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The gospel is equal parts liberating and offensive. When we realize the depths of our own sin, we find freedom in Christ offering the gift of salvation, free of any requirements on our part. However, that same gift rubs violently against our pride, rendering us incapable of fathoming we can do nothing to save ourselves, nor even lend a helping hand in God saving us. Yet if we realize how far we fall below God’s standards, why is it so tempting to keep trying to earn our righteousness?
What is legalism?
Over time, legalism has become a bit of a nebulous concept. Today, it seems almost any desire to be holy can be countered with an accusation of legalism. Definitions may differ, but today we’re defining “legalism” as an attempt to earn righteousness, or God’s favor, through our actions. This can take on numerous forms, with the most common being:
- adding requirements to earning/keeping salvation
- creating new rules or laws to Christianity
- following God’s commands with the intent of earning something, rather than doing things God loves because we love Him
This definition is fairly wide because it would take an entire article to really tackle legalism, but this should give us a good foundation for discussing why legalism, adding rules in place of enjoying freedom through Christ, is so appealing.
#1 Legalism reflects our ideals
In the West, we value our ability to earn what we want and deserve what we earn. Look at the various quotes people put on social media and it’s not hard to notice a trend.
- Believe in yourself
- Be kind, fair, giving, understanding
- You aren’t like everyone else
- Reach for success
The quotes may differ, but the message is always the same: self-empowerment is the key to happiness. Everyone believes they deserve good things, whether it’s success, love, or personal worth. However, everyone also knows we need to do something to earn it.
So when we take our self-empowerment culture and introduce it to the gospel, friction is a necessary result. We see the problem of our own depravity, and we find our desire to escape God’s wrath against that depravity. Perhaps we even hate how our sin has separated us from God, and we want that relationship mended. Everything is fine until we seek to resolve those issues.
…because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:19)
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
The Bible is clear that we can’t earn our salvation. Yet so much of our mindset is based around us having to do something to earn something. When presented with the free gift of salvation and our inablity to be made God’s enemy again after Christ paid our debt, we bristle.
“Sure it can’t be that easy. I must have to do something, right?”
And the answer to that is the most uncomfortable answer we can imagine. No. We have no goodness within us that could possibly earn salvation. Likewise, it’s logically impossible for us to do enough good to keep our salvation. After all, the very idea of doing good to enter Heaven is, in fact, rooted in selfishness and self-preservation, not reverence for a holy God.
Despite our need to earn everything else in life, the most important thing in the world comes with no strings attached because that’s the only way we could ever acquire it.
#2 It feeds our pride
Jesus tells us a parable that gets to the heart of legalism.
Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14, NLT)
In this parable, Christ is showing two men. One is a religious leader, a holy man who would be held in high esteem among the Jews. The other was a tax collector, an agent of the Roman empire and utterly despised by everyone.
The Pharisee was filled with self-righteousness, looking at his good works and religious lifestyle as his means of justification before God. He’s more than happy to let God know why he’s so much better than this pox on society, boasting about his good works and reminding himself that his works have put him in a different category than sinners.
The tax collector was overwhelmed with humility before God. We see no indication that his actions were motivated by a desire to look good before God and others. We see he was sorrowful over his sin, crying out to God as a natural consequence of seeing his wretchedness when compared to a holy God.
Yet the Pharisee’s actions were of no concern to God. The one whose actions were motivated by love were praised, while the one whose actions were motivated by his own pride was condemned.
Here we see the chasm of difference between serving God out of love and using God to make ourselves feel more upright. It’s very easy to feel superior to others. Even if we don’t say it to others, we will silently compare our works to others, completely heedless of how such sinister thinking more accurately reflects our hearts than our works ever could.
- I don’t watch Game of Thrones like those porn-lovers
- I read my Bible every day, how can they struggle to do it once a week?
- I tithe over 10% because I trust God more than others
- My church doesn’t dress all stuffy like those legalistic churches (please note the irony)
In the end, many of us love upholding rules and living lives of sacrifice because it makes us feel good. Like Eastern religions who starve themselves to achieve spirituality, we are willing to live lives of inconvenience and self-denial because we feel superior to those who don’t.
One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. (Romans 14:5)
Let us make no mistake: God doesn’t care what we do. He cares about our motivations for doing it. Do we do it for our glory, or His?
#3 It lets our actions replace our hearts
Our motivations for legalism may differ, but the great danger of it is the same for all of us. If we break it down, legalism is little more than a series of boxes and checkmarks. We create an exhausting list of “do this, don’t do that,” and if we stick to that, we feel right before God.
- Don’t watch certain shows and movies
- Read your Bible
- Don’t use certain versions of the Bible
- Pray
- Don’t use profanity
- Give money to the church
- Don’t work on Sunday
- Listen to Christian music
- Don’t wear jeans to church (or don’t wear a suit to church)
- Leave Bible tracts at a restaurant
- Don’t reveal too much skin
- Obey parents
- Don’t get a tattoo
- Go to church every week
- Don’t give money to liberal businesses
- Vote Republican
We assign a good deal of merit to these things, and as long as we satisfy them, we assume we’re right with God. Likewise, we tend to question the godliness of those who don’t, perhaps even doubting their very salvation.
But that shows us the greatest danger of legalism. If our primary focus is on what we do, there’s very little need to inspect our heart. We let our actions stand as our justification before God, heedless of the heart behind them. Yet Christ finds nothing but sorrow when we think that way.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. (Matthew 23:27)
If any part of our faith is focused on how we look, to others or to God, we’ve completely missed the point. We have no need to worry about our hearts when we’re so busy making sure our actions are just so. We can safely ignore our hearts because we’re distracted by our actions.
And that, I think, is the greatest thing about legalism. Our hearts are horrible things, completely out of control and requiring pure reliance on God to keep us from straying. It requires a hatred of those things that promise us so much joy and happiness. We must kill our sin daily, pursuing God in a sin-drenched world that encourages us to make ourselves our own gods.
If sin is a cancer, legalism isn’t the cure. It merely hides the symptoms. It lets us ignore the reality of our wretchedness by suppressing its clear manifestations. It lets us hide our filth under a mask of purity and righteousness. We prioritize looking good to others at the expense of our own souls.
What are we to do?
Surprisingly, the remedy for legalism isn’t “abandon all rules.” That’s called antinomianism, and it swings just as dangerously in the other direction.
Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
When Christ rescued us from the requirements of the law, He didn’t set us free to live however we wanted. In fact, He freed us from a life that was already spent pursuing every desire we wanted. Now we can live a life that was previously impossible: one spent loving God and living a life that pleases Him.
Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. (James 2:17)
Loving God is marked by a life of works. Yet we just hammered against legalism’s root of self-righteousness and pride, so how can that possibly make sense? Because true faith in God will naturally produce works.
Whatever we do begins in our hearts. If we want to earn favor or feel better about ourselves, we may read our Bible and pray. If we want to spend time with the God we love and adore, we may read our Bible and pray. Both hearts produce the same action, yet God hates one and loves the other. The actions have little importance because it’s the motivation that matters.
The solution to legalism, like any sin, begins in the heart. It demands humility and repentance. We must see that outwardly-good actions are being produced by a filthy heart. We need to hate that heart and the false righteousness it produces.
We aren’t righteous on our own. We aren’t even good. It’s only through the blood of Christ that God can look at us as though we lived Christ’s perfect life. When we put legalistic requirements on ourselves and others, we remove the power and necessity of Christ. We elevate ourselves, dangerously assuming we have the capacity to please God on our own.
God doesn’t care about our actions. He wants our hearts first, because a heart that loves Him will naturally produce works that glorify Him. He doesn’t’ need us to act righteous, He wants us to love Him so that He can produce righteousness in us. Without Christ, any “good” thing we produce will be utterly worthless. Thus the solution to legalism isn’t less rules, but more Christ.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. (John 15:4)
