As someone who is mindfully, intentionally, and publicly repenting from legalism I am interested in writing about what causes legalism, how to recognize it within ourselves, and how we might experience it from other people. Lastly, how can a renewed mindset help us recover from legalism. This is a brief look at the finer points of legalism.
Legalism and Biblicism Go Hand in Hand
Biblicism is the plain reading of the text. “The Bible clearly says”. Biblicism does not consider that Jesus spoke in parables to hide the truth from the religious spirit, that the law would be passing away at the cross, and it would become the world’s wisdom. Biblicism tends to take a verse out of its historical context, and apply it as a universal command or law on all consciences. 1 Timothy 2 & 3 are an example of this.
In Biblicism every verse has the same value. The law has the same value as the gospel. Maybe our obedience has greater value than Christ’s obedience on our behalf? Love God and love neighbor is considered to be gospel when it should fall under the category of law, the ministry that brings death. Commands are seen as a good thing when they should be understood as a bad thing. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. 8 And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. Romans 7:7-8. Sin in us seizes on commands and sin in us becomes more sinful, sinful beyond measure. Commands activate sin in us.
In his writing, Paul moves away from commands and into *appeals to a freed conscience, and that is a good thing for us. Apart from the law sin is dead. Romans 7:13 Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure. I have an appreciation, and a curiosity, for Paul separating himself from the sin that lives in him. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. My understanding of Romans 7 is that the sin that lives in us is less active under appeals to a conscience that has been set free from the rule of the law, through the body of Christ.
What Causes Legalism
Legalism is caused by having a secure attachment to what you do or don’t do, law. A zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Legalism is a natural bent. Repeatedly, and in a myriad of ways the New Testament communicates that our relationship with the law comes to an end in Christ.
Romans 10
Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them is for their salvation. I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes, 5 since Moses writes about the righteousness that is from the law: The one who does these things will live by them. The legalist has a secure attachment to the law given through Moses. The legalist lives under the rule and curse of the good and holy law. They might have large platforms and large followings. What you do or don’t do is seen as making you more righteous. In contrast, God’s righteousness is a gift to us apart from what we do. We now have permission to ponder what it means that everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. We may consider what is harmful and destructive, turn away from those things, without being under the rule of the good and holy law.
How to Recognize Legalism Within Ourselves
Every word in scripture might be viewed as a command or demand on us that we live by. There are a lot of instructions in scripture. A lot. And we must do all of them. Some people attend church so that they can receive new instructions to live by for that week. What I use to do is listen to the sermon and think about other people that these instructions would be good for, you know, because I’m doing so well at these things. Then there are others who might want to be convicted about what they are not doing, that they should be doing.
There came a point in my life where I realized I was not able to measure up to these instructions, and I fell into despair. This nagging doubt that maybe I didn’t have the Holy Spirit because I wasn’t able to obey the law. It was the ministry that brings death, at work killing me. As legal listeners, we might find ourselves in pride, despair, or apathy.
The law is a task master, and it is never satisfied with our performance. The instructions will keep us always striving and never arriving, unable to enter God’s rest. Even the best of us has limitations and disabilities and we just can’t do everything that these commands demand of us. The Ministry of the Spirit is to lead us away from the fading glory of the law.
Now, instead of being a legal listener, I am becoming a gospel listener. I ignore commands, or rather I treat them as appeals to a freed conscience. This is called setting boundaries within your heart and mind to guard your heart. I walk through this world righteous and holy as a gift, in the love of God for me. It’s the highest high possible in this world. I am trusting that many opportunities to help others will come my way, and I have an open permission to say yes or no to what I’m willing and able to do. We have permission to confess our sin and receive the absolution: Our sins are forgiven and we are holy on account of Christ, crucified and resurrected. We have permission to have our minds renewed away from law and sin, to walk in the Spirit righteous and holy as a gift.
How We Might Experience Legalism From Others
The other person might be communicating to us…
– It’s my job to love you by telling you what to do.
– This is how I lived my life; and you should do what I did.
– You are not capable of making your own decisions, I must make them for you.
– I’m going to use my personal preferences to lead you.
– The great commission is a gateway into legalism: God commands me to command you, and this is my ministry.
In recovering from legalism…
– I became settled within myself that I am capable of making my own decisions, and other people are capable of making their own decisions. We are responsible for ourselves, not for others.
– I can empower people to make decisions that might be different from mine.
– I have permission to live with my personal preferences, and others have permission to live with their personal preferences.
– The great commission is a gateway: to discovering our freedoms in Christ.
Jesus sets us free from these heavy burdens. God has brought people into my life to help set me free. This is what the body of Christ is for. To help lift the heavy burden of the law off each other, and so fulfill the law of Christ. We live in open permission and possibilities.
A Renewed Mindset
Thank God for Jesus who fulfilled all the commands, because we cannot. He took them away from us at the cross, and gives us righteousness and holiness, as a gift. We receive a secure attachment to the knowledge that God is already pleased with us on account of Christ’s obedience, shed blood, death, burial, and resurrected. It is finished. Now we have permission to read instructions as appeals, not commands, to a freed conscience. We can breathe easier, and trust that we might find ourselves doing some of these things, now and then, or maybe we won’t, as the Spirit leads us.
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Here is something that I want to try to explain regarding gender roles, and “wives submit”. Romans 7 communicates that Moses is not our husband, Jesus is. Jesus sets us free from the rule of the law, and gives us open permission and possibilities in our life in Christ. Husbands and wives, or men and women, who understand this will give their spouse, and others, the same freedom that they have received from Christ. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. Ephesians 5:24 could be understood as the husband is no longer telling his wife what to do. He gives her an open permission to be led by her spirit, and by the Holy Spirit. He respects and honors her as a co-heir in the grace of life. The wife returns this favor to her husband. This is how we could understand submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, Ephesians 5:21.
The wife is not relating to her husband as if she is a child and he is her father. Christians don’t need to practice the sin of patriarchy, meaning Father Rule, or he will rule over you. The culture doctrine, where your husband is like your dad, and you obey him, as Rachel Jankovic has been indoctrinated, to help God undo the curse as Second Eve? Here is a stunning example of our obedience having greater value than Christ’s obedience on our behalf. Rachel Jankovic, and her father Doug Wilson, are cohorts with John Piper, teaching and practicing the same yoke of slavery, and high control religion. In their minds, the original sin was not eating the forbidden fruit. They communicate that the original sin was that Adam was created first with authority, and Eve became a feminist and usurped Adam’s authority. Now their “gospel” is to get women to obey men. It’s the mindset of the old Adam. John Piper grounds this mindset in 1 Timothy 2:13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. Submission Without Freedom is Oppression.
Related:
The Trinity and Gender “Roles” – Authority & Submission
Here is something to consider about the mindset of the new creation, and the message of the new covenant. When we submit to Christ we are submitting to our freedom from the rule of law. “For freedom Christ has set us free. Not for love, but for freedom itself.” Mark Anderson is referencing Galatians 5:1 For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.
In new creation, husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters in Christ are in union. We work together. Hierarchies of authority and submission create unhealthy relationships in the home and in the church body. Jesus says in Matthew 20:25 You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. 26 It must not be like that among you. Husbands, you will not give an account for your wife, Jesus made her holy at the cross. Everyone in the body of Christ should have their own authority, and we should not practice having a domineering authority over each other. To stand firm in our freedom we may have to practice setting some boundaries within ourselves, and follow Paul’s example of not submitting to the circumcision and law of Moses party. Maybe even while existing in community with them.
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Thank you, Mark Anderson. You have a gift for communicating the law in a way where Jesus is the only one left standing there. Am Baptized. Grace and Peace.
Thank you, Alexander McConnell. You have a ministry for emphasizing righteousness as a gift, and setting our mind on the Spirit. Small but Full: How to Experience Life to the Full by Guarding Your Heart.
Thank you, Laura Castleberry. Your ministry led me away from the darkness of the law at Sinai, and into the light of Christ at Mount Zion. Hebrews 12:18 For you have not come to what could be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm, 19 to the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of words. Those who heard it begged that not another word be spoken to them, 20 for they could not bear what was commanded: If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.21 The appearance was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear. 22 Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels, a festive gathering, 23 to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a Judge, who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel.
If you are someone who maybe has one foot planted on Mount Sinai and the other foot resting on Mount Zion, Jesus came to earth to set us free from the rule, authority, condemnation, power of sin, darkness, and curse of the law. We have permission to live spontaneously in the Spirit, righteous and holy as a gift. Jesus sets us free from legalism. Learning to read scripture through this lens, this renewed mindset, is the joy of the Lord.
Enjoy your life in Christ.
*I want to start taking note of all the places that Paul makes appeals to us. The book of Philemon is one of them. Romans chapter 12 is another. Our ministry of reconciliation is another place for appeals 2 Corinthians 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. When we think about becoming the righteousness of God we can think of it as a gift, not law. If you know of other appeals leave a comment below.
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Sarah Batdorf 
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