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4 Reasons Sin is Better than Legalism

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legalism

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

legalismIt’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.

legalismYes, 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.

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You may think God hasn’t forgiven you for that sin. But you’d be wrong. Here’s why…

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Forgiven and forgivenessLots of people have some some of secret sin in their past (or in their present life) which they think is so bad, God could never forgive them.

Well, they’re wrong.

If you think you have committed a sin which God cannot forgive, let me tell you…. God has already forgiven you for this sin.

And yet He still wants you to confess and repent of this sin. Why? So He can forgive you.

Confused yet? That’s because there are lots of confusing statements in the Bible about forgiveness.

On the one hand, forgiveness seems unconditional and free (Col 2:13).

However, there are other verses which seem to say that we will not be forgiven unless we confess or repent of our sins (1 John 1:9).

A few passages indicate that we can lose forgiveness simply by not showing forgiveness to others (Matt 6:15). So does this mean that even if you confess our sin, we may not be forgiven of it if we fail to forgive others?

Then, there is apparently a sin which will never be forgiven, no matter what (Matt 12:31-32).

And of course, there are the confusing verses which seem to indicate that certain human beings have a special power or ability to forgive others (cf. John 20:23).

Finally, there is the issue of what forgiveness actually accomplishes. Many believe that in order to go to heaven, we must be forgiven of all our sins. Therefor, if any of our sins remain unforgiven due to one of the conditions of forgiveness listed above, does this mean we end up in hell?

I cannot begin to address all these texts in this post, and even if I did, there would be dozens of other similar passages which would demand explanation as well.

So instead of trying to explain every verse about forgiveness, let me try to briefly summarize what the Bible says about forgiveness and why there is so much confusion surrounding this concept in the church today.

What the Bible Says about Forgiveness

One of the biggest reasons there is so much confusion about forgiveness is that there are three Greek words used in the New Testament for forgiveness, but they often (though not consistently) get translated as “forgiveness” into English. For my own study of Scripture, it often helps to know what kind of forgiveness is in view.

Charizomai Forgiveness

The first kind of forgiveness is charizomai. It is what I think of as “God’s unconditional forgiveness.” This makes sense, because it is based on the word charis, which means “grace.”

Charizomai refers to the removal of guilt, but not necessarily the removal of consequences. Charizomai is God’s free pardon (cf. 2 Cor 2:7, 10; Col 2:13). As such, charizomai is offered freely, to all, with absolutely no conditions.

we are forgiven all our sins

This kind of forgiveness is a free gift of God to every single person on earth, emanating purely from God’s love and grace. In this way, you have been forgiven of every sin, no matter what.

Aphesis Forgiveness

The second kind of forgiveness is aphesis. It is best to think of aphesis as release. It often is used to refer to the release of a financial debt or burden, but is often used in the sense of gaining liberty or freedom.

Aphesis, however, is usually not without condition, so in this way, it is different from the unconditional charizomai forgiveness. Aphesis is usually connected with repentance, meaning that aphesis does not come unless there is repentance.

This makes sense when we understand that sin enslaves us and puts us in bondage. If we do not repent of our sin, that is, if we do not turn away from it and turn back toward God, how can we gain freedom, liberty, or release from it? We cannot.

But note that even if we do not gain aphesis, we still have charizomai from God. He freely forgives us out of His grace, and calls us to repent so that we might also gain aphesis. If we do not, He still loves as forgives us (charizomai), but we will continue to experience bondage and enslavement to sin.

Apoluo Forgiveness

Then finally, there is the third kind of forgiveness, which comes from the Greek word apoluo. Apoluo is based on the Greek word luo, which means “I loose.” So apoluo is to be loosed, or set free. This word is nearly indistinguishable from aphesis, and may be nearly synonymous. There may be some small shades of differences, but nothing worth noting in this post.

So How Does This Help Christians Learn to Forgive?

you are forgivenFirst of all, we need to understand that we are forgiven, freely, by God’s grace, of all our sins, no matter what. You have the charizomai of God whether you confess your sins or not. You have charizomai for your sins whether you are Christian or not.

As far as God is concerned, your guilt has been removed from you. Your sin is no longer an issue with God. I have written about this previously, and so will say nothing more here.

However, we all still struggle with the consequences of sin in our lives and in our relationships. How can we fix this problem? This is where most of the teaching in the Bible about forgiveness comes in.

Aphesis forgiveness and apoluo forgiveness have absolutely nothing to do with whether or not a person goes to heaven when they die. Aphesis forgiveness and apoluo forgiveness are about whether or not we live in bondage and enslavement to sin here and now. They are about whether or not we destroy our lives, our health, our marriages, our family, our finances, our jobs, and pretty much everything in our life.

God does not want us to live our lives surrounded by destruction, addiction, and enslavement, and so He encourages us to confess our sins, repent of our sins, purify our lives and in so doing, gain release, freedom, and liberty from sin and the damaging consequences of sin.

God encourages us to forgive others, because often, that is the only way we can gain release to the bitterness and resentment we hold in our hearts toward them. Until we forgive others we cannot gain the release of forgiveness for ourselves.

You are already Forgiven, so Forgive to be Forgiven

That subtitle sounds like gibberish, right? But from a biblical perspective it is true. You already have the free charizomai forgiveness of God, completely free of charge. So in light of this free gift of forgiveness, it would be wise to give aphesis and apoluo forgiveness to others so that you can experience the release of aphesis and apoluo forgiveness in your own life.

Study Forgiveness on Your Own

I encourage you to embark on a study of forgiveness of your own. Find some sort of Greek-English parallel Bible, and whenever you see the words “forgive,” “forgiven,” or “forgiveness” in Scripture, take a few minutes to look it up and find out which kind of forgiveness is in view.

By doing so, you will be encouraged. God is not dangling your sin over your head as a way of threatening you with eternal punishment in hell. No, He has already forgiven you of all your sins, past, present, and future.

However, God wants more for you than to just have your guilt removed from you; He does not want sin to reign in your body; He does not want sin to rule over you, to destroy you, to ruin your life, your health, your finances, and all your relationships. He wants you to experience freedom and liberty. But for these, there are conditions and steps that must be met…

I encourage you to develop in your thinking about forgiveness. There are different kinds of forgiveness, with different conditions to receive the various kinds, and different consequences and results from each. Learn to distinguish which forgiveness is which, and your Bible will make a whole lot more sense.

Gossip – Stop it!

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gossip - stop itOne thing we Christians love to do is gossip. I suppose that due to the Papparazi gossip machine and gossip-heavy magazines like “People” it is only natural Christians fall into this social trend of listening to and spreading rumors about other people. It’s natural, but then, so is all sin.

Ironically, in churches today, we are more prone to condemn “homosexuals,” “abortionists,” and “democrats” than those who gossip. But did you know that the Bible speaks out against the sins of the tongue more than any other sin? I have a sneaking suspicion that the Bible condemns gossip more than all the other sins combined. Someone should do a study on that.

So, if you like to point the finger at others, and send e-mails about how Mr. Leader is moving into heresy (i.e., anything you don’t believe), and make phone calls to put your neighbor on the “prayer chain” (Gasp, Can you believe she got pregnant out of wedlock?!), what you are really doing is committing the number one sin of Scripture.

You know what I say to all of this? Watch the following video to find out.

This poor lady is dealing with a different issue than gossip, but the advice she received can be applied to those of us who gossip: STOP IT.

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Does Jesus Credit His Good Works to Our Account?

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good worksIt is often taught that Jesus obeyed the law perfectly because we cannot. Then we are told that when we believe in Jesus for eternal life, He give us His righteousness. He has such an infinite supply of righteousness, that He can pour some of it into us so that we also become righteous.

We are told time and time again that by faith, the perfect righteousness of Jesus can be credited to our account.

I am certain that if you searched this blog, you would find that I have written something similar along these lines in numerous places in the past.

But I have recently begun to question the whole idea. There is just something about this “crediting to our account” that doesn’t sit well with me…

So please forgive me if I do a little theological rambling in this post. I am throwing this out there because I am wondering about it, and would like your input. I am not sharing what I believe… I am sharing what I think. Feel free to share your opinion in the comments below!

The Ocean of Good Works from the Past

I recently taught Luke 3:7-14 again. In that passage, John the Baptist tells his Jewish audience to not say, “We have Abraham as our Father” (Luke 3:8). I taught that this was because of how the Jewish people understood themselves as the elect nation of God, as the chosen people of Israel. The idea was that God needed the people of Israel to accomplish His will in the world, and so God would never destroy the Hebrew people, because then He would be stuck.

I went on to argue that some branches of Judaism took this idea to an extreme, saying that some of the forefathers of Israel were such good people, that they had more “good works” than they needed, and so their good works could be credited to the account of later Hebrew people who came up short in personal righteousness. In other words, men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets had created this ocean of good works, or this storehouse of righteousness. And when any Jewish person sinned a little too much, God would cancel out that sin with a little bit of good works from the ocean of righteousness that came from the Israelite forefathers.

Some Christians today may scoff at this idea, but others might say, “Hey, that sounds eerily similar to what we believe and teach in our church!” In fact, one teaching among some Catholics have taught that certain Saints of the past have stored up such great masses of good works, that if we pray to them, or perform some sort of penance, then the Catholic church can “draw on” the good works of the saints of the past and credit them to certain people today.

This idea was one of the things that led Martin Luther to write his 95 Theses and nail them to the church door in Wittenburg. Certain Catholics were selling indulgences, whereby a person could donate a certain amount of money to the Catholic church, and in exchange, the church would credit some good works to that person to cover over their sin. This, of course, led to great abuse, and so Martin Luther wrote up his 95 Theses… and the rest is history.

Protestants  continue to scoff at the idea that giving certain amount of money, or saying certain prayers can credit to our account the righteous good works of any person in the past…. except that…. this is pretty close to exactly what we believe about Jesus.

The Good Works of Jesus Credited to Our Account?

While I don’t know if it is ever stated exactly this way, it sometimes seems that we teach that Jesus kept the law perfectly so that as the only perfect person, He could credit His righteousness to our account.

Doesn’t this sound similar to what was discussed above? That there is this ocean of good works that is available for withdrawals by people who have the proper access codes?

If this view is correct, then it seems that the only real difference between the various theologies is in the source of the ocean of good works. In some theological ideas, the ocean of good works comes from great men and women of the past, either the Israelite forefathers or the Christian saints, whereas in common “Evangelical” theology, the source of good works is Jesus Himself.

If this is the way it is, I don’t really have too much of a problem with it. Everything is centered on Jesus Christ, and all we have comes through Him.

But I just got to wondering….

What if the real issue isn’t good works at all?

What if the primary goal of Jesus was not to store up for us an ocean of good works for us to draw upon, to fill up what is lacking in our holiness, but rather, to show us once and for all that it is not about good works at all?

What if the point of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection was not to give us the “correct” ocean of good works to draw upon, but rather, to show us that God isn’t concerned about our amount of good works?

Let me approach the question another way.

All around the world and throughout time, humankind has thought that God (or the gods) is angry with us. We think we need to appease him (or them) by doing good works. So, for example, a child dies from sickness, and we think, “God is punishing me for something. I probably didn’t thank him enough for the good harvest last year. I need to make God happy again. What can I do? Maybe if I give him my cow, he won’t take my other children or burn my house down.”

This is the basis of ALL religion. Religion is an attempt by humanity to make things right with God. We think God is angry at us for some sort of failure, and if we do something good or heroic or sacrificial, God will be happy with us again. We are not always sure what ticked him off, but the priests and clerics are happy to make suggestions, and the priests and clerics are also happy to make suggestions on what will get us back into God’s good graces (Usually this requires giving things to the priests, which they call “Giving to God.” But I digress…)

You see, one of the central teachings of all religions is this idea that we need a certain level of good works to keep God happy, and if we don’t maintain this level of good works, we either have to start doing better, or obtain the good works from someone else (who does good works for us). If we fail, well, God will squash us like a bug. (Unless we are really wicked and evil, then we seem to get rich, famous, and powerful. But again, I digress…)

If Jesus came to teach that we do actually need good works to get God to love us, then Jesus is actually supporting the central idea of human religion. But over and over and over, Jesus seems to teach the exact opposite. Time and time again, Jesus attacks religion as being contrary to God and actually leading people away from God, into deeper bondage and darkness.

When Jesus came along, it seems that His central message was this: “You have completely misunderstood God! He loves you just as you are! He loves sinners. He forgives sinners. He is gracious and merciful toward sinners. You don’t need more good works or better good works to get on God’s good side; you are already on God’s good side! And I’m here to prove it to you!”

Could it be that our primary problem is not a lack of good works, but simply a failure to truly understand God’s infinite love?

I think so.

The reason God doesn’t want us to sin any  more is NOT because sin gets in the way of His love for us. It is not as if God is saying, “Darn! I really wanted to love you, but you just had that lustful thought, so now I am going to have to give you cancer. And if you keep it up, well, off to eternal suffering in hell with you! But I really wish you had been a better person so I could love you.”

I am sorry, but that view of God seems a bit…. sadistic. Doesn’t it?

I thin it was Anselm who said that God is so holy and takes sin so seriously, that if He told someone to turn right, and they turned left, God would be fully justified to send that disobedient person to hell for all eternity because they turned the wrong way.

Seriously?

Doesn’t this make God more like an egotistical, petulant bully who wants to get his own way no matter what, and when someone crosses him in the least little way, he is going to smack them down so hard they never think of doing it again?

It is no wonder that many people have trouble worshiping a God like this!

Thankfully, one of the reasons Jesus came was to show us that this is NOT what God is like! If Jesus is right, God is not a God of religion.

So…. I Don’t Need Good Works?

Ah…. now we are starting to ask the right questions. I firmly believe that if your theology does not lead you to ask this question, you have really bad theology. If you do not have a theology which causes people to say, “So…. I can just go sin all I want?” then your theology is not strong enough on grace, forgiveness, love, and mercy.

So here’s the thing about good works, grace, and God’s love.

Technically, yes, you can go sin all you want, and God will still love you. Sin and good works have nothing whatsoever to do with God’s love for us. He loves us infinitely and completely, no matter what. We don’t need more good works or better good works for God to love us.

But God does want us to stop sinning. It is true that God hates sin. But He doesn’t hate people. He doesn’t even hate sinners. He loves all people–even sinners.

The reason God (and Jesus) are concerned about sin, is not because sin will lessen God’s love for us. No, God is concerned about sin because He loves us! Sin, you see, has nothing to do with God’s love. Good works have nothing to do with getting back into God’s good graces.

No, the reason God hates sin is because of how much sin damages and harms His children. Sin hurts us! That is why He doesn’t want us to sin! That is why He warns us against sin and pleads with us to turn away from it.

Like any good parent, God love us so much that He does not want to see us get hurt, and nothing hurts us more than sin. Sin brings forth death. It leads to damaged relationships, broken lives, and ruined friendships. It leads to bankruptcy, addiction, and imprisonment. It can lead to bloodshed, horror, war, famine, pestilence, and disease. God loves us so much, He wants to deliver us from all these things, and one way He does this is by pleading with us to turn away from the path we are on, and walk with Him in a life of love, joy, and peace.

And the life of Jesus resembled what a life lived this way looks like. Jesus didn’t do what He did so that He could store up a big ocean of good works to make available to all people who believe in Him. No, Jesus did what He did to show us what God is truly like, and what humanity can also be truly like.

We don’t need more good works to make God love us, and if we have less good works, God will not love us less. The life and ministry of Jesus had nothing to do with His good works or our lack of them.

No, Jesus wanted to show us that God loves us completely, and that the reason God doesn’t want us to sin (especially not to sin religiously, which is how most Christians actually sin… but again, I digress), is because sin hurts us and as a loving Father, God does not want to see us get hurt.

So what do you think? Did Jesus create a big ocean of good works which believers can draw on? Or, as I have suggested above, maybe the life of Jesus had nothing whatsoever to do with good works at all.  Weigh in below!

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Jesus Facepalm

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I saw this “Jesus facepalm” over at Greg Boyd’s blog and thought it was funny…. enjoy!

Jesus facepalm

I also agree with what Greg said on his blog… Jesus doesn’t do this, but sometimes it would be understandable. The way we mess up over and over, and walk straight into sin fully knowing what we are doing…

So thank Jesus for His unconditional and infinite forgiveness today!

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