A quick review of legalism, the short version.
According to R C Sproul Sr. at Ligonier, legalism is not narrow-mindedness. Rather, it involves removing God’s law from its original context. That context is love, God’s love. God’s law flows from His loving and gracious character.
One’s character is distinct from their personality. A person’s character involves one’s moral core. You reveal your character through actions, choices, and how you handle difficult situations.
Removing God’s law from His character makes us unable to see God’s law in the right light. Instead, we see it how we want to see it. We have a mind darkened by sin. So, now we only see the law as something harsh. We see it as something that denies us what we want, or as something that pushes us around against our will. We see it as demanding something we cannot give. So, we see it as a bunch of hoops to jump through to keep a demanding God happy.
R C Sproul explains different forms of legalism
Sometimes this legalism takes the form of seeing the christian life as a series of do’s and don’ts – cold moral principles. Another name for this is Moralism. This produces a form of obedience that does not involve our heart.
Then there is a similar form where one obeys the letter of the law without obeying the spirit of the law. Like when the Pharisees challenged Jesus as he healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, Matt. 12:9-14. They accused Jesus of working on the Sabbath.
Finally, there is the form of legalism where people add their own rules to God’s law. They even hold others to their rules. They believe these little extra rules will help everyone keep the Ten Commandments better. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees about this when He said, “You teach human traditions as if they were the word of God.” ~Mark 7:8-9.
What this means for living your life
Practicing any of these three forms of legalism causes us to become very inflexible. Also, we tend to see almost everything as extremely spiritual, including things like whether one should use a dryer or a clothesline to dry their clothes. All events in life are viewed as black or white when we live in any of these forms of legalism.
This also leads to everything having one right answer, and one wrong answer; and that ‘answer’ is right for everyone or wrong for everyone. And, the legalist is the one who decides the ‘right’ answer for everyone else’s situations. Since there is only one ‘right’ answer, the legalist observes no ‘both/and’ kind of answers.
This also means that there are no ‘grey areas’ in the life of a legalist. These areas just frustrate most legalists. But it is in these areas that well-adjusted believers find opportunity to search scripture, lean on God in prayer, and seek counsel from fellow believers. They must weigh each circumstance as they proceed carefully to respond according to what God calls them to do.
Read the article here.
What it is in short
Legalism is the insistence that God accepts a person based on his law keeping. It teaches that our own added rules and regulations are as important as God’s Law. Legalism is the idea that we are saved through grace, but we stay saved through good works. Sometimes it teaches that we team-up with God for our salvation.
The beginning of legalism is a failure to be humbled, broken, and filled with joy because of what God has done. Like the Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14, a believer says “thank you God”, but not from a humble spirit.
Legalism aways separates the grace of what God does for us from the grace of what He requires from us. Legalism believes that any requirement eliminates grace.
Because of its very nature, legalism will manifest itself in our lives as self-righteousness, pride, a demanding attitude, lack of mercy, lack of compassion, unkindness, and impatience. It flavors everything we do.
While we do participate in salvation, we do not team-up or cooperate with God for our salvation. The forms for baptism and the Lord’s Supper teach participation. But they do not teach cooperation.
Sinclair Ferguson explains it best in a 2-1/2 minute video.
Legalism is not the opposite of antinomianism.
They are two sides of the same coin. Both are rooted in separating God’s Law from His gracious character, His goodness, His love. Once one tires of the treadmill of legalism, one will inevitably slide over to antinomianism. Hyper-grace is Antinomianism. Hyper-grace was explained in many older posts. We showed its doctrinal aspects. We showed its practical aspects as it directs how one lives his or her life.
Historically, antinomianism hasn’t always been open lawlessness known as ‘sin that grace may abound’. It was most often the label given to those who denied that the Ten Commandments are for the New Testament Christian. These teach that preaching cannot include a requirement to obey. This form of antinomianism also teaches that effort in obedience is ‘adding to the work of Christ’, and therefore it is works-righteousness.
For a brief and accurate explanation of both legalism and antinomianism; and how they relate to one’s view of the law, read Ligonier’s article here.
Click here for outlines of all our posts on legalism if you want to save yourself the time of rereading all the previous posts on legalism that begin with this link.
An easy to remember summary of legalism and antinomianism.
- Legalism and antinomianism are both flip-sides of the same enmity.
- Both hate the law of God. They just show it in different ways.
- The legalist says, “Since my justification is not complete without my works, I must obey. But if I had my way, I would do what I want.”
- The antinomian says, “My justification is complete. Therefore, I don’t need to obey!”
- One denies that the Gospel cures the guilt of sin. The other denies it cures the power of sin.
- Neither likes God’s moral law.
A reading list for further study:
- The Antinomian Controversy, 1636-1638: A Documentary History. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by David D. Hall Copyright Date: 1990.
- No Quick Fix. By Andrew Naselli
- The Whole Christ. By Sinclair Ferguson
- Antinomianism: Reformed Theology’s Unwelcome Guest? By Mark Jones
- Saints and Sectaries: Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. By Emery Battis
- Christian Spirituality Five Views of Sanctification. Edited by Donald L. Alexander
- What is Faith? By R.C. Sproul (Sr.)
- Although I did not read this yet, I’ll add DeYoung’s A Hole in Our Holiness