« Don’t Think Too Highly of Yourselves | Main | Word or Works? Reward or Reverence? »
So - Am I A Legalist?
By Brian | May 27, 2008
‘ve been thinking about legalism - what is it, what does it mean, and am I a legalist? I guess to start it’s worth handing out a definition of what I think legalism is and the effect that it has on a believer. In my humble opinion, legalism restricts a believer to attempt to follow all constraints listed in the Bible without fail. Failure, in turn, inhibits the legalist as they have a tendency to determine the strength of their relationship with the Lord, their standing if you will, by their works. This eliminates the beauty of Grace[a] in the heart of the legalist and is an incredible loss.
So I’m not a legalist but do I go to far the other way? Am I a spiritist? OK, so I’ve coined a new term: spiritist. I consider a spiritist someone that consistently believes that they are led by the Holy Spirit in everything they do, going so far as to ignore the Word to follow the Spirit. This is also a very disruptive situation for the spiritist as they can justify any action they make as “following the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is a real and incredible, awesome thing[b]. It’s manifestation in the believer brings gifts of all sorts[c]. The Lord, though, never contradicts himself. At best, if the Spirit leads us in a direction that is not justified in the Word than we are not being led by the Holy Ghost[d][h].
Where does this lead? Well, as Christians we are expected to follow the Word[e][f]. Will we all the time? Absolutely not! We are human and absolutely not perfect. Are there repercussions for not following the Word? There certainly are. Sin is sin and always leads to unpleasant consequences. Is our relationship with the Lord affected by not following the Word? Yes, it is. It absolutely is until we repent of our sin[g]. Can we do what we want to do, ignore the Bible, and pretend we’re special Christians operating under different rules? Yes, we can do that too. We can even pretend it’s the Lord leading us away from the Truth of the Word. We can certainly do that, but until we repent of it, our relationship with Jesus Christ is affected. We’re still saved, He still loves us, but we’re certainly not living up to our potential relationship with Him.
We’ve all heard the stories of extremes. Legalists starving to death waiting for the Lord to provide. Murderers insistent that “The Lord made me do it.” While this is obviously extreme every path is followed by small steps. One small indiscretion makes the next bigger indiscretion that much more acceptable. Before we know it we are believing things that would never have made sense in the beginning.
Brothers and sisters rejoice! The Spirit of the Living God is there to temper the Word with wisdom, but He instructs us to test the spirits[h]. The fruit of the spirit may always be tested against the Word. He never contradicts Himself, ever.
Footnotes:
a) Romans 5:2
b) Romans 8:16
c) 1 Corinthians 12:7-11
d) 2 Timothy 2:13
e) John 1:1
f) Deuteronomy 13:4
g) Isaiah 59:1-2
h) 1 John 4:1-6
Topics: Corinthians, Hebrews, Legalism |