You might be surprised to learn what is the biggest threat to Christianity.
Despite what you might hear from some churches, It’s not gay people.
Despite what you might hear from some politicians pandering for votes, it’s not democrats (or republicans). Not Obama either!
Despite what you might hear from some preachers, it’s not Muslims.
Despite what you might hear from some men, it is not women preachers.
It’s not greed or gluttony. It’s not sports. It’s not Hollywood. It’s not Wall Street. It’s not Russia or China.
No, the biggest threat to Christianity is the one that is probably present in all of the lives and congregations which say the things above, and which Jesus primarily concerned Himself with during His ministry.
The biggest threat to Christianity.
I’ve written on this before, but I’m doing so again because legalism is such a threat that I am firmly convinced that if we had to choose between self-righteous religious legalism and committing sin, we should choose sin every time.
Why? Here are four reasons:
Legalism is the Worst Kind of Sin
It’s doesn’t look like sin! But at it’s core, legalism fosters pride, arrogance, judgmentalism, and self-righteousness.
So in other words, sin is better than legalism because at least sin admits it is sin. Legalism is still sin, but masquerades as righteousness. That makes legalism not only sin, but sinister as well.
Legalism is of the Devil
Literally. Satan is a legalist. We often think that Satan temps us to sin, but I think that sin is only “Plan B” with Satan.
Satan’s primary goal is to turn us into legalists. Rather than turn someone into an outright sinner, Satan would much prefer to have everyone think they are completely obedient to the Laws of God, and are here on earth to get others to obey God also.
Satan wants us to think that because of our obedience to the law of God, we are making God happy. That if we can just conform our lives to a set of rules and behaviors, then we are right with God.
If you gave Satan a choice between an army of religious legalists and an army of Satan-worshiping anarchists, Satan will choose the religious legalists every time. Religious legalists do more damage to the cause of Christ than any anarchist has ever done. Worse yet, religious legalists perform their evil in the name of God, which makes it infinitely more evil.
If you sin, and sin blatantly, at least you will recognize you have sinned, and can fall before God in repentance and confession. God would rather have this than self-righteous, devilish legalism.
Legalists are Far from the Kingdom
Jesus said that tax collects and prostitutes were closer to the Kingdom of God than were the legalistic religious leaders of His day.
The same thing is true today. So called “sinners” know something about themselves and about God which no legalist will ever understand. “Sinners” know that they are sinners and that if God loves and forgives them, it is not because of anything good or Godly in themselves, but is purely out of God’s grace.
Though legalists always pay lip service to grace, they don’t actually believe it. Though they may believe that they were originally saved by God’s love and grace, they believe that God’s continuing love and grace for them is based on their own personal godliness and holy lifestyle.
But since life in the Kingdom of God is based on understanding God’s love and grace, then people who think they are living in the Kingdom according to strict observance of law are not actually living within the Kingdom.
Again, those who the world considered “sinners” know that if they are to be accepted by God, they can depend on nothing but God’s unmerited grace. This is the position in which we should all approach God, but as long as a person thinks they are obeying God, they will never approach God begging for mercy and grace.
Yes, Jesus said that “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). But Jesus was not calling His followers to become more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees. He was saying that when it comes to personal righteousness, you have to be more perfect than the scribes and pharisees, which is impossible! Therefore, don’t even try! Fall upon the grace, mercy, and love of God instead.
Legalists Are Blind
The last reason sin is better than legalism is because no legalist ever believes they are a legalist. This is partly what makes this sin so insidious. While most sinners know they are sinners, no legalist ever recognizes their legalism.
Instead, they are “standing up for truth!”, “defending God’s righteousness!”, “calling on people to return to God!”, “living as salt and light!”, or some other such phrase. As such, they are blind to the true condition of their hearts, and believe themselves to be champions of the truth and defenders of the Gospel, but in reality, they are whitewashed tombs, the blind leading the blind.
In a strange turn of events, the sinner who can see God’s ways and God’s love and God’s forgiveness is better off than the legalist. The legalist, seeing only his own self-righteousness, thinks that in order to gain God’s love, everyone needs to be as righteous as he is. The sinner however, knows without a doubt that he can never attain that level of righteousness, and so despairs of ever achieving God’s love. They are left with beating on their chest and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” which is what God wants anyway (Luke 18:13).
So how can you know if you are a legalist? Tomorrow I will write about 10 Signs You Might be a Legalist.
I like! Keep it coming!
You have no idea how much I’ve thought about this in the past!
Glad to hear it! I don’t think I really have an original thought, but simply am able to write about similar things that God is teaching people all over the world.
I’m an African American Christian. You love preaching Jesus and the Fathers Love.
Excellent I found you again on google when I put in the phase leagalism is the devil. Then lo and behold Jeremy Myers came up! I listened to all your podcast on Gennisis in the past then I got a full time job. Recently I left a small great fellowship so my kids coud have a youth group. That’s what Megachurches do well. I had however to sit through the “Adult preaching” the Series which is more than Theee parts three weeks has concered “spiritual warfare”. Devil Demons Enemy Sin taro cards evil disney movies palm readers and all that stuf are the major sins. Not once has leagalism been addressed! Love has not been addressed as spiritual warfare. I think it spittual warfare is simply growing in love. But at this Megachurch spiritual warfare is very complicated. In fact love has meen mentioned mabey 3 or four times each message. I was keeping a tally.
Well brother I love you. Jesus has used you to grow my love thank you. You should do utube videos. You could help a lot of folks on Video!
Praise Jesus the free will giver!
Sin is unbelief in Jesus. Legalism defines unbelief as it is done in the flesh. Let’s rely on Jesus and His Life in us, and we won’t walk in legalism! 🙂
There are definitely an over abundance of legalists. However there are many obedient children who of course have sin. No disciple is without sin. But as loving children to a loving God we love to be obedient. Is that so hard to swallow. My daughters generally obey although not all the time. But I don’t push law at them. They obey because they love me. Are my daughters legalists?
Right. Obedience out of love is a proper response. But obedience to prove love or earn love is not. The legalist functions out of that second position, mostly because they do not believe that God loves them unconditionally no matter what. Hopefully your daughters know that about you!
It also goog to believe that not only does God love us, but that He is lovely and His commands are beautiful and lovely. Not greivous. Why would we hesitate to obey love unless we are oposed to love. God is love.
And I think it is more accurate to say they mostly obey because they believe I love them and more importantly Jesus loves them. This is motivation to trust. Which in turn empowers them to overcome sin in the knowledge of His overwhelming love. God is good and loving therefore His commands are good and loving.
A legalist by definition does not know God. He does not ultimately obey God anyway. But God’s law. There is a huge difference. Doomed to fail the best they can hope for is a self righteous veneer.
Excellent excellent insight!
Love is the only true motivation to obey. Legalism is a terrible motive.
Yes-our good friend Frank Viola has written & podcasted some great thoughts on this. I do appreciate your thoughts and insight. Many of your ideas (such as the baptism blogs) challenge me greatly even when I disagree. Needless to say, I find your blog helpful to ministry. Thanks
Thanks, Tony. Yes, Frank has been writing and speaking a lot about this recently. He has great thoughts on the subject.
I agree with the article of course but what concerns me also is that any standard is now considered legalism. If I say adultery is wrong, as stated in the Ten Commandments, there is a growing crowd that would call me a legalist. So the question is where does my honest attempt to follow Scripture cross into legalism?
Well said
I agree with you. Where does one draw the line as churches seem to be shying away from Biblical teaching and cozying up closer to changing modern social morays and norms to gain a greater acceptance of the masses. To become more politically correct, so to speak.
John,
I am not sure where that line is. It is tricky, isn’t it?
The difference in your example is yes, adultery is wrong for me. Legalism is judging and condemning another or discriminating against another because of your beliefs. This is not to say we cannot go to another and ask if they are OK or we noticed they seem troubled or we know about their adultery and is there anything we can do? That is empathy and love and is private. Legalism is public and self-righteous.
Kim,
Yeah, it is tricky to nail down. I think the issue is motivation. If a person is trying to prove that they love God or earn God’s love, they might tend toward legalism. We should obey God simply because we know that He loves us and gives us instructions for our own good.
It would say that doing one’s best to keep the highest standards of the Creator is not necessarily legalism. Where one’s honest attempt to follow scripture cross into legalism is when those standards are motivated by trying to be saved by them. Even low standards could be legalistic if you keep them to earn salvation. The highest standards are not legalism if the one striving for them realizes that they will never earn salvation.
When our standards become root instead of fruit, attempted cause rather than effect of salvation, motivated more by insecurity than love, then our honest attempts to obey become legalism.
If I go to exceeding lengths to serve my beloved parent, spouse, or friend, who could accuse me of being legalistic? How great does my expression of love get before it becomes legalistic? But what if I just go through the motions so that my parents keep me in their will, or to look good to others, and so forth.
The issue seems to be the motive and not the standard.
AMEN! Brother Jeremy. AMEN!
So absolutely right on. You’re speaking my language and God’s heart. Don’t quit. Legalism sucks in every way.
Thanks, Ed! So many people are trapped in legalism, thinking that this is how they prove they love God and earn God’s love for them. It is so sad. Thanks for doing your part as well to teach people about God’s love and grace.
Great point, Shawn!
Back in the 1980’s the problem with legalism was “personified” by what was called the “Heavy Shepherding” movement. It got so bad you couldn’t go on holiday without your pastor’s permission. Some of the “big names” of the day were into this. These leaders eventually rejected the concept as a violation of individual responsibility.
Sadly it seems to be gather momentum again and needs to be stamped out.
Jim
Yes, there are always power-hungry individuals who will try to control others. There are also people who prefer to be told what to do than to think for themselves. As you say, we need to teach and encourage people to learn from each other and follow Jesus by faith through the leading of the Holy Spirit.
When the Spirit leaves, legalism enters…
Yes, yes, yes!
This is a false dichotomy. Like any logical fallacy, there is a kernel -or maybe more than a kernel – of truth that is then distorted. However well intended, the fallacy turns the truth -that legalism is an insidious and dangerous sin which, like all sin, threatens both the body of Christ and it’s members – into a lie that permits choosing one sin over another. I don’t recall Jesus ever suggesting or condoning such a choice, and neither should we. This point of view pits sin against sin, where the Bible pits the righteousness of Christ, which is ours by faith, against sin.
Having said that, I do applaud the author’s taking on legalism. Particularly where I live, that sin is rarely recognized or discussed.
If the world remains in its rebellion, holding on tight to independence from God, won’t in the end it be somewhat irrelevant how they behave? Any attempt to make them behave apart from God is futile. However, for those reconciled to God the call has always been to obey, patterned from the Old Testament right into the New. Jesus equates it to loving Him. (John 14:15, 21-24) John tells us it’s how we know we are in Him. (1John 2:3-6) This type of obedience is not like the legalism you describe. It’s not an attempt to obligate God (Romans 4:4) or to somehow justify ourselves apart from God (Romans 9:32), but one motivated out of our love for Him. By the way Jeremy, I always love your posts. Great food for thought.
Great input, Marc. Thanks for the encouragement as well.
Mark, So very true.
The legalists I have known, and there have been many, have fallen into three groups, groups which tend to overlap. In the first group are those who grew up (either physically or spiritually or both) in a legalistic church and were taught that way. Many of those people eventually reject that tradition, but some hold to it. In the second group are those who generally feel their own life is out of control. They feel the need to get it under control and find religious legalism an effective mechanism to accomplish that. In the third group are those who wish to control the lives of others, and they too find religious legalism an effective mechanism to accomplish their goal.
How well I remember the “sugar lady”. Her life was out of control. Her marriage was out of control. Her kids were out of control. She read a book written by a Christian about the evils of sugar. As you might suspect, the writer found numerous Bible verses which proved that sugar is very near to the root of all evil. “Sugar lady” tried to get her life under control by eliminating sugar from her family’s diet, then proceeded to preach her sugarless gospel to everyone she knew, especially in our church. “Sugar lady” was very critical of and judgmental of any and all who partook of that wicked sugar.
Anger, judgmentalism, pride, arrogance, self-righteousness and more surfaced in sugar lady’s life, none of which fixed her underlying issues. But she did feel she had some part of her dysfunctional life under control.
Followers of Jesus are far from perfect, but legalism isn’t the fix for that. It doesn’t work. Love, peace, kindness and more flow out of our life in Christ, not from following a list of rules. That is not to say that it appears to work this way in the life of everyone who follows Jesus. I think of all of us as a “work in progress”, and we’re not all at the same stage in that work. Rule keepers can be some of the angriest, nastiest, most unloving people on the face of the earth. The so much does not look like Jesus.
Those are good classifications of groups of legalists. I agree with you. As you say, we are all far from perfect! I have many mistakes, and fall into various forms of legalism all the time. Thankfully, there is grace for all of us. I think that we can move away from legalism as we do what you say there, and try to look more like Jesus.
The command is to love God and our neighbor with every fiber of our being. Jesus fulfilled all the law and the prophets. Jesus lives in us by His Spirit.
The Church elders have a real problem with this as it means They are not in control, God is. They, the elders appear to have a need to control and manipulate people by putting the law on all we think and do. The Old testament was attempting to explain to us thicko’s what love was all about as he tried to ween us off our pagan life styles. We who are in a state of Grace can look back and see how blessed we are as we didn’t have to go through all that pain as our forefathers did.
It would appear the leaders of the Churches want to be old testament kings. Even our past royal family in the UK used to think they could do anything including the Roman Catholic Church.
Is there any hope for the Church today?
I love The Church since God saved me 34 years ago. I hate what many in The Church are doing to it. I rage I weep when new people are talked to as if they knew everything there is to know about Church. I see no compassion for the weak and inflexibility for those do not agree with the party line. Did Jesus say “agree with me or else” no, He said “follow me”.
“Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my Yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my Yoke is easy, and my burden light”
Matthew 11 v 28 to 30.
That’s his call unto all that would follow Him, are there any commands there. Is there anywhere that Jesus manipulated anyone.
Come on Church. Clive.
Great comment, Clive.
I really like what you say about some leaders wanting to be Old Testament kings. That is a great insight, and I think you are exactly right. I have heard many a sermon about pastoral authority and leadership based on thing we read about King David and King Solomon.
Well said! I have discovered in my life that the sin of self-righteousness is the toughest spiritual blindness to overcome. I should know, I’ve been there. Thank God for his mercy and grace that opens the eyes of the blind. Legalism obscures the infinite love of God. Legalism twists us up in knots and causes us to be gossips and mean, hateful people. What brought me out of this was someone persistently preaching Jesus Christ and His love. Thank you for posting this.
We are saved by grace through faith lest and not of works lest any man should boast. Because of faith in Christ we are saved and able to produce fruit by the holy spirit. Any fruit that doesnt produce fruit is cast down and thrown into fire. I do good works because im saved not inorder to be saved. The Bible does talk a lot about living righteously and producing fruit. But of course not if your a ccm worship team church thats worldly wouldnt preach on hell
What a bunch anti-scriptural dribble. Have you even read your own stuff? Yes, we are suppose to focus our eyes on Jesus, but our lives to. There were statements against legalists that call themselves “Standing Up to the Truth”. These are Godly actions, and your penalizing them for that? What a hypocrite. We are demanded by God throughout the Bible to walk, talk, act, speak, think, and live our live that is a glorification of God. This post can be a good idea, but the message is contradictory to the Word of God. You cannot glorify Christ with the judgments of people who want to be more Godly, in essence, being more like Christ who is God.
It is a bit difficult to read dribble. Usually it comes out of a faucet.
Legalism is not people’s attempt to be more godly, but is the human attempt to be more self-righteous, which is the opposite of godliness, and therefore, is the worst kind of sin.
At a bible study last night someone was talking about how ‘gay people are sick’. The problem is we are ALL sick (Rom 3:23). In the small group talking about it I know some bash their husbands in public some gossip some have lustful thoughts, some greed.
The scribe, Sadducees and pharisees were all legalistic – both in the moral and civil law. They felt justified before God by what they did. Christ blew that away.
Truth IN Love. One without the other and its best to remain silent.
Good post Jeremy
Let’ all stay sick together. Let’s never judge. What a terrible choice, and an unrealistic one at that. Sin or legalism!? The wages of Sin is death. Legalism is simply another type of sin. Pick any sin and then create a choice between it and…well sin. It is a reason the church is in such upheaval. It can’t come to grips with anything being a sin. Christ’s response to the sinners was ‘go and sin no more,’ not ‘now be less legalistic.’
Sin is portrayed as spiritual leprosy, a spiritual disease that needs a Great Physician to heal and restore to wholeness. So lets not stay sick but seek health.
Let us use discernment to judge right and wrong but not to judge (condemn) each other so that we not be judged.
The sinless man was the only one qualified to cast the first stone and yet he showed compassion.
Jesus said Go and sin no more. you admit that legalism is sin, therefore legalism could be included in his admonition.
Thank you,