Do you know legalism when you see it? (Part 2)

The reason I did this post in two parts from the out set is that there are two aspects to legalism. The one we touched on yesterday is the hypocrisy of self-righteousness. This form of legalism can creep into a Christian's life through the pride of the flesh. The second form of legalism has to do with salvation and can literally corrupt it and keep one from truly knowing Jesus. Because this second form can condemn people to an eternity under the wrath of God it is important to be able to distinguish it.
What is it? This form of legalism is like the legalistic righteousness of the Pharisees. It is external in its form and lacks any internal structure. A passage that comes to mind is Luke 11:42. Here Jesus affirms that tithing their spices was right but out of balance. Jesus is addressing their legalism He is pointing out that their physical actions are not sufficient to earn them salvation. It comes back to the focus of the heart. In the case of the Pharisee their heart was looking for the adoration of men. They did their deeds for the people but clearly thought that jumping through external hoops was their ticket to paradise. This is no different than any of the man-focused works-based divisions of Christianity today. The people caught up in these sects do things in order to be right with God. They might say a certain number of hail Marys or go to confession. They might be found knocking on your door putting in time as part of their required good works. You will find these people doing lots of good things. Often they do more good things than the people who are truly following Christ (which is tragic). But the problem they have is found in their dependence upon their actions to be part of their justification before God. We are justified before God because of the work of Christ on the cross alone. When we add any work to that dependence on Christ alone it no longer remains a dependence on Christ alone. By making a frail human work part of the requirement of salvation we make salvation ultimately dependent upon the work of man. If salvation depends on man in any way there is no longer any assurance of salvation available. You can never be sure in this case because what you are depending on may change because it is rooted in man and man is ultimately mutable (changeable). The other problem with this is it places a love for man's ability alongside of a love for God's ability. This is placing a love for man's ability on par with God, which is pure idolatry. It is idolatry to divide a hearts affection. No man can serve to masters (Matthew 6:24). We must realize that the appeal to include a dependence on something within man is spoken of in the Bible. Repeatedly the Biblical authors point out that the heart of man is corrupt (Genesis 6:5, Psalm 14:1, Hebrews 3:12). We must realize that what we view about salvation must be shaped by scripture alone. When God and a desire for Him grips your heart you will see only Him as being the author and finisher of your faith. This heart for God would want to do all that it can to embrace with all energy the relationship with God. At the same time this heart will realize that the only reason it does these things is because of the work of God in it. Even John Wesley acknowledged this truth. In an interview with Charles Simeon when asked if he depended on an works in addition to Christ he said, "No, I must be saved by Christ from first to last." (Entire interview can be found here). It is with full confidence in the reforming power of the Holy Spirit to shape our hearts that I say the God focused heart will see Christ as the only means by which we are saved. Don't allow legalistic righteousness to fool you. Press on with friends depending on legalistic righteousness (Matthew 23:15). They need desperately to come to depend on Christ alone.

Do you know legalism when you see it? (Part 1)

I have been accused of legalism often. Why? Because I seek to drive the speed limit. As far as I can tell there are three reasons that you could drive the speed limit.

1. You could drive the speed limit because you feel it is your duty as a Christian to do this. This would not make you any different then any other religion that places man made restraints on its followers. Obedience out of duty is ultimately cold and does not engage the heart.
2. You could drive the speed limit because you feel more spiritual if you do. In order to do this you are judging yourself as better than those that are passing you on the freeway. This would make you no better than the Pharisees of Jesus day. Are you more spiritual because you followed the speed limit? You might be but not if you think that you are. Because if you are doing it to be more spiritual you have just adopted legalistic righteousness as your guide.
3. You could drive the speed limit for the sake of bringing your heart into submission to the authority over you recognizing that Jesus is the ultimate authority. It is Jesus that has given the state its authority and as long as there is no conflict with my calling in scripture then I should submit to them. This only works if we recognize our fallen sinful state and are using this as a means of practicing bringing our flesh under the authority of Christ. In this case the action does not make us more spiritual. The action points out in practice the ultimate authority that we are seeking to know better, namely Jesus. This only remains free of legalism as long as I don't start judging others for not doing what I do. Why? Because this is clearly not stated explicitly in the Bible.

This is similar to Paul confronting Peter about refusing to eat with gentiles (Galatians 2:12-14). This was an issue of hypocrisy. Peter and Paul were wrestling with the issue of true Biblical righteousness and Peter was becoming legalistic. Making judgments based on his actions.

It seems in this case that legalism there and even now can be when we see ourselves as more pleasing to God because of something we do or don't do. Anytime our eyes are focused horizontally (i.e. man) instead of vertically (i.e. Jesus) we run the risk of becoming legalistic. I have an acquaintance out here that heard me speak on tithing and afterward confronted me about legalism. He said that there is no requirement to tithe. While I agree that there is no verbatim (and said as much in my talk) the bigger issue for me is that, if the people under the old covenant which had not seen the completed pouring out of God's grace could tithe then why would I who has witnessed the full impact of God's amazing grace not want to tithe (See my blog post on tithing from 8-9-10). This particular acquaintance has gone on to say that not only do we not need to tithe because of grace but that to tithe (even out of a joyful and grateful heart) is sin. He also told me that asking God to forgive our sins after our initial salvation is a lack of faith in God's completeness of forgiveness granted on the cross and thus to ask for forgiveness of sins is sin. So this acquaintance has separated himself from other believers like myself that simply want a vibrant relationship with God. We want it so much, that we take our sins before His throne and seek His forgiveness and help in eradicating them from our lives so that we might know Him better. This kind of demand where grace is used as a club to condemn the actions of fellow Christians is a form of legalism. In this case he sees himself as more right in God's eyes then me and so he condemns me and separates himself from me (and from a whole host of other Christians I might add). Can tithing become legalistic? Absolutely! Almost anything can. Helping the poor, wearing certain clothes, even evangelism can all become legalistic if the focus of our heart is not right. If we are doing it for appearance sake (i.e. being a man pleaser) then it is probably legalistic. There is only one person that we should care about ultimately pleasing and that is Jesus. The reason for doing things to please Him is simple. We do what we do for the sake of the love that He has placed in our hearts. It is the relationship with God that drives us to live a life that reflects a love for the things that He loves.

On cleaning cups

One of my favorite illustrations that Jesus used with the Pharisees is the cleaning of the cup. The story I am thinking about takes place in Luke 11:37-39. A Pharisee invites Jesus to come and eat with him. Then the Pharisee is surprised to see that Jesus did not wash his hands before he ate. (My kids would like that.) Apparently the Pharisee is being judgmental of Jesus. It seems like this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Jesus tells the Pharisee that they are so careful about these ceremonial things and doing all the things that are right on the outside but inside they are full of greed and wickedness. How does this happen? Someone does all these good things but they are corrupt. Jesus' metaphor of cleaning the outside of the cup is great. You can hold a cup upside down under a stream of water and clean the outside without touching the inside. The cup might look good but it is as filthy in the end as it was before it got the outside shine. If you take that cup and try to clean the inside first you will find it quite difficult to have a filthy outside. Why? Because your hands get wet and the outside starts coming clean while you clean the inside. This is like us. You see if we have a horizontal focus (i.e. our eyes are on men). We will have a tendency to begin to measure our own righteousness by comparison to others. There is nothing driving us to rightness on the inside. Everything becomes about appearances. Judgmentalism begins to set in. We work harder at the look and things get worse on the inside. The best thing we can do if we struggle in this area is to really begin to focus on Jesus. If we look to Him our heart's wickedness will be revealed in the light of His mercy and grace. It is in His light of acceptance that we will find cleansing. As Jesus brings about cleansing on the inside the outside will naturally follow. Luke 6:45 says, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” If we focus on living a God focused life our hearts will have an abundance of good treasure.