March 16, 2013|2:53 pm
Legalists are tricky
creatures. They slither in the side doors of churches, sign up to lead Bible studies
and fill the minds of once joyous believers with rules and requirements of what
it "really means" to become a Christian. Ask them how a person is
saved and they'll say, "By grace of course" and then they'll roll out
a scroll across the floor full of checklists to prove your salvation and
prerequisites you must abide by in order to receive this "free gift"
of grace.
The Apostle Paul had
strong words for the legalists of his time. These legalistic Judaizers wanted
the Gentiles to accept God's grace through faith but be required to get
circumcised and to keep the law of Moses as well. Paul bluntly wrote about them
in Galatians 5:12, "As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole
way and emasculate themselves!"
Wow.
Today nobody (as far as
I know) is seeking to add circumcision to the free gift of God's grace as a
requirement for salvation. No, currently, a far more subtle and sinister
movement is creeping into the church. 21st Century Pharisees have replaced
circumcision and keeping of the law with a more accepted evangelicalized list
of do's and don'ts. These pious sounding party poopers are getting Christians
to doubt their salvation, get discouraged in their salvation and trying to
prove, keep and/or earn their salvation. They are robbing believers of the joy
that was once theirs in Christ and replacing it with the heavy yoke of legalism
(Acts 15:5-11.)
With this in mind here
are 10 ways to spot a legalist in your church:
1) They cheapen grace by
focusing on what we must do rather than on what Christ has done.
2) They'll say
non-sensical things like, "Salvation is free but it will cost you
everything you have."
3) They are "fruit
inspectors" and hypothesize how much spiritual fruit a person must produce
in order to truly be saved.
4) They focus on things
like turning, trying and crying instead of faith alone in Christ alone for
salvation.
5) Their
"gospel" could never be falsely accused of being a license to sin
(like Paul's was in Romans 3:8!)
6) They scare others
with assertions that, if you preach too much grace, people will run amok.
7) They conveniently
avoid or mis-exegete large portions of gospel-centric New Testament books like
Galatians, Romans and John.
8) They blend
justification passages with sanctification passages and then try to get us to
drink a heresy smoothie.
9) They bake the same
works-based righteousness cake that Mormons and Muslims do but cover it with
evangelical frosting.
10) They use the phrase,
"You mean to tell me…" a lot. Then they create worst case salvation
scenarios of those who claim to be Christians but abuse the grace of God.
"You mean to tell me that someone can be saved and still….?"
But grace that cannot be
abused is no grace at all. Grace that is not free is no grace at all. Grace
that is not received by simple faith is no grace at all.
I like the way Paul put
it in Romans 11:6, "And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if
it were, grace would no longer be grace." It's either by grace or by
works. It can't be by both.
But here's the crazy
thing about grace, once you receive it through faith it begins to transform
you. Jesus changes your "wanter" and you become a new creation. Sure
we can abuse it and, if we're honest, often do. But when we let grace do it's
work it "teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and
to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age"
(Titus 2:12.) God's grace is not a license to sin but a reason to serve Jesus
with reckless abandon…not because we have to, but because we get to.
If we resist, he
persists.
If we fail, he forgives.
If we lose our faith, he
remains faithful (2 Timothy 2:13.)
That makes me want to
serve Him all the more. Sorry legalists, but grace is a better fuel. As for you
agitators, I wish you would go the whole way and…cut it out.
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