Have you ever, as a Christian, been accused of being a legalist? This word is often misused in the Christian subculture. For example, some people might call John a legalist because they see him as narrow-minded. But the term legalism is not related to closed minds. In reality, legalism manifests itself in many subtle ways.
Basically, legalism involves taking God’s law out of its original context. Some people worry about following a Christian life based on obedience to rules and regulations, and see Christianity as a series of “do this” and “don’t do that”—a series of cold and deadly moral principles. That is a form of legalism, where one is merely concerned with keeping God’s law as if that were the only end.
Now, God certainly cares about our obedience to his commandments. However, there are more things that we should not forget. God gave laws, such as the Ten Commandments, in the context of a covenant. First, God was kind. He redeemed his people out of slavery in Egypt, and entered into a loving and dependent relationship with Israel. Only after that relationship based on his grace was established did God begin to define specific laws that pleased him. I had a professor in my master’s program who said, “The essence of Christian theology is grace, and the essence of Christian ethics is gratitude.” Legalism takes the law and isolates it from God, who gave the law. Legalism does not seek to obey God or honor Christ, but rather obeys rules that are devoid of any personal relationship.
There is no love, joy, life, or passion. It’s a routine, a kind of law-maintaining mechanism that we call externalism. Legalism focuses on obeying simple rules, destroying the context in which God gave his law: his love and redemption.
To understand the second type of legalism, we have to remember that the New Testament makes a distinction between the letter of the law (its external form) and the spirit of the law. The second type of legalism makes a separation between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. Obey the letter but violate the spirit. There is a subtle distinction between this type of legalism and the one mentioned previously.
How can one obey the letter of the law and violate the spirit of it? Suppose a man drives his car at the minimum required speed, regardless of the conditions under which he drives. If he is on a main highway and the minimum speed is forty miles per hour, he drives at that speed, not one mile less. He does it even during torrential rains, when driving at that minimum speed actually endangers other people, since they have the good sense to slow down to about twenty miles per hour, so as not to skid on the wet asphalt. The man who insists on going forty miles an hour in those conditions drives his car like that to please himself. Although it seems that he carefully observes and obeys his civic duties, his obedience is only external, he does not care what the law itself is about. The second type of legalism is outwardly obedient, while his heart is turned away from any desire to honor God, his law’s intent, or Christ.
The second type of legalism is illustrated by the Pharisees, who confronted Jesus for healing someone on the Sabbath (Mt. 12:9-14). Their concern was focused on what was written in the law, avoiding anything that might seem like work. These teachers forgot the spirit of the law, which was directed against ordinary work that was not necessary to sustain life, and not against healing the sick.
The third type of legalism adds our own rules to God’s law and treats them as divine. This is the most common and fatal type of legalism. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees on this very point, saying, “You teach human traditions as if they were the word of God.” We have no right to create restrictions on what He has not restricted.
Each church has the right to create its own policies in certain areas. For example, the Bible doesn’t say anything about soft drinks in church fellowship, but every church has the right to regulate that kind of thing. But when we use human politics to somehow bind consciences and make those politics determine someone’s salvation, we venture dangerously into the territory that belongs only to God.
Many people believe that the essence of Christianity is to follow the correct rules to the letter, even extra-biblical rules. For example, the Bible does not say that we cannot play cards or drink a glass of wine with dinner. We cannot make these matters outward proof of authentic Christianity. That would be a fatal violation of the gospel because that would substitute human customs for the real fruits of the Spirit. We come dangerously close to blasphemy by misinterpreting Christ in this way. Where God has given freedom, we must not enslave people with human-made rules. We have to pay attention and care, and fight against this kind of legalism.
The gospel calls human beings to repentance, holiness, and devotion. Because of this, the world sees the gospel as something offensive. But woe to us if we unnecessarily add to what is offensive, distorting the true nature of Christianity by combining it with legalism. Since Christianity is all about morality, righteousness, and ethics, we can easily make a subtle move from a passionate concern for godly morality, and fall into a kind of legalism.
Originally posted on . Translated by Fanny Castro. Image: .