Stone Pillared Legalists
Stone Pillared Legalists
Bill Snell, Executive Pastor
Legalism concentrates on morality and a version of obedience because legalistic thinking has determined that while Christ did His part, man must certainly do his part. In other words, a legalist’ response to Jesus’ sacrifice must be evidenced by behavior suitable for a Christian.
While we would all agree that our identity in Christ as a New Creation would suggest monumental changes of many kinds within the believer, it is wrong to conclude that God demands certain conduct to acquire or maintain our spiritual liberation. To suggest such is to reject grace and return to the law.
Good is not the status God is looking for in the procuring of the New Covenant. Go ahead and give it a try if you insist – run after every form of decency, right behavior, modesty and honesty until you have exhausted yourself with “Christian efforts” at godly living.
What will you have accomplished when you have nothing else to give? Answer: failure, frustration, anxiety, insecurity, and hopelessness. Okay, now give it another try until you have nothing else to give. No matter how moral you think you have now become, a voice inside you will inevitably cry out, “you can do better…you must do better”.
Here is a suggestion for the legalists, why don’t you do like St. Simon did in the fifth century for which many in the Catholic Church have admired and elevated to the degree of Sainthood. Climb a 50-foot stone pillar, and stand upon a space three feet square. Oh, wait a minute, that wouldn’t be enough to soundly defeat the flesh, instead of eating three meals per day reduce it to a daily ration of three figs. Still not enough to satisfy that performance voice inside? Stay up there on that stone pillar, keep women away, reduce your fig consumption to two, stand in a prayerful position symbolizing the cross, and do so for 37 years until you are dead. Surely God would be impressed by such devotion and battering of the flesh.
What extremes legalists will go to in order to “do their part”? What will be their demands upon you? Please brother and sister in Christ – Jesus’ performance (obedience) perfectly satisfied the Father’s demand for humanity. The law was fulfilled in every aspect by Jesus. Because of that, every believer is now accepted by the Father, made righteous and holy by the Son, and positioned blameless before Him in love. Life and freedom are to be received as gifts from God.
So, why not live life in joy, peace, and security? But, If you still feel compelled to perform, you can try your best not to show your utter amazement at the numbers of “stone pillared legalists” around you who continue to strive to earn and keep what God has already freely given in Christ.
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15 Comments
by Brian
On July 5, 2012
excellent article – it is very clear that salvation is offered to us through God’s limitless grace. Then, we live life as if only our works will put a smile on God’s face. He wants our love and devotion more than any act of service given for the wrong reason.
by Tom
On July 6, 2012
Hey Bill, I kept looking for a graph explaining that although we are saved by Grace, by faith, and not by our moral performance, that our God nevertheless tells us to live holy, righteous lives. Peter said it best–”Be holy, for God is holy.” If we live in Grace, by faith, and sin, sin, sin, I wonder how much we can persuade the Lord to do for us? I love your emphasis on Grace, but you can’t ignore Galatians 5:16-26. Paul is speaking to saved Christians and says that if you live in certain sins and practice them you will not inherit the Kingdom of God. In Hebrews 10:26-27, Paul says if we sin willfully after we know the truth about Jesus there remains only a fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation. Ouch. I am in agreement with you that Jesus’ morality satisfied God for all of us, but these scriptures surely do confront living in sin. I agree with you that salvation–once you are truly Born Again by the Spirit–is very hard to undo or lose. But I know that you can emphasize Grace to such an extent that we give the troops the idea that it’s okay to sin and enjoy it, because they are secure, secure, secure. After presenting the truth about Jesus and faith and salvation to the Roman Christians, Paul asked if that security gives us a license to sin? His answer was–”God forbid!” John gave Christians the remedy for sin at 1 John 1:7,9; 2:1-1,12. We confess it, receive forgiveness and cleansing from God, and go on down the road with HIm. But if we persist in those sins, and they pile up, it makes us feel insecure and afraid; it takes us away from God instead of into Him. I know that you know all of this very well. Just trying to bring some balance to the Grace teaching. I am not a legalist, by the way. Not even close. But I give thanks for the Blood that forgives and cleanses me as I attend to my sins before God. Me, I would be a dead duck without it. Because sin really does destroy. It hurts us in every way: and it especially hurts our relationship with God. It makes us ashamed before Him. Are we still saved? Yes, just like you say. But I counseled Christians for years. I saw what their sins did to them. How it hardened them. Made them cold. Drove them further from God. So I guess I am overly sensitive to Grace messages that discount sin, or makes sin seem like inconsequential behavior. But I know full well what you are saying about the legal mindset. Those who preach legalism look like men in black suits carrying a buggy whip to whale the tar out of us. No love. No grace. Lots of fiery indignation. That just ain’t the Christian message. That ain’t Grace. On the other hand, if you continue in sin, it will destroy you to the extent that you take part in it. That is a cold hard fact…
by jeff
On July 8, 2012
Thanks Tom for your comment. Sin is only one choice away in our time here . Your comments about the emphasis of grace really resonated with me.
God Bless You.
by Bill
On July 9, 2012
Tom,
Please the section of this website entitled Grace Questions. We have addressed many of these statements you have made.
A couple points I might point out. Re-read Galatians 5 – the entire chapter. Paul is contrasting the lost to the saved, law versus the Spirit. Verse 24 and 25 makes this clear. When Peter said, “be holy as God is holy”, he is not suggesting that imitation of Christ is the answer, or our best human behavior. On the contrary, only God is holy, yet His holiness is imputed to every believer. The answer to changed behavior is learning to continually receive by faith all that Christ has accomplished on our behalf. Beholding is becoming! As we see Him and receive Him the more we become like him.
Hebrews 10, receiving the knowledge of the truth is not the same as receiving the truth. Once again, the writer of Hebrews is contrasting Old versus New, saved versus lost. Read verse 39.
The glorious, liberating fact is that Jesus’ sacrifice was perfect such that all issues of sin, past, present, and future were dealt with once and for all. This is our security. This is our freedom. This is our deliverance from condemnation. The law and grace do not mix. The law is the power of sin. The more we concentrate on law keeping rather than spirit living and walking the more we find ourselves in failure, condemnation, and temptation.
You are right about the negative effects of sin being gravely damaging. However, the only way that sin effects the believer before God is in his thinking (insecure or afraid). Those are lies of the devil. God has seen to it through His son that we are perfected in Him in love. Our sin wiped out from before Him as far as the east is from the west. There is therefore no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. A mixture of the law holds Christians in captivity. God’s amazing grace brings freedom – God’s freedom. Since truth liberates, the more we understand what He has done for us the more we understand Him and His love, and the more we respond to Him in love. This is the best motivation to a changed life and behavior.
Bill
by James Barron
On July 10, 2012
Tom, it’s amazing to me how people like yourself are still trying to balance a gift of righteousness with a performance of righteousness and say the scripture teaches that we can lose the gift if we don’t perform. What!??? I’m sure you mean well Tom, but you write a comment telling Bill he doesn’t get it when the truth is you don’t get it.
If you lose the gift for not performing then it was not a gift, Tom. You misinterpreted the verse in Galatians 5. Paul is saying that those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh (past tense, done deal, not a daily crucifying of the flesh, old man dead not dying) and are heirs of the Kingdom. Period. If a son then an heir. End of story. Heirs live by the life of Christ and the life of Christ does not look like that long list he gave regarding those who are not heirs. Those not in Christ will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Very clear when you see the gift of righteousness. As Paul wrote in Romans, we inherit righteousness as a gift, we are not paid a wage for our performance.
Tom you also misapplied Hebrews 10. The writer there is talking about the good news being rejected by his Jewish brothers. After they have heard the knowledge of the truth, i.e., believe on Jesus for the complete forgiveness of all your sins, if they willfully sin by rejecting Jesus, there remains no other sacrifice for sin. That is what that verse means.
Tom, you also apparently believe that a believer must continually confess his sins in order to be continually cleansed of sin in this New Covenant. That interpretation of I John 1:9 is blatantly false and reveals a major misunderstanding of the gospel in your thinking.
Jesus said to the legalists: “If you say you see, then you will remain blind, but if you say you are blind, then you shall see.” I encourage you to humbly consider what Bill and others on this web site are saying. The truth does not lead to more and more sinning as you fear, but rather the truth makes you free to be who you are in Christ, all to the glory of God. No flesh will glory in His presence. Any balancing of the gift with performance makes void the gift and dishonors the Lord who bought us.
by Jeff
On July 10, 2012
Also…in the book of Hebrews, the word “sin” is not referring to an action. It is referring to unbelief! Read Hebrews 3, 4, 5, & 6. We must always read the Bible in context. We must read the verses and chapters before and after. The scripture you referred to ” if we continually sin(unbeleive) willfully after we know the truth about Jesus there remains only a fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation. This is not referring to believers! Nowhere in the Bible do we ever read of a Saint becoming a sinner, it is always the opposite.” Hebrews was written to reveal Christ and His work so that we may “enter through the new and living way,” “go on to maturity,” and “draw near to God”. Hebrews 10:26 describes those who have received the knowledge of the truth (i.e., they have heard the gospel) but they have rejected it. The writer compares those who reject grace with those who reject law:
Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? (Heb 10:28-29) This passage is not talking about Christians but those who, like Judas, have heard the truth and spurned it. Judas spent time in the company of the Lord. He not only heard the truth, he saw Grace and Truth in the flesh. But Judas rejected Jesus as Lord. He never saw Jesus as anything other than a rabbi.Jesus died for Judas. What more could He do? There is nothing! There is no more sacrifice for sins other than the one Jesus provided. To reject Jesus as Lord is to trample the Son of God underfoot and treat the blood of the covenant as unholy. According to Hebrews there are only two kinds of people; those who don’t enter because of their unbelief and those who believe and are saved. Sin is not the variable; faith is. Where does faith come from? Jesus! He is the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2). Fix your eyes on Him.”- Paul Ellis
by James Barron
On July 10, 2012
Tom, I just have to say a little more. Ok. Really? You write: “If our sins pile up . . .” And “I attend to my sins . . .” Jesus attended to your sin quite completely. What can you add to what our Lord did? No wonder your counseling has not produced the fruit of the Spirit dude! You are keeping your counselees (if there is such a word) constantly sin-focused! The writer to the Hebrews says that under the old covenant of law there was a constant “reminder of sins” but under the New Covenant “the worshipers are no longer conscious of sin having once been cleansed” by the blood of Christ (Heb. 10). You say you believe in “the blood” but brother, and I do receive you at your word that you are a brother, but you really do not. You really do not. Consider what I am saying.
by jeff
On July 12, 2012
Ok..so I’m not well versed but I am clear that the gift of grace of my acceptance into the Kingdom is permanent no matter what sin I commit. But what about asking for forgiveness? Many followers of Christ that I know believe they need to repent. After committing an act of disobedience (sin). Can anyone enlighten me here. Please…perhaps w New Testament Scripture?
by James Barron
On July 13, 2012
Hey Jeff!
To answer your question briefly, believers were never taught by the apostles to continually confess their sins so that they could get continual cleansing from their sins. It is commonly taught (and wrongly taught) that a believer should “keep short accounts with God” by confessing sins as they happen so that sins “don’t pile up.” Along with this teaching is this idea that the believer is “out of fellowship with God” if there is “unconfessed sin” in the believer’s life. All of that is bogus. It is so unscriptural that it is amazing how more believers do not see just how off that is. This teaching comes from the misinterpretation of one single verse in the scriptures: I John 1:9.
That verse, when read in its context, is saying that a person who does not admit that they have sin or have sinned is a person who has not the truth in them, has not the word in them, is calling God a liar (because God says we have all sinned), and they are deceived. That’s a clear description of an unbeliever. An unregenerated person who is still in their sin.
To that person (and we were that person before we believed), I John 1:9 simply says that if they will agree with God that they are a sinner and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins then God is just and faithful to forgive them of their sin and cleanse them from all unrighteousness.
Now in Christ sin is no longer imputed to the believer for where there is no law, sin is not imputed. The believer rests in the gift of God’s own righteousness through faith. God was in Christ reconciling the whole world to Himself, not counting our sins against us anymore if we believe. That’s why it is called “Good News!” Hope that helps!
by jeff
On July 13, 2012
Then to sum it up…our past, present and future sins have already been forgiven the moment we first believed. And repenting is no longer needed because by doing so its like being an unbeliever all over again. Thanks so much James.
by Lori
On July 13, 2012
So many people never really feel that God loves them. We talk about it…we say it..but we really don’t believe it. UNTIL we have a revelation of His Grace. This revelation has changed my life…I am beginning to see The Father as never before! Grace doesn’t make it easy, Grace makes Him real! I realized that after being born again for 40 years, much of what I did…praying…working…serving…was under law…now in my old age, I have the freedom to pray with grace, work with grace, serve with grace and most of all love him with grace. I see the Father and I hear the Father more clearly than ever..because I received the gift of Righteousness and Grace. May God keep blessing those who are strong and courageous enough to bring us this revelation of Grace!!
by James Barron
On July 15, 2012
Lori that is awesome! So true! Only when we see that we are not under law but under only grace does the revelation break forth in our spirit that God is good and He really loves us! As long as people try to live under both law and grace they will never break through to see God as He really is.
Jeff! Glad to help! Just one clarification. Repentance is not the same thing as confession of sin for daily cleansing. Confession of sin for daily cleansing for a believer is bogus and not scriptural but repentance is something a believer may need to do, but rarely.
Repentance simply means to “change the mind.” That’s it. Nothing more, contrary to most religious teaching. The scripture says “God repented” on several occasions. Try putting religion’s definition into that statement from scripture and you will quickly see how we have not accurately understood the simplicity of that word. You can say correctly that “I was going to eat lunch at Macdonald’s but I repented and decided to eat at Wendy’s.” The word “repentance” simply means to change your mind!
A believer will need to change their mind about things from time to time as they grow in the revelation of Jesus and mature, but that has nothing to do with this teaching about a daily cleansing of sin for the believer through a daily naming of sins. See it?
by jeff
On July 17, 2012
Can you expound a bitt more James about “a daily cleansing of sin” please?
by Bill
On July 18, 2012
Jeff,
James was saying that there isn’t a biblical basis for a so-called “daily cleansing of sin”. As soon as a believer puts his or her faith in Christ, we are cleansed of our sin – past, present, and future. All of it! It has to be that way or we could never have an intimate relationship with God. If sin were held against the believer, we would have no hope, and Jesus’ sacrifice would of necessity be insufficient for our deliverance and salvation.
Confession of sin for a believer according to the context of 1 John 1:9 has to do with an unbeliever seeing his sinful condition, confessing that reality, and putting his trust in the completed work of Christ.
James 5:16 says to “confess your sins one to another for healing”. it doesn’t say, “Believer, confess your sins to God so you can be healed.” The obvious point here is that there is healing power in honesty and vulnerability one to another. We are not spiritual islands in a sea of humanity.
Back to the daily cleansing issue – all our sins have been cleansed. Though our sin be as scarlet, they are washed white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). Repentance for a Christian is the process of changing one’s mind about a matter in order to agree with God about how He see’s us and sees things around us. He sees us as holy, righteous, cleansed, and perfected. Why? Because Jesus’ sacrifice was perfect. The more we understand all that Jesus did for us, the more we understand what He has done and is doing in us. Love transforms us – in all aspects.
by jeff
On March 3, 2013
Bill. I’ve gone back thru my emails…purging out the junk. If I didn’t thank you for your explanation on nat having to ask forforgiveness over and over, etc.. I am now. Thank you. You’re message definitely helped and I value your contribution in spreading the beautiful message of grace. Kat and I will nt be in church today..nor Sunday school but will be there in spirit so to speak. God Bless.