Legalism is Dangerous!

“R-rated movies are of the devil.” “Drinking alcohol will give you a first-class ticket to hell.” “Christian rock is from satan.” "NEVER say damn, but dang is just fine."

My emotions towards such sayings can be best summed up in the following: Blechhh.

Before I say more I would like to preface this with saying that I in no way claim to be perfect, and my heart is dirtier than anyone on this planet will ever know, and my motives are sick too. I am by no means claiming to “have it down”, but I have thought about this subject a lot recently and would like to share what I believe the Bible says about it. I know that I come across as a little goodie-two-shoes and that is so offensive to me…but please listen to what I’m going to say before making a rash judgment. I’m not judging you and I don’t want you to judge me either.

An epidemic that I see raging rampantly throughout America is a severe case of legalism. For this Note I will define legalism as “the judging of conduct in terms of adherence to precise laws”…or in other words, a legalistic person would have the mindset of “you’re a bad person if you approve of the things I don’t approve of.” It is very dangerous to give certain people control of what’s good or bad, because I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but humans are stupid, so if some person is set up as the standard for “how to live right”, we’re in trouble.

Here is what our standard for living righteously should be: Jesus Christ.

Hmm. Since Jesus was perfect and we certainly are not (Romans 3:23), that makes it difficult to meet the standard that He has set before us. So some loud-mouthed elders in your church might change the standard for how to live to what they think is okay. Usually in legalistic surroundings, people either follow and are careful to abide by those rules as long as it's comfortable for them (“it’s definitely not okay to watch R-rated movies, but PG-13 is fine as long as there isn’t nudity”) or they give up on trying to be like Jesus altogether and do their own thing.

But instead of asking “Is this a sin?” or “Would this be considered okay?” I think we need to forget everything we’ve been taught all our lives and consider our motives for living “morally.”

Jesus did not come into this world to condemn us, but to save us. And that He did. So I want to ask you (“you” being the redeemed, if you have surrendered your life to Him.) …what did He save us from? Once you think back to the cross and what He did for us there, maybe your thoughts on “how to live” will change:

1.Jesus saves us from hell. I am not going to say what the Bible says hell contains (I want you to research the gruesome details for yourself) but I will say that it’s worse than our little human brains can imagine. So why do we pursue things that glorify such a hell?
2. Jesus saves us from satan’s control. Colossians 1 talks about how He rescued us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So why do we pursue things that glorify such a jerk as satan? (I could have used stronger language here but some parents might not like it.)
3. Jesus saves us from separation from the Father. Since God is perfect and we are not, He hates to see sin so much that He hates to see us. Actually, He would hate to see us if One that He loved hadn’t died in our place…So now we can commune with the holy God because His holy Son died in the place of unholy us! Do you realize how much He hates sin? It took Adam and Eve one sin to get kicked out of the Garden. That’s serious business. So why do we pursue things that glorify what God hates?
4. Jesus saves us from sin. Romans 6 talks a lot about how we used to be dead in sin, but since Jesus gave us life we are now dead to sin. “’O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57.) Sin doesn’t have power over us anymore; Jesus beat it once and for all when He rose from the grave. We still sin, yes, but it does not have power over us like it used to, and we must realize this victory that we have in Jesus! Never call yourself a sinner; Jesus has changed your identity!So why do we pursue things that no longer have power over us?
5. Jesus saves us from a boring life. Something that we don’t get taught in church very often is that God created us to enjoy Him. God knows all of our needs (He gave them to us from birth!) and He made us to long for love, adventure, wonder, and excitement…so that we would seek Him to fulfill them all! Is He not the giver of every good thing? The reason I don’t really pursue “entertainment” (TV, movies, etc.) anymore is because I don’t need it…the God who created the whole universe is quite “entertaining” enough. If you're seeking the LORD, you're not missing out on anything. So why do we get bored!?

After thinking about all that was accomplished on the cross, I feel empowered more than limited. I have been freed from sin, so why would I want any traces of it still on me? Romans 1:32 puts those who approve of sin in the same category as idolaters and murderers and adulterers. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.” Most people at my school aren’t having sex, but pretty much everyone sees no problem with joking about it. “That’s what she said” and “ITB” are all over the place…but Jesus died for premarital sex! He doesn’t want to hear us joking about something that He died for! How serious is His death to us?How precious is His blood?

Jesus died!

Have you ever really thought about that?

He DIED.

For us!

For undeserving little wimps who daily choose the empty temporal fleeting worldly pleasures over the only truly satisfying source of delight out there…Himself.

Have you thought about that today? Do you think about that every day? I promise that if you truly consider His precious blood, you won’t want to chase after the very things that His blood was shed for.

I'll close with this verse:
James 1:16 "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." When I get to Heaven, I don't want to be able to say that I used my time on earth to "go to church every Sunday and I never drank a sip of wine!" (That's legalism in case you didn't catch that.) I want to be as unstained from this yucky world as much I can, so that God will be pleased with my purity...I want Him to say "Well done, you loved Me and you loved others, and that was all that mattered to you." Is there no higher calling than following Him daily??

So, friends, I plead with you…stop listening to people who preach morals apart from the Gospel. If you want to know what’s right or wrong, consider the cross. The Holy Spirit (the same one that raised Christ from the dead!) now resides in us. No longer are our souls crying out for freedom from slavery, but rather they are crying out praises to the Father. (Romans 8:15) Do you want to grieve that Spirit inside of you? Flee from morals detached from the Gospel. Stop looking for loopholes in the law and start thinking about what would make God happy…because His opinion is all that matters.

Check out the words to this song: Make War