Good Legalism?
~ Brett Larson
Just mention the word “legalism” in your church small group and you’ll see Christians in today’s church scatter like cockroaches when the lights go on. Nobody today wants to be accused of being “legalistic.” That is, focused on a bunch of rules and “have-to’s” in order to gain favor with God.
And, look, I know there’s no shortage of sermons on legalism for you to listen to, so I won’t bore you with the details, but let’s just think for a minute about a few steps beyond or deeper about when we put something in place of what God’s Word tells us to focus on.
Having been around the church a long time, I’ve seen my share of just about everything. I can remember some time ago there were many who claimed that the KJV was the only Bible version choice. It was God’s preserved copy of the English Bible, it was accurate, and some even said it was inspired as a translation. Well now, that bubble has burst. See the KJV was translated in medieval times with very limited source transcripts. Now, we have thousands dating much earlier and much more accurate and cohesive. We realize the KJV is pretty flawed, and is really not a good copy at all. Sure, in a general sense, it gets the job done, but in fact, good Bible scholars say to choose almost any other modern translation other than the KJV (and even worse the NKJV) for your Bible study!
So, to all those who put their legalistic eggs and Christian security in that KJV basket, what happened? Well, many of them had their faith rocked…or at least, look pretty silly. See, when we focus our calling (our legalistic demand) on something other than what Jesus commanded, we are building our houses on the sand, not the rock of what God has told us to do. First, our salvation, our righteousness, is in Christ alone…Jesus plus nothing. After that, dear Christian, legalism for a Christ follower is not entirely a bad thing… when it’s focused on the right thing. Allow me to explain. Christ, our Lord and Savior, commanded Christians to make disciples. He has commanded us to follow him, to live worthy of our calling. See those are legal commands, they are authoritative and they are expectations that he has placed on our lives. Where legalism in the Christian’s life fails, is when we make commands or law out of things that are outside of Christ’s calling on our lives as Christians.
So, be legalistic about our calling…to make disciples, to preach the gospel, to live out our faith…I don’t think anyone is going to have a problem with you being legalistic about love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness and the rest of our Christian identifiers. Be legalistic, just make sure it is about the right stuff! Salvation is through Christ alone. Then, live out Jesus’ commands and make more disciples.
