people to do their
own doctrine. Nobody wants that kind of religion! You
wouldn't either if you are honest! It's amazing that people
put up with strange forms of legalism that require them
to do things that severely violate both God's Word and
common sense.
A History Of The Christian
Church 1985 Wiliston Walker
"Montanus and his followers saw themselves in a relation
of complete alienation from the world. Their calling was
martyrdom, and their duty was to hope for it and never
to flee from persecution. As a preparation for the end
of all things, they purified themselves and cut themselves
loose from their attachments to society. The Phrygians,
as they were frequently called, fasted longer and more
elaborately that other Christians and discouraged -- if
they did not, like Marcion, forbid -- marriage."
Boy, that sounds like a more than abundant
life - - no sex and no food, but they do get to look forward
to persecution and martyrdom! Legalism is the opposite
of what God would do; on the surface it may be similar,
but the end result is the opposite.
Eerdmans’ Handbook to
the World’s Religions 1994
"There was a charismatic group known as the Montanists
who claimed fresh revelation which could supersede parts
of the New Testament."
The Montanists [followers of Montanus]
were not only legalists, they were bent on coming up with
a new truth or a new revelation. There will not be any
new revelation to supersede the New Testament grace until
Jesus Christ returns.
Legalists also have to "kick out"
those who disobey or question their legalistic doctrines,
which is a form of control and fear motivation. There
is a record in the Gospel of John, chapter 9 where there
was a man born blind who was healed by Jesus Christ, and
his parents were afraid of the legalists to the point
where they would not even admit that Jesus Christ had
healed their son! You would think that they would be so
thankful that they would be telling everybody in town,
but no, the legalists had so corrupted their lives with
the fear of breaking man's rules and regulations that
they were afraid to speak about what God had done for
their son.
John 9:20-22
His parents answered them and said, We know that this
is our son, and that he was born blind:
21 But by what means he
now seeth, we know not, or who hath opened his eyes,
we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for
himself.
22 These words spake his
parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews
had agreed already, that if any man did confess that
he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
Jesus Christ did not spend all sorts
of time running around kicking people out of his ministry;
he was too busy moving God’s Word, and being compassionate.
He taught the Word of God "hot;" and people
either believed or they stopped believing and stopped
following his ministry.
John 6:60,66
Many therefore of his disciples when they had heard
this, said, This is an hard saying: who can hear it?
66 From that time many of
his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
Some of the disciples didn't like what
Jesus Christ taught, so they left; that was their privilege
to choose to believe or not believe.
The Way Living In Love
1972 Elena S. Whiteside
"If someone comes into the ministry, we don’t drop
them, we stick with them. We never kick anyone out. They
kick themselves out, if they want to go. But they’re always
welcome back." [Said by Dr. Wierwille]
Mark 3:1-2
And he [Jesus Christ] entered again into the synagogue;
and there was a man there which had a withered hand.
2 And they watched him,
whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they
might accuse him.
The Pharisees were not interested in
the man with the withered hand; they wanted to accuse
Jesus Christ for not obeying their rules and regulations.
It also says in Mark 3:6 that they made plans to kill
him. Sometimes legalists are so passionate about their
legalism that they kill those who break their laws. A
good example of this is the anti-abortion movement today;
they harass pregnant women, murder some of the medical
staff, and even set bombs at abortion clinics.
John 8:3-5
And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman
taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the
midst,
4 They say unto him, Master,
this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
5 Now Moses in the law commanded
us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
The legalistic scribes and Pharisees
were using this woman; they had no concern for her well-being
or her life. They were willing to sacrifice her for their
legalism and to make Jesus Christ look bad. Legalists
hate it when people don't do their law, to the end that
they are willing to let people suffer so that their law
can be followed.
John 8:7,9-11
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself,
and said unto them, He that is without sin among you,
let him first cast a stone at her.
9 and they which heard
it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out
one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last:
and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in
the midst.
10 When Jesus had lifted
up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto
her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no
man condemned thee?
11 She said, No man, Lord.
And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee:
go, and sin no more.
The legalists sure were full of love
and compassion for this woman, weren't they? Yet each
one of them had at some time broken their law as well,
which means that they should have been stoned along with
the woman. Legalists don't like it when their hypocrisy
is exposed. The legalists did not have compassion on this
woman, but Jesus Christ did. True men of God are compassionate
with people but still uncompromising on God’s Word.
Legalists teach for doctrine commandments
of men and tradition instead of teaching the Word of God.
They hold the keys of the grace of God, yet they themselves
don't walk in it; and they hinder others from entering
into grace.
Luke 11:52
Woe unto you lawyers! for ye have taken away the key
of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them
that were entering in ye hindered.
The legalists are usually around waiting
for their chance to hinder those who want to walk in the
grace of God. They will accuse, and attack viciously when
given the chance to stomp on the hearts of God's people.
The way to back them down is with His Word - - that's
the way that Jesus Christ stopped them cold. We have to
walk in the grace of God.
II Timothy 2:1
Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that
is in Christ Jesus.
Grace is the opposite of legalism; grace
is undeserved favor; grace is God giving us something
even though we don't deserve it. We are to be strong in
grace; that is, in the resurrected Christ - - not legalism,
not man's rules and traditions. But grace should never
be used as a license to sin; that is not God's will.
Romans 6:1,2a
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that
grace may abound? God forbid.
The true walk of a Christian is a balance.
We don't go off to one side and get into legalism or go
to the other side and use grace as a license to sin.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not
of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any
man should boast.
We were saved by God's grace, not by
legalism, and we were not saved by the works of the law.
Hebrews 4:16
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace and help in
time of need.
God's love and God's grace yields boldness
and confidence toward God. Legalism says that you are
unworthy, you are unholy, you are unsanctified, and that
you have to do some burdensome law to become worthy, holy,
and sanctified. Yet God’s Word says: "come boldly
before the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy,
and find grace and help in time of need." It is much
easier to choose to be strong in the grace over being
steeped in legalism. The choice is yours.
Jeremiah 23:1
Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the
sheep of my pasture! aith the Lord.
There are those who call themselves
pastors and ministers today who destroy and scatter God's
people with legalism.
Jeremiah 23:3-4
And I will gather the remnant of my flock [God’s people]
out of all countries whither I have driven them, and
bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful
and increase.
4 And I will set up shepherds
[overseers]over them which shall feed them: [feed them
with the Word] and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed,
neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord.
The remnant today are those people who
don't give up on God just because they have been dumped
on by legalists. They still have tender hearts toward
God even though their hearts were stomped on by brutal
legalists. They still love God's Word even though they
have heard it mistaught and wrongly divided and wrongly
applied by legalists. God promises that He will bring
them into their folds (this represents God's protection),
and they shall be fruitful and increase (this represents
God's abundance in all of its forms).
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