Legalism: What it IS and What it ISN'T

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Legalism: What it IS and What it ISN'T

Here is a great synopsis of what legalism is and isn't, from a blog I've been enjoying lately.

Legalism is:

Distorting the gospel by adding conditions to free grace: Acts 15:1, 7-11; Gal.1:6-7, 2:11-16, 4:8-11, Gal. 5:2-4; Col.2:16-17

Substituting man-made regulations for the Word of God: Matthew 15:1-3

Majoring on the minors and neglecting the more important issues: Luke 11:42

Over-concern with the externals while disregarding matters of the heart: Matthew 23:27

Regarding with contempt or judging a brother based on matters of personal conviction: Romans 14:1-5

Trusting in ourselves that we are righteous based on religious performance: Luke 18:9-14

Hypocrisy, the leaven of the Pharisees: Luke 11:53-12:1

Legalism is not:

A zeal for the commandments of Christ: Matthew 5.19; 1 Corinthians 7.19

A ministry that teaches others to follow Christ in obedience: Matthew 28.20; 1 Thess. 4.1-2

Strong personal convictions (as long as they are not required of others): Romans 14.2,5

Man-made restrictions for personal protection from sinful habits (as long as we do not begin to view them as binding on others): Romans 13.14; 1 Corinthians 6.12

A zeal for good works: Eph. 2.10; Titus 1.16, 2.7, 14, 3.8, 14

Limiting our liberty for the benefit of others: Romans 14.15, 21, 15.2; Acts 16.1-3

Obedience: John 14.15, 23, 15.10; 1 John 2.3-5, 5.2-4

Source: Reformed and Always Reforming by the Reformed Rebel

5 comments:

AnonymousNovember 2, 2009 at 11:53 AM
That's excellent, Derek. I especially appreciated the "Legalism Is Not" section. Thanks for pointing it out.
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Rob PeckNovember 2, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Thanks for posting this brother! I will have to check out that blog now!
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THEOparadoxNovember 2, 2009 at 12:27 PM
Barry/Rob:

I was struck by the power of this brief synopsis, which was buried in a post on the site (partly because I'm so challenged in the area of brevity). The writer calls himself the "Reformed Rebel" and blogs anonymously for reasons I cannot share - but they are very good reasons. He's a voracious reader and has a great deal of respect for the text of Scripture. Also, he's not afraid to put in the work required to dig up exegetical treasures. Good stuff all around.

Blessings,
Derek
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AnonymousNovember 2, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Derek -

I am pleased and pleasantly shocked that you have posted this! I often forget that I'm blogging for anyone other than myself, so the link is...odd, but good.

Thank you!

The Reformed Rebel
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THEOparadoxNovember 2, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Reformed Rebel,

Your synopsis of legalism was so good I couldn't pass it up. The Gospel versus legalism is a frequent topic of conversation around here, and also in every redeemed heart, I am sure. I hope your series is a blessing to many, as it has been to me.

Derek
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Feel free to respond to anything written in the posts, or to the comments left by others. All comments are reviewed before they are published.

Please be charitable. If you disagree, do so with grace. Keep your words positive, focused, and on-topic. We don't expect everyone to agree, but we do expect everyone to treat everyone else with respect and grace, speaking the truth in love.

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THEOparadox MISSION Statement:

~To honor God by upholding the authority, inerrancy and sufficiency of His Word, the Bible.
~To help students of the Word to interpret Biblical paradoxes in a way that faithfully reflects God's heart.
~To ignite a devotional flame that will help believers to warm up their theology and burn up their pride.
~To encourage Christian faith by resolving or explaining apparent contradictions in the Scriptures.
~To explore the nature and extent of paradoxes in historically orthodox, Reformed, Biblical theology.

~To provide Biblical resources for those who desire to know God and His Word better.

~To glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, the Friend of sinners and the Savior of the lost.

What is a PARADOX?

A tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion, or seemingly absurd, yet true in fact.

Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828 Edition

"... it is synonymous with apparent contradiction. A 'paradox' thus amounts to a set of claims which taken in conjunction appear to be logically inconsistent. Note that according to this definition, paradoxicality does not entail logical inconsistency per se, but merely the appearance of logical inconsistency."

James Anderson, Paradox in Christian Theology

Wise Words . . .

"By advocating paradox I don't want to give the impression that I'm giving a carte blanche to not think philosophically, to not think deeply, about these doctrines. Quite the opposite. . . . My position is that with each of these doctrines we reflect on them as hard as we can, we penetrate them as best we can based on the Scriptural data that we do have, but we also recognize that there are going to be limits, and that those limits are actually a positive thing and not a reflection of some inherent problem in the doctrines or in the process of theological reflection. . . . I think we can make progress, we can make

considerable progress, in understanding these doctrines and resolving some of the . . . initial difficulties that we have with them, but at the same time recognizing that we're always only going to get so far and when we bump up against the limits of our capacity to formulate them in certain ways or to resolve certain difficulties in them, we

shouldn't be too concerned about that. We certainly shouldn't say, 'Okay, we need to admit that Christians are ultimately irrationalists.' No. We don't need to say that at all. . . . It's a Biblically constrained rationality. It's a middle way between rationalism, of which I think [Gordon H.] Clark was a representative, and irrationalism, of which, to take an example I think the Neo-Orthodox - Karl Barth - would be an example, where you're saying that there are actual contradictions in there. So I think it's navigating a Biblical middle way between these two extremes: having too high a view of the human intellect, and perhaps too low a view of the intellect, of our ability to know the things

of God."

~Dr. James Anderson

Theological Paradoxes

Below I have listed some of the classic theological paradoxes (and a few interesting ironies, too) . . .

~The Trinity - God is One being revealed in three distinct persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
~God is transcendent (separate from His creation) yet immanent (in His creation)
~Omnipresence - God is always present everywhere, yet He sometimes speaks of Himself as "present" in a special way
~The Incarnation - God became a man
~The Virgin Birth - A Jewish virgin gave birth to the Son of God
~The Two Natures of Christ - Jesus is fully (100%) God and fully (100%) man

~The Atonement is sufficient to save every person, but efficient only for those who believe
~God is completely sovereign (in control of everything, everywhere, all the time) yet He is not the author of sin and he uses human choice to accomplish His purposes
~Inspiration of Scripture - The Bible was written by sinful human beings yet it is the inerrant and flawless Word of God
~Divine Revelation - Sinful man cannot comprehend God, yet God reveals Himself to sinful man
~Sanctification - Christians are sinners by nature, but saints by grace
~Suffering - God brings His joy and comfort into our lives through our experiences of pain, disappointment and suffering

There are many others. Paradox is everywhere when we attempt to understand God's ways in a genuinely Biblical way.

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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Legalism: What it IS and What it ISN'T

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