The Word Legalism Is Overused

The word legalism is overused. Sometimes I tell my students at the seminary where I teach that they may use this word once a year and no more. All too often legalism is employed whenever we consider obedience inconvenient. Legalism then becomes a "scare tactic word" masking an underlying indifference or mistrust of radical holiness.

What does legalism really mean? It is the proper word whenever one of the following is true:

• I am being asked to obey in order to win God's favor. A works based-based view of salvation is essentially legalistic

• I am being asked to obey a command over and above that which God has given to me in the Bible. Essentially, I am being asked to obey against my conscience, which is subject to Scripture alone. "All members of this church must refrain from growing facial hair," for example, is an example of legalism.

• I am obeying God's commandments from impure motives. When the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son viewed his obedience as a form of slavery, his obedience was legalistic.

Is obeying from a consideration of gain-reaping life through actions of mortification-a form of legalism? Yes, if we think that Paul is teaching us that"life" is the reward given to those who put sin to death. But Paul is not saying that. Life is the fruit, not the root of justification.

How The Gospel Brings Us All The Way Home
By Derek Thomas
pg 49-50

Legalistic Preaching Is Defective Preaching

Defective preaching is preaching that has LAW but no gospel: This is preaching that aims to convict men of their sins. It tells them what the law of God says and it tells them how they have FAILED to do what the law says. It tells them they are rebels and that they deserve Hell. But then it says, “so DO BETTER! Stop committing those sins and keep the law! Live a moral and godly life!”  And what happens is that people hear it, and many are convicted and they do try to put away some of their bigger sins and start living a better life, and so they try to stop sinning for little while but find that they keep falling back  into sin again and again. This method of preaching will never produce any real fruit because there has been no real change in the sinners heart – there is no new life, no grace, and they are still under the dominion of their sins. Spurgeon described the situation this way:

“A sinner without grace attempting to reform himself is like Sisyphus rolling the stone up hill, which always comes down with greater force. A man without grace attempting to save himself, is engaged in as hopeless a task as the daughters of Danaus, when they attempted to fill a vast vessel with bottomless buckets. He has a bow without a string, a sword without a blade, a gun without powder. He needs strength. I grant you, he may produce a hollow reformation; he may earth up the volcano, and sow flowers around its crater; but when it once begins to stir again, it shall move the earth away, and the hot lava shall roll over all the fair flowers which he had planted, and devastate both his works and his righteousness. : he cannot deliver himself from his sins.”

This kind of preaching prevailed during the time of Charles Finney in the 19th century. With his blazing eyes Finney transfixed his hearers and called them out as sinners, sometimes by name even, and told them that they had the power to stop being sinners and live lives pleasing to God. But when they tried to follow his instructions, they failed miserably, and the areas that experienced this kind of preaching became especially hardened to the gospel. By God’s grace, this kind of preaching has grown very rare and we shouldn’t mourn it’s passing.

Andrew Webb
"Building Old School Churches"

Are you a class four legalist?

Prof. Doriani writes:

"Class-one legalists are auto-soterists; they declare what one must do in order to obtain God's favor or salvation. The rich young ruler was a class-one legalist.

Class-two legalists declare what good deeds or spiritual disciplines one must perform to retain God's favor and salvation.

Class-three legalists love the law so much they create new laws, laws not found in Scripture, and require submission to them. The Pharisees, who build fences around the law, were class-three legalists.

Class-four legalists 

avoid these gross errors, but they so accentuate obedience to the law of God that other ideas shrivel up. They reason, 'God has redeemed us at the cost of his Son's life. Now he demands our service in return. He has given us his Spirit and a new nature and has stated his will. With these resources, we obey his law in gratitude for our redemption. This is our duty to God.' In an important way this is true, but class-four legalists dwell on the law of God until they forget the love of God. Worshiping, delighting in, communing with, and conforming to God are forgotten.

Class-four legalists can preach sermons in which every sentence is true, while the whole is oppressive. It is oppressive to proclaim Christ as the Lawgiver to whom we owe a vast debt, as if we must somehow repay him- - repay God! -- for his gifts to us.

I count myself a member of the legion of recovering class-four legalists. We slide into a 'Just Do It' mentality occasionally, dispensing commands just because they are right.

...the point he makes about "class-four legalists" is that they have the correct teaching, but that they make the correct teaching oppressive without the love of Christ and
His fulfillment of the Law as foundational to all of their preaching. 

Psalm 111:1 Praise the LORD! I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. 2 The works of the LORD are great, Studied by all who have pleasure in them. 3 His work is honorable and glorious, And His righteousness endures forever. 4 He has made His wonderful works to be remembered; The LORD is gracious and full of compassion. 5 He has given food to those who fear Him; He will ever be mindful of His covenant. 6 He has declared to His people the power of His works, In giving them the heritage of the nations. 7 The works of His hands are verity and justice; All His precepts are sure. 8 They stand fast forever and ever, And are done in truth and uprightness. 9 He has sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant forever: Holy and awesome is His name. 10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.

Evangelism And Sanctification By works?

I came across an article about the call for Christians to evangelize and to disciple others. Here are a few of many I took exception to.

• Progressive sanctification over the life of a true believer is about being fisher of men
  
• These two things provide the foundation for spiritual growth, serving others and
  Evangelizing the lost by supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in us. I cannot think of anything else that would fall outside the realm of being a fisher of men and disciple making that would sanctify us.
  
• No, you cannot be a fisher of men and disciple maker just at home, but is a good place to start! Many parents think at home is enough. It is not! Sorry to burst your bubble.
  

Now I believe strongly in the importance of Christian’s evangelizing and discipleing. But not at the expense of understanding the doctrine of sanctification.

These statements can surely, if believed and practiced, strap someone to the performance treadmill version of Christianity. This can cause unnecessary guilt and condemnation of the believer who buys into these statements. It shows a poor understanding of the centrality of the gospel, and the importance of realizing that the gospel is not only for the lost but is for believers as well. This is why we need to preach the gospel to ourselves everyday. At the center of our Christian life is not what we "do" it is what He "did". Our obedience and actions should flow naturally from the gospel. It is all of GRACE.

Salvation includes both regeneration and sanctification, and are 'GRACES' that are the inevitable result of being in "union with Christ" Therefore they are rooted in the gospel.
John 17:17-19, Titus 2:13-14, 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Hebrews 13:20-21, Ephesians 5:26-27,2 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Corinthians 6:11

When a person puts his faith and trust in the person and work of Christ, that person is justified and now is in "union with Christ" by faith. He/she receives a righteousness that is external and not their own. It is apprehended by faith. A Christian is in "union with Christ" by believing in the object of Christ, (His person and work) and we continue to believe the promises of God. We believe the gospel and keep believing the gospel because of God's Grace. He/she is born again.

When a person is born again he not only is justified but also experiences what theologians call "definitive sanctification".

Justification and sanctification do not exist apart from one another. Both are the effects of "union with Christ".

Definitive sanctification refers to the Holy Spirit empowered break from the bondage and slavery to sin, in the believer’s life that happens at the inception of the Christian life. Romans 6:1-7:6

SinClair Ferguson writes….
This, then, is the foundation of sanctification in Reformed theology. It is rooted, not in humanity and their achievement of holiness or sanctification, but in what God has done in Christ, and for us in union with him. Rather than view Christians first and foremost in the microcosmic context of their own progress, the Reformed doctrine first of all sets them in the macrocosm of God's activity in redemptive history. It is seeing oneself in this context that enables the individual Christian to grow in true holiness.

Progressive sanctification is the believer becoming more holy and being conformed into the image of Christ. The Christian is made more and more aware of the ongoing presence of sin that remains, and is enabled to mortify those sins, (although not perfectly), empowered by the GRACE of God. This continues through out the course of a Christian’s life.

Scripture emphasizes that the person and work of Christ is the source or foundation of a believer’s sanctification. Not evangelism and discipleship.

To say that someone should evangelize or disciple to be more sanctified is confusing the results of GRACE as the means of GRACE. This is teaching sanctification by works. This is not progressive sanctification. Yes, we are called as Christians to pursue holiness and be obedient to Gods word. A Christian being obedient to Gods commands is the result of GRACE and not the cause or means of it.

Progressive sanctification, as defined by Wayne Grudem, is "a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like
Christ in our actual lives."


The idea of doing the work and then getting the GRACE is akin to the Roman Catholic view of "means of grace" or "ex opera operato" (by the work done).

The Reformers rejected this idea. The reformers emphasized the Word and sacraments and necessity of faith. Some Reformed theologians would also include prayer and the fellowship of believers as a means of grace. The means of grace are God's Word (I Peter 1:23-2:22; I Col 1:20-21), the sacraments (I Cor. 11:23-33; Col. 2:11-12), and prayer (Matthew 6:5-13; Phil. 1:9-11).The Word of God given prominence. This is the way God ordinarily grows and strengthens Christians spiritually.

I hear it said over and over again, we need to live the Gospel. No, we believe the Gospel. There was only one person who could live the Gospel. We can't live the gospel. We live in response to the gospel, by the GRACE of God. Always keeping the cross of Christ at the center of our Christian life.

How much of the world?

I have been thinking a lot lately about how much like the world I still am even while being so different. Worldly ideas and worldly thinking are so deeply ingrained into my thought pattern that its seems it will truly take this lifetime to be rid of it. (at the time of glorification!)
What areas do I struggle with the most in worldly thinking? Educating my children? Do I set out each day to raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord or do I think that, pray for that and then proceed to our academic lessons just to find at the end of the day the teaching I did was not that much different from any teacher of the world? The setting was different, that individual attention give was different but did I teach them Christ today? More than just the Bible lesson that I hope I got around to? Do I have educational goals that are different from this world? Do I care more for their spiritual life than their visible, earthly life?

What about my desire to have them fit in with the kids in our new neighborhood? I found myself hoping they would be accepted and liked by all the kids outside playing. What a jolt when I heard the language that came from one young mans mouth. Did I really just sit there and hope that they would fit in and be accepted into that world? How then am I teaching them to be holy and set apart? I should instead be praying that the Lord would use them and protect them in this situation. But for a moment I wanted them to be liked and accepted by man.....

How about for myself? How many activities do I engage in that are not spiritually profitable? Am I "allowed" to do so? YES! There are books I can read, shows I can watch, and songs that I can sing that would not be sin for me to partake of. Does that mean that I should? I think sometimes we spend so much time defending what we are allowed to do that we don't stop to think of how these things affect our walk with Christ. Does it grow me spiritually? Is it profitable to my walk, my relationship with the Lord? Am I using it in a way to serve Christ thru it? I believe these are questions I should ask myself before engaging in these activities.

That said, do I think that these questions should be asked by all Christians? I hesitate to say yes because I know they aren't being asked by all who know Christ. Who am I to say that another believer should cultivate their relationship with the Lord in the same way that I would? If I have been convicted in certain areas by the Holy Spirit and if He has changed my thinking on things then am I to say that He is wrong for not having done so in another's heart and mind?
Sometimes we want so badly to think that every christian must be the same in every way that when others are not where we are we judge them wrongly and sometimes harshly. Some names that come to mind are: legalist, liberal, lost, carnal, a pharisee, a fundamentalist and on and on....Yes, there are people that legitimately fit in these categories. But how careful we must be before we judge harshly and critically. This growth and sanctification is the Spirits work in our life and its for Him to produce in us and us to bear. Who are we to judge another's servant in areas that belong to him and the Lord?
How do we know the sovereignty of God and the work of the Holy Spirit and still dare judge another that may slightly disagree with us ?

I know I am guilty of all of it......its called sin and thats why we do it. There is no other excuse, no justification.......its sin.

Melissa