Legalism Q&A
A friend of mine on Facebook posted a question on defining the church which sort of turned into a Q&A about legalism. Since some of those questions require more extensive answers, I thought I’d bring my end of the discussion over here. The question that was asked was as follows:
How would you define legalism? Also, if I may ask…. what does “following Jesus” exactly mean. I know a lot of religions out there think they are following Jesus, so I just was wondering what that meant to you. The reason I ask that is that Christianity is definitely not a set of rules (example you get saved… now you must follow these rules etc… ). But, once we are saved we should grow in our faith as Believers. What in your opinion is the evidence of that growth. Also, are there things in this world that can stunt this kind of spiritual growth? I guess I am probably giving away what I think=).
First of all, I want to say that I appreciate the spirit with which these questions were asked. I know a lot of times we can sound a bit accusatory and its fairly obvious who we are accusing, so I really do appreciate the gracious spirit from the poster. Its easy to get defensive. Its hard to ask questions objectively without coming across as defensive (or in my case, sarcastic).
I think one of the biggest issues as it relates to legalism and specifically the kind of legalism some of us struggled through, is that your spirituality becomes defined by what you do. Spirituality is defined externally and is worked up, rather than being derived internally and worked out.
In my view, we understand that the whole point of substitutionary atonement is that we could not please God and so Christ did that in our place and purchased our redemption and justification. His grace accomplished my regeneration and works itself out as He conforms me to His image. I obey as a result of Christ’s work in me, not solely of my own effort.
The legalistic view we’ve seen and that some former co-workers have advocated is that your obedience works out your spirituality. You have to follow a list in order to sanctify yourself. Its getting the cart before the horse. The more you do for God the more He is pleased with you. Or, put another way, there is inherent value in following the rules. Keeping your list of things you’re supposed to do, will bring about your spirituality and conform you to Christ’s image in time.
The problem we run into is that some legalists are so concerned with obeying, that they invent rules that the Bible does not command. Rules pertaining to modesty or music are codified in black and white. We preach moralistically, instructing people in the do’s and don’t's of Christianity, rather than speaking expositionally and redemptively and allowing God’s grace to accomplish the obedience. I asked a group of students what their view of Christianity was, and most admitted that it was a rulebook of do’s and don’t's. We get very good at telling people don’t have sex, don’t do drugs, don’t chew gum in class and they get the message that if they follow the rules then God is pleased with them.
So, with that background, let me try to answer the specific questions. First, what does following Jesus actually mean? When Christ said “Follow me” He had something radical in mind. It was not merely “Pray this prayer acknowledging certain facts about you and I.” He meant drop everything that is important to you and make me the most important thing. So following Christ means making Him supreme in every area of life. My life becomes marked by repentance and faith in the gospel. My life is lived through the filter of the gospel. I seek to know Christ more and more as He is at work conforming me into His image. And I seek to obey His commands (“If you love me, keep my commandments”). However, His commands are to love God and love my neighbor. They are matters of the heart. So following Christ implies a heart change where Christ is lifted up as the most valuable thing in our lives and as such, He transforms us into His image.
So, that leads to the next question, which was what is the evidence of that growth or transformation? In other words, how do I know that Christ is transforming me into His image? The legalist will look at your actions. Do you read your Bible? Do you pray? Do you attend church? And on and on. But the question is do you love God’s Word? Do you love to fellowship with God and other believers? Because you can do a lot of Christian-looking things that would make a legalist think you are progressing in sanctification without ever actually embracing the gospel. Since growth and transformation are matters of the heart, they can only be measured at the heart level and actions can produce false positives from an external perspective. But legalists tend to be quick to affirm the spirituality of someone who follows all the rules.
How then do we assist each other in sanctification if it’s a matter of the heart? Continually address heart issues. Continually preach the gospel and look for it to transform people’s hearts. Will there be a change in actions? In most cases, absolutely. But the goal is not change in actions, it is change in heart. The actions take care of themselves. If an action is definitively a sin in the person’s life, we call them to repentance through the preaching of the gospel and seek to see Christ deliver them from their sin.
Finally, are there things that will stunt our growth? The problem with the questioner’s view here is that I think they view worldliness as things we do, whereas the Bible seems to say worldliness lies in things we love. So, theoretically, yes there are things that will stunt my growth and, technically speaking, everything (yes, everything) has the possibility of stunting my growth because I can grow to love it more than I love Christ. Which is why Christ says following him might involve rejecting my wife, kids, father, mother, and my own self also. Because I could grow to love my wife more than Christ, or my church more than Christ, or rest in my own good works, rather than in Christ’s perfect work.
These differing views on sanctification make a huge difference in how we do ministry. The problem some of us ran into and ended up fleeing from in fundamentalism was that conformity to a standard became a measure of spirituality. As a teacher, I saw this quite a bit at the student level. It was very common to hear messages in chapel about what they were supposed to do. In fact, one youth leader admitted that, yes, it is ideal for a person’s heart to change and have that motivate a change in action, but the change in action is still good for it’s own sake.
I would argue though that since sanctification is a matter of the heart, I would rather a kid with a heart issue not try to conform himself to my standard to fit in. Rather, I can rejoice when my students sin because they are showing me what is in their heart and I can deal with that (though, I admit, I would rather rejoice that they love God enough to choose not to sin). If they conform to my standard and make themselves look good, I may never know what is in their heart. And they might think that God is pleased with them for conforming to my standard.
The other problem comes when we try to define what our standard of conformity is. My experience with fundamentalism showed me that some people like to set up rules to follow in order that their spiritual growth is not stunted. Don’t listen to this music, it could stunt your spiritual growth. Don’t watch that movie, it could stunt your spiritual growth. Don’t hang out with those people, they could stunt your spiritual growth. But the problem is that everything can stunt my spiritual growth so I either realize this and become paralyzed, or I give in to the standard and end up in pride that I followed all the rules and am now a good person. Or, as I saw in my own life and in a lot of students’ lives, we give in to the standard, realize we can’t possibly live up to it, and live in shame (and end up hiding the shame, lest we appear unspiritual). Either way I go, I’m either sinning in pride or living in shame. It’s a lose-lose.
But once I free myself from that and realize that God’s disposition towards me does not change (I can’t make God sad). That He loves me because He chose me in Christ before I did any of those things which I’m now ashamed of and Christ gave me His righteousness so I don’t have to feel ashamed of my own unrighteousness anymore. I’m free to enjoy living the Christian life. I avoid sin because I love God, not because my list says to avoid this or that. I avoid worldliness, not because some fundamentalist made a rule about it, but because I love God more than this world. And when I sin, I can run to my Father and repent and know that He still loves me because Christ is consistently advocating for me.
Those are my answers to the questions. I know it’s long, but to be honest, I could have gone much longer discussing the benefits of living a gospel-centered life. In fact, most Thursday nights, we do just that in a community group meeting at our home. If you happen across this and are curious, come on by. Or if you think I’m totally off, let me know and let’s discuss it. It would sure beat a Facebook comment box discussion any day.
Categorized as Theology
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Thanks Mark! I think the question “are there things that can stunt spiritual growth?” is a faulty question. It is based off of a presupposition that “I sin because these things exist.” I believe that if we understand that God created EVERYTHING good and for His glory then that question has no foundation. What happens is we take these good things (sex, money, food, music, etc.) and make them “god” things. The things don’t cease being good, its my idolatry (not things) that’s the problem.
Yeah, I think Tim Keller said it well in “The Reason for God”. “Sin is not doing bad things. It is taking good things and making them ultimate things.” I’m quoting off the top of my head so I’m sure it’s not exact, but that’s the general idea.