The Gospel and Legalism, Part 2 – Legalism: Jesus Isn't Enough

le-gal-ism - |ˈlēgəˌlizəm| (noun) - Legalism is the state of mind found present when any person seeks satisfaction by appealing to some standard other than the person and work of Jesus Christ as proclaimed through the Gospel. (My definition)

I will explain. When “Legal” (that which pertains to the law) and “ism” (a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy) are combined, the result is a system of practice that is law-centric. This mentality produces a practical methodology with two extremes: moralism and hedonism. The moralist says, “I find satisfaction, self-worth, importance, and ground by which to judge myself and others through obedience of a collection of Biblical directives. Obeying commands and buckling down hard to attain godliness is the only thing that will make me truly happy.” This mindset is difficult to diagnose because on the surface the person that works this way may actually look very spiritual. They may go to church, take pride in their academics or occupation, they may be polite to strangers, and they may even seem to be altruistic in service and ministry. These people may be passionate about the Bible. They might perhaps study it outside of their time of personal devotions. Of course, most legalists will not try to pretend that they keep all the rules- nobody can do that, but they are good people. They don’t cheat on tests or taxes, they don’t steal money or withhold from tithing, and they are very skillful at identifying those that do. Not only do they keep many of these noticeable rules, they stay far away from things and/or people that may influence them to fall into such transgression. For the moralist, victory is found by picking oneself up by the bootstraps and defeating sin: illicit sexuality, anger, depression, impatience, or anything that that once was and now is no more through the solidarity of human willpower. Conversely, defeat is any time anyone commits any kind of sin; because Moral Legalism is driven by spiritual performance, it is quite common to find that repeated defeat in one particular sin area goes hand-in-hand with depression and an overwhelming sense of self-defeatedness.

This is one reason why so many Christian parents may be surprised when their kids enter college and leave the church. They may comport to the Christian standard, but that appearance could not be further from the truth. They honor God with their lips but their heart is far from Him. The parents may say that their son or daughter was such a wonderful child, but in reality, the child was only good at obeying but saw no peace or joy by living a life based on conditionality. When given the opportunity, the child will run. It’s not shocking. Obedience to Christian mores in order to obtain favor with God and others is not empowering and certainly not good news; it’s not obedience in response to the favor that Jesus won for us through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead (doing for God what we could never do). This is diametrically opposed to the faith in the good news of the Gospel. The Gospel says that pleasing obedience to God is only made possible after God has chosen to show favor to us; the Gospel does not say that in order to obtain favor from God we must obey the things He says. In short, the attitude of the Moral Legalist is, “My acceptance to God/others and my own self-approval rely on how well I obey the directives of Scripture and how well I can keep myself clean from the world’s influence. I have been justified by Jesus on the cross, but now I need to work as hard as I can to constantly secure God’s favor.”

Please hear me.

This will utterly destroy the church.

The heart that thinks God’s evaluation is based on us is not only incredibly arrogant, but discounts the work of God as the one who affects change in our hearts. It is arrogant to think that in our depraved, fleshly state, we can somehow please God by any number of “good” things to do. Remember that to God our righteousness is menstruous rags (Isaiah 64:6). Apart from the Spirit developing love for God in our hearts, why would He care if we are outwardly pristine? The promulgation of such an attitude will produce an abundance of self-righteous people (if they actually succeed in this endeavor) and there will be a gaping hole where undeserved grace needs to come and save. If we keep the entire law but do not love God, He neither cares nor is glorified in our lives. Keep in mind that if you do truly love God you will keep His commands (John 14:15), but you can’t work backwards! Just because you obey laws does not mean you love the One that gave them!

The hedonist is the other side to the coin of Legalism. Strangely enough, the hedonist is much closer to the moralist than meets the eye. The hedonist says, “I will find my happiness and satisfaction through ridding myself of all the laws from my parents, the government, and most importantly, God. I will seek for soul-satisfaction in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and my pride in the level of success I achieve in life.”

While both mentalities search for affirmation and satisfaction through opposite means, the end is exactly the same. Hedonists and Moralists have ultimate standards of satisfaction- the standard that reads, “Jesus is not enough.” The problem with Legalism is that its promise of happiness never fulfills because what it promises doesn’t exist! There will always be more to do (either keeping/breaking more rules) because nothing can infinitely satisfy apart from the reality of the Christ’s message on the cross: “I am enough, it is finished. Look no further. Everything you need, I have.”

If you have been born in human flesh, you are a Legalist. If you ever think that God is not enough for your peace joy and therefore begin to look to other things (even spiritual things) as the means to achieve such functional salvation, then you begin to appeal and work towards some standard other than the righteousness of the Christ that God sees when He looks at you if you have believed.

You might know you’re a Legalist if…

1. You believe that “God helps those who helps themselves”
   
2. You become depressed because your walk is not where it “should be” (whatever that means)
   
3. You communicate to others that your love for them is dependant on something they do either for you or for God
   
4. You believe that God’s love of you is dependant on what you do for him
   
5. You enjoy sermons with titles similar to “3 Ways To Defeat Lust” or “The 5 Biblical Principles of Friendship”
   
6. You believe that God’s approval of you depends on whether or not you looked at porn (or sin ‘x’) in the last “x” amount of days/weeks/months/years
   
7. You believe that you will find meaning in life by gaining the approval of others
   
8. You believe that while God is ‘good’ and it is ‘good’ to read the Bible and pray, having fun and doing what you feel like is ultimately the way to find happiness
   
9. You identify godly people by the amount of sinning they do or don’t do
   
10. The way to become godly and pursue holiness is by trying your hardest to follow as many imperatives as possible
    

This is hard stuff. I know that my characterization of Legalism may not be as full as it could/should be, but I am wrestling daily through this myself. While my knowledge is partial, I am confident that these are foundationally reliable categories that are very helpful in better understanding our human condition for the purpose of growing in grace. Please comment on the blog if something needs clarification and I will change whatever needs to be clarified! Next time, I get to do my best to encourage on how pursuit of the Gospel utterly obliterates any “God isn’t enough” attitude- it’s going to be fun! I hope you think through these things with me and I would love if you would post in the comments below; and if you agree, disagree, or would just like to write something, I’ll read it and respond if I can! Remember, God ALONE is our hope!

Deus Spes Nostra

For Part One on my presentation of the Gospel, click here!

For Part Three on the solution to Legalism, click here!