Me: Howdy Prodigal!
Prodigal: You showed up at the right time, me and my friend were just wandering what to do next. We have not decided yet.
Me: Maybe I can share with you some encouragement?
Prodigal: That would be great!
Today I am going to share about legalism from the book Light for the Path by Edward Welch
Turning Back
“Tell me, you who want to be under the law,” wrote Paul to the church. The gospel becomes a new self-imposed law when we add anything to what Christ has done, and Paul says that we actually prefer this arrangement.
Leaving entrenched legalism is a straightforward process, but you should expect to leave many times. It won’t happened all at once. In Paul’s book to the churches in Galatia, he marshals a number of arguments to persuade people of the truth of Christ and the error of legalism.
–He expresses his personal astonishment that people would turn from the grace of Christ (Gal 1:6).
–He establishes his own credentials to speak with authority (Gal 1-11-2:14).
–He cites Abraham as an example of how we are first given promises we receive by faith, and only then are we given rules for living. These are responses to his grace (Gal. 3-1-25)
–He cites how God chose Isaac, Abraham’s son by God’s promise, rather than Ishmael, Abraham’s son by a man-made plan (Gal. 4:21-31).
–He reminds us that it is only grace that keeps us from racism and other forms of pride. Otherwise, we judge by laws we think we have kept and others have not. If we add our works to the grace of God, we will no longer be one people unified by Christ, but one small clique that thinks it is better than the others (Gal 3:26-29).
–He keeps emphasizing that he wants us to be free, and freedom can only be found when we acknowledge that Christ has done it all (Gal. 5:1-5).
Paul summarizes his teaching against legalism with this familiar exhortation: “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love”(Gal. 5:6). If this is true (and it is) we as legalists should respond by saying, “Lord, forgive me.” We had been counting on something we could accomplish ourselves rather than relying on the grace of God. We were actually proud enough to think we could please God on our own merits. To think so, we must have had a very superficial understanding of sin.
First we need to look for legalism in our walk with God, our relationships, our church and then fight against this daily and weekly. We then turn to grace and God’s love for us. Only then are we able to recover our joy and return to the heart of the gospel.
Philippians 3:4
Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
Jennifer Van Allen
www.faithincounseling.org
www.theprodigalpig.com
