This is a segue from learning about hyper-grace because legalism plays a part in hyper-grace as an answer to the discovery of one’s own legalism. And, because Dewey brought it up when he confessed his own legalism.
Old School Legalists
Old School Legalists are conservative, buttoned-down, and moralistic. They aren’t earning their salvation, but they are concerned about maintaining their holy life, in their own strength. They are the ‘religious elite’ as Larry Osborne calls them in Accidental Pharisees. And, we know them as The 200%ers.
The thinking goes like this, blue jeans lead to promiscuity. Syncopated rhythm, and music in the minor key is of the Devil. ‘Good’ Christian women have long hair, and ‘good’ Christian men keep their hair short. Beer in your fridge will lead your kids into alcoholism. Also, no TV, no music other than ‘church music’, no cooking on Sunday, no outdoor activity on Sunday. You get the idea.
Our holiness is from outside of ourselves and in Christ. But for the legalist, what you wear will keep you holy. Courtship as a method for finding a spouse is more holy than another method. It’s all about what you do and not so much about Christ or your heart. For the legalist, “alcohol can send you to hell, but a critical and slanderous spirit is merely a character flaw to work on“, Accidental Pharisees, Zondervan, 2012, Osborne, p. 91.
Upstairs Christians
Old School Legalists are what Tullian Tchividjian calls the ‘upstairs Christians’. I disagree often with Tullian but he gets this right. These legalists set the bar high for themselves and compare themselves to others to make sure they are still at the ‘gold-standard’, and above others. They are always reaching higher, doing more, trying harder because average isn’t good enough. Like the Elder Brother in Luke 15:29, they want God to notice them. It’s like they want to be ‘teacher’s pet’ with God by observing the gold-standard set of rules that they put around the commandments of God.
To keep the bar high, rule-fences are added to God’s actual commands regarding chastity and marital fidelity, sobriety, Sabbath observance and so on. Legalists interpret God’s command for themselves and then hold others to their interpretations. Thus, they create the ‘gold standard’.
These legalists put more and more fences around God’s commands. Knee-length skirts are modest? Then ankle-length are better. Drunkenness is a sin? Then do not keep alcohol in your house. Don’t love money? Then limit the size of your house. Fences protect the legalist from ‘the world’, and especially from the ‘slippery slope’. And, certainly avoid ‘breaking bread’ with one who has slipped further than you down the ‘slippery slope’.
Eve’s Legalism
Even Eve showed her Old School Legalism when she made a fence around the precept of God. When she defined to Satan the command regarding the Tree of K of G&E, she added to her definition. She added that she, ‘may not even touch it’. It made God an oppressive despot, and His single negative command a legal covenant of works in her eyes.
Matthew Henry explains her legalism: [In] her resolution that she adhered to the command, and faithfully repeated it, … : “God hath said, I [Eve] am confident he hath said it, You shall not eat of the fruit of this tree;” and that which she adds, ‘Neither shall you touch it‘, seems to have been with a good intention, not (as some think) tacitly to reflect upon the command as too strict (Touch not, taste not and handle not), but to make a fence about it: “We must not eat, therefore we will not touch. It is forbidden in the highest degree, and the authority of the prohibition is sacred to us.” Found here.
Sproul, again
Sproul writes, “the most common and deadly form of legalism, is when we add our own rules [fences] to God’s law and treats them as divine… Jesus rebuked the Pharisees at this very point saying, ‘You teach human traditions as if they were the word of God.’ We have no right to heap up restrictions on people where He has no stated restriction.”
Sproul points out that legalism divorces obedience from God’s love and redemption. “The legalist focuses only on obeying bare rules, destroying the broader context of God’s love and redemption in which He gave His law in the first place.”
Closely linked to that, Sproul says legalism “obeys the externals while the heart is far removed from any desire to honor God, the intent of His law, or His Christ.” Legalism divorces obedience from our relationship with God. This is what Eve did in her statement to Satan about the Tree. Quotes from Ligonier.
What legalism is not
Fidelity and loyalty to the word of God. From Matthew 15, and other passages (e.g., Matt. 23), the problem that the Pharisees had was not loyalty to the word of God. Their problem was loyalty to their own system [of fences]; they took it to the point where they disobeyed God. Given the number of passages telling us how important God’s word is, and our need to live by it, one would be way out of line to insist that legalism is loyal adherence to the scriptures (Col. 3:16; Jas. 1:21; 1 Cor. 4:6, and more.).
Faithfully keeping God’s commandments. Loyalty to the word of God will also entail faithfulness in doing what God says. This was not the problem of the Pharisees either. In fact, [in their zeal for their fences] they failed to do what God said on very important matters (see also Matt. 23:23). Again, God’s word is clear about the fact that we need to obey what He says (Jn. 14:15; 1 Jn. 2:2-6; Heb. 5:9, and more.)
Teaching the *need* to keep God’s commandments. If the scriptures teach our need to obey, then those who teach God’s word must also teach the need to do what God says (cf. 1 Tim. 1:3- 5; 4:1, 13, 16; et al.). Being a faithful servant means teaching others God’s will (2 Tim. 2:2).
(List from Doy Moyer at Mighty Is the Lord Blog)
We are called to be wholesome and careful in our life choices. Our lives give witness to who our heart loves. But we may not use our choices to look down on others. We may not measure the faith or spirituality of others by our standards.
God’s commands are not burdensome, but beneficial. They become burdensome when we add fences around them because the fences emphasize your strength. The fences make you into a moralist, ‘doing more and trying harder’.
As it turns out, legalism is a hefty topic. There will be several more posts.
