Freedom from Legalism

(This is a guest post by my husband Eric Kleinsasser)

When I came to faith in Jesus seventeen years ago there was a sense of real childlike faith and love in my heart for Jesus. From the very beginning of my walk with God something began to find root and slowly grow in my heart and began to strangle the joy I had initially found in my faith in Jesus. The seed that found root in my heart was watered by the ideas, practices and teachings of the church environments I had been a part of for many years in the formative years of my faith. 

This seed was legalism. 

Legalism is a word that triggers some and feels like a breath of fresh air to others. For many of us the word has different connotations. The word “legalism” does not occur in the Bible, so we have to define what we mean by the word and appropriately correspond that definition to biblical texts and stories. I will define legalism as the belief that law-keeping, traditions and the keeping of extra biblical rules or practices are the grounds of our acceptance with God.¹

Every true believer in Jesus can be affected by legalism. Every denomination or church can suffer from legalism. In some Dutch Reformed Churches the insistence on singing only Psalms in church gatherings can be legalistic. Charismatics can be legalistic when they insist that every believer must pray in tongues in order to show evidence that they have the Spirit and are truly saved. Conservative Anabaptists can be legalistic when insisting on certain forms of dress and that any other form is worldly and therefore must be displeasing to God. Independent Fundamentalist Baptists can be legalistic when they insist that only the KJV is God’s actual word and that all other Bible translations are corrupt. Non-Denominational house churches can be legalistic when insisting that the only biblical place to gather for meetings is a house and that church buildings are traditions of men. 

I am not writing on this topic because I became aware that legalism was a problem around me but rather because I became aware of its root in me. Because of this, I want to write with an attitude of grace and humility and publicly acknowledge my own failure in past and possibly present legalist attitudes. At the same time I want to speak the truth and do so unapologetically so those of us who are currently being affected by legalism can be set free. 

Jesus and Legalism 

Jesus did many things when he was here on earth. He preached the Gospel of the Kingdom. He taught the O.T. scriptures and how they pointed to Him. He healed the sick. He cast out demons. He communed with His Father through prayer. He prophesied. He forgave sinners. He spent time eating and drinking with people far from God. He did many other things that helped us understand who He was, who the Father was and what would be the nature of the new covenant that He would initiate.

One of the other things that Jesus did was fight religious hypocrisy and legalism. When you read the gospels it seems like some of the interactions and conversations Jesus had with the religious leaders are unlike His normal character but I want to say that they are completely consistent with who He is.

The reality is that religious hypocrisy and legalism always leads people to take God’s name in vain. Taking God’s name in vain is not primarily about using God’s name as a swear word but rather misrepresenting Him in actions and words while maintaining the confession that you are His follower and belong to Him.  

The Old Testament identifies several different ways in which the command of taking God’s name in vain can be violated. One of those ways was to blaspheme or curse the name of God as in Leviticus 24:16. Another way was to swear by God’s name falsely as in Lev 19:12. Yet another way to take God’s name in vain was to claim false visions and to make false claims to speak on God’s behalf as in Jeremiah 23:25. Sacrificing one’s children to the false god Molech was considered a violation of taking God’s name in vain because it profaned the name of God as in Lev. 18:21. The Israelites were to put to death the man who sacrificed his children in this way. If they didn’t it would allow for uncleanness to permeate the camp, thereby tainting the name of the Lord who was in the midst of His people.

Why did God take such extreme measures for taking His name in vain? Why did He connect the sinful actions of his people as being responsible for profaning His name? It is because a name marks us and identifies us. In Scripture God was known by many names and titles. God’s nature, attributes and the totality of His being is reflected in His names. When we carry the Lord’s name and identify with him, yet walk in ways that do not reflect the nature and character of who He is, we misrepresent who God is to those around us. 

Think of your own name. Over time, as people get to know us our name embodies who we are. Think of a person you love deeply, a friend, your spouse or a child and how who they are is connected to their name. For example, when someone says the name Rafael, I am overcome with good thoughts because I cannot separate my little boy from his name. A host of emotions, experiences, and desires come to me at the sound of that name.

In the Lord’s prayer Jesus taught us to address the Father with the phrase “hallowed be your name.” His name is to be reverenced and respected. As believers our lives should be lived in a way that shows reverence for the One we are identifying with. 

Jesus did not take lightly to ideas and practices that misrepresented God’s name and caused God’s name to be used in vain. Think of Matt 21:12-13 when Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple courts. In fact all of Jesus’ harshest interactions were with the religious leaders of the day, especially the Pharisees. The irony of this is that the Pharisees original founding was based on a desire to be completely committed to God. Their original motive for everything that they did came from a heart that longed in some way to be pleasing to God. Legalism rarely starts off in judgment and often begins with a genuine desire to please God and do what He commanded us to. 

The root meaning of the word “Pharisee” is uncertain, but most likely related to a Hebrew word with the root meaning “separate” or “detach.” From whom did the Pharisees separate? They separated from other priests, who interpreted the law differently than they did, from Gentiles or Jews who embraced Hellenistic culture, and from certain political groups. The Pharisees tried to avoid these groups of people to separate themselves from any type of impurity proscribed by the levitical law or more specifically their strict interpretation of it.

In Luke 6:40 Jesus said that “every disciple when he is fully trained will be like his Master.” Many of us want to be like Jesus in many ways but do we want to join him in his fight by calling out religious hypocrisy and legalism and to bring God’s people to freedom? 

One of the most charged interactions Jesus had with the Pharisees is recorded in Matt 14 and 15. I’d like to expound these verses in order to understand Jesus’ thoughts towards legalism and religious hypocrisy. 

Matt 14:34-36 

“And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognised him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.”

Matt 15:1-14 

“Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.

You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

And he called the people to Him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 

The context of the Pharisees challenging Jesus is that He had just finished healing the sick in an unusually powerful way. The sick just simply touched Jesus’ robe and they were healed. If the Pharisees didn’t see this with their own eyes they at the very least heard about it from people. Even though they knew that Jesus was powerfully healing people who were suffering from all manner of sicknesses, and that His power was obviously from God, they were more concerned that Jesus was breaking a tradition of man, than the fact that those suffering were being made whole. The washing of hands was commanded by the tradition of the elders. It was not a commandment of God. 

This is an example of how legalism can blind us. We can elevate a human tradition to a point where our minds ascribe it to be equal or even more important than God’s actual word. Legalism so blinded the Pharisees that they literally missed when God came in human flesh to bring them salvation. Not only did they miss-identify the Son of God, they ended up persecuting him, slandering him, and helping put him to death. Part of the reason why is that Jesus did not go along with their traditions, hypocrisy and extra biblical commands that they forced upon God’s people but rather publicly denounced and stood against them, seeking to bring God’s covenant people to freedom. 

Jesus responded strongly to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. They declared people unclean because of their traditions, not because of God’s word. By doing this, they denied people access to the very presence of God. They did this by forbidding those who were unclean to enter the temple to pray.  

Jesus challenged the Pharisees and showed them how they disobeyed God’s actual word through the practice of another tradition and teaching of men. The clear command of God stated that everyone should honor their father and mother. Some Jewish people of Jesus’ day had a way to get around the command to honor your parents. If they declared that all their possessions or savings were a gift to God that was specially dedicated to Him, they could then say that their resources were unavailable to help their parents because their resources belonged to God. This hypocritical practice was directly influenced by the teaching of the Pharisees, who were literally teaching the people to disobey God’s word. 

Is it possible for us to do the same thing today? Is it possible for us to elevate extra-biblical teachings to the degree that we actually violate the very word of God?

Here is an example. Does the scripture command women to wear dresses at all times, as is required by certain churches and denominations? The answer is no. If we make a rule or standard in our local church that in order to be a member a woman must wear a dress how can we “receive others just as Christ also received us” as it says in Romans 15:7?

If Christ receives into His body, His church, and His people a woman because of her repentance and faith in Christ, how can we then exclude that person from being a part our local church because she is not following a command that is not given in scripture but is rather an extra biblical application which has become a tradition in our particular local church.  Doesn’t that practice the very thing that Jesus speaks against in this passage? 

The reason I use this particular example is because for many years I was a part of churches that held to the idea that in order for a woman to be a member in the church she had to wear dresses or skirts. I do not believe this should be necessary in order for someone to be able to be a part of a local church. I do not believe scriptures teach this.²

Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites. He knew that even though He was clearly explaining to them how their traditions were causing them and the people they were influencing to violate the word of God, they would not change their minds. They were lovers of their own ideas more than lovers of the truth. They were hypocrites in the sense that they claimed to be lovers of God’s word and commandments yet when confronted with their disobedience to God’s word they chose to attack the one pointing out their inconsistencies and religious hypocrisy instead of humbling themselves and repenting and changing their minds They did this in an attempt to silence the voice of truth that was being spoken for the purpose of setting God’s people free from the traditions of men in order to live unto God.  

Jesus goes on to say that this type of “worship” is completely vain. Hypocritical worship of God is that which gives an external impression that one loves God and His word but when that person is confronted with disobedience to God’s very word the person chooses to not to repent but rather defend and continue in disobedience. There can be many different ways to do this.

It is also vain worship to teach people to follow extra biblical commands and traditions of men as if those were the very commands of God. This is not pleasing to God! Instead it is vain worship. Following extra biblical rules does not somehow help you to be closer to God or to be somehow more spiritual or holy or special to God above other believers. 

The teaching that keeping extra biblical commandments and traditions of men is what is necessary by us in order for God to approve of us or to be accepted by him and special to Him, can be filled with pride. It is to exert that I, as a proponent of this human teaching am somehow more wise and foresightful than God, who must have forgotten to include this particular thing or idea in enough detail in his word, so I’ll help Him along by adding some things to his word that He forgot to add. Maybe God left certain issues to be more vague so that there can be multiple different ways in different contexts and settings to live out the principle he gave us in scripture. This does not mean we shouldn’t seek to apply God’s word but rather we should do it carefully and thoughtfully in a manner that is consistent with the rest of scripture and the character of God. 

Jesus gathers the people together and turns His attention away from the Pharisees, saying that it isn’t things that go in us that defile us but rather things that come out from us that defile us. He was saying this with the understanding that He was initiating the new covenant and anticipating a time to come that the Old Covenant would be swept away by the New Covenant. The time was soon coming when believers would no longer live under the letter of the law but rather by the Holy Spirit. This New Covenant life was initiated on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church. It was therefore inevitable that the church later would receive this understanding more thoroughly by revelation of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:9-16). 

When we lived in Athens, Greece several years ago I was walking through a square and stopped to watch a group of Afghan Muslim kids play football. I noticed one of them had a cast on. I called and motioned the group of boys to come over to me. I asked the boy with the cast if he could move his arm freely and if hand was currently in pain. He said he couldn’t move his hand very much because it was painful. I asked the group of boys if they wanted to see the power of God. They weren’t sure what to say. I asked the boy with his arm in a cast if I could pray for his arm to be healed and his pain to be gone. I prayed a short and simple prayer and asked him to check his arm and move his hand to see if he could use his hands like normal without pain. He had an astonished look on his face and declared that all the pain was gone as he was clenching his fist and opening it over and over again. He had been instantly and completely healed and his arm became completely mobile. The other boys couldn’t believe it and kept asking him if it was real and he kept telling them “yes!” over and over again.

I explained that they had heard me pray in Jesus’ name and that I was a follower of Jesus and did not believe that Muhammed was a prophet of God. If I was a kaffir (which means unbeliever in Arabic) in the eyes of God how could God answer the prayer that I prayed in Jesus’ name and their friend was healed? I kept explaining the gospel to them and they listened intently until one boy piped up and asked the question, “Do you eat pork?” Since they were Muslim this question was an attempt to get me to admit that I was breaking a supposed command of God and if this would be true it would validate that the miracle that had happened couldn’t have come from God. I said to them “Boys, as I was watching you play ball I heard you use many swear words in Farsi. What is worse, to swear and use dirty words or to eat pork?” One of them said swearing was worse than eating pork. I said he was right and that is what Jesus taught and quoted Matt 15: 10-11. Even though I didn’t tell these boys about our Farsi Sunday morning gathering they somehow found out about it and where the church was and several of them were sitting on the front row the next Sunday. 

I share this story to help you see the spiritual blindness that religious legalistic attitudes cause. Do you eat pork? Is that the best question to ask when someone was just miraculously healed and when you yourself refuse to eat pork yet speak and say all kinds of defiling words? It is very similar to what the Pharisees did in this very passage.  

Offense and legalism

Did Jesus know He was offending the Pharisees? Of course He did. In fact He purposefully offended them. Why would He do this? It was probably the only way that they could come to see their religious hypocrisy and most importantly those affected by it could be set free. Jesus usually reserved harsh criticisms for the religious leaders of his day and that was because they were the ones that held the power. They were the ones who were often the most unwilling to change. This was probably because to agree with Jesus meant that they would have to go back on public sermons they had preached and it would have affected their standing and reputation in the community and among other religious leaders. It might have impacted financial support and isolated them from the people around them. 

Put yourself in the crowd two thousand years ago. Would you have been offended at Jesus’ challenging the traditions of the religious group you were a part of? Would you have stepped towards the Pharisees or stepped towards Jesus? You can actually tell what you would have chosen two thousand years ago by the choices you are making today. Does it make you uncomfortable when someone challenges human traditions and extra biblical applications, and man-made rules that your particular church holds to? If your first response on this topic is to be offended, to become tense or defensive, or to respond out of fear you should dig deeper in your heart and mind and ask the question to yourself, “Why I am feeling this way?” Allow yourself to be honest about what causes this type of response in your heart.

The truth is offensive to us when we are not ready to receive it in our hearts.

Sometimes legalism can feel safe. This happens when we become so used to it that anything different feels strange. It can feel unsafe to venture out into a world of following Jesus, free from traditions, extra-biblical applications and man made rules. This is because for years our minds have been pounded with fearful words, like “If you do this, then you will end up over there, and that is not where you or your children want to end up.” 

The truth is that legalism is not safe! It is not safe to raise children in legalistic environments. Why? Because these environments are full of ideas that teach things about God that misrepresent him. When God is misrepresented to us and we believe the misrepresentations, it affects our ability to relate to Him properly. He becomes distant to us and often in our hearts we can secretly give up our pursuit of Him while going through all the religious works, motions and duties that give an appearance of devotion to God while being far from Him. 

Sometimes it can be much worse as many people choose to walk away from the faith and from church because things don’t make sense. The Christian faith doesn’t make sense. All the arbitrary rules don’t make sense and eventually God doesn’t make any sense.   Sometimes believers living under legalism feel like they will never be able to please a harsh God who has been completely misrepresented to them. Often these people have been labeled rebellious, not willing to be under authority, and worldly, among others things when in fact the reason they walked away is because God was misrepresented to them. 

This is why Jesus was so hard on legalism and you probably should be too. 

Jesus summarises what is happening in His exchange with the Pharisees. It is the Father, who through the ministry of the Son is tearing out plants that have not been planted by Him. The meaning of this statement in context of what He is saying is that Jesus is removing through His teachings the traditions, extra biblical applications and rules that have been planted in people’s lives through the teaching of the Pharisees and religious leaders of his day.   

This same work of the Father is ongoing today. He is doing this through the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus poured out on his church after His resurrection. The Holy Spirit is actively working in the world today to tear out plants that have been planted in people’s hearts that are not from God the Father. When the Holy Spirit is poured out upon believers in any place and is allowed to freely speak and work he will challenge the traditions of men, extra biblical applications, legalism, and religious hypocrisy. He will do this in all places in the world wherever He is not stifled and quenched.  

 This is often the reason that when Spirit filled revivals happen the traditions of men are challenged and questioned. This is the Father’s work through the Holy Spirit to bring the people of God to freedom. Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to uproot every plant that has been planted in your heart and mind that has not been put there by God? 

When I observed this spiritual renewal in some people around me many years ago I joined the chorus of voices around me saying that those who no longer saw it necessary to keep the traditions and rules their churches imposed on them just just loved the world or didn’t want to live separate and holy lives. There were a myriad of other comments and insinuations that reflected that very attitude.

It is also true that not every liberty that supposed Spirit filled believers claim is given by the Holy Spirit is actually from him. Many Christians claim all kinds of freedoms that they supposedly have that they do not actually have. God’s grace can be turned to a license for sin. Scripture expressly warns of this in Jude 1:4. 

Jesus tells the people that the Pharisees are blind guides. The meaning of this was that they didn’t have the ability to lead anyone to the truth. He told the people to leave them alone. When there are religious leaders who get offended when their elevated man made traditions are challenged by God’s word and they choose to attack the messenger instead of changing their mind and repenting, it is often best to leave them alone. This is what Jesus did. He didn’t focus His ministry on convincing them or obsessively worry about what they thought of Him. The offense in the hearts of religious leaders that don’t want to change causes an inability to be reasonable and to engage the issues with a genuine heart to understand God’s Word and the truth. The unfortunate consequence of religious leaders like this is that they affect many around them. They themselves fall into pits and cause others to fall into pits that they cannot get out from unless someone else comes and helps them out. 

There are plenty of leaders among God’s people that choose not to do this and it is best to work with these and to align yourself with their leadership. Learn from them, surround yourself with them and allow God to bring healing into your heart and life by being in environments where there are gracious Christian leaders serving the body of Christ in ways that reflect the chief Shepherd and choose to not lord over God’s people but rather lay down their lives to serve the people of God. 

Neo-Leagalism

It can be easy to spot the traditional forms of legalism in the church. It seems easier to identify in the “King James only bible thumping believers” that loudly and harshly criticise anyone that doesn’t agree with them. But what about the more subtle neo-legalism that is creeping into the church? The neo-legalism that is embodied in the always hip, skinny jean wearing, Hebrew tattooed, one ear earrings, proudly beer drinking believers who think that anyone who isn’t not like them or doesn’t agree with all their supposed liberties and practices is a legalist. It’s a perverted form of Christian liberty that legalistically insists that others must agree with their ever changing and expanding Christian liberties when those liberties might be more informed by current western cultural trends than a heartfelt lifestyle that is dedicated to living in true Christian liberty. True Christian liberty rejoices in living a life free from the power of sin and worldly influence and gives no regards to the likes and trends of an ever changing world. I’m not talking about the right or wrong of getting tattoos or trying to draw a stereotype of a progressive legalist in any type of judgemental way but rather point out a legalistic attitude about liberty that insists on constantly being like the unbelieving world, not for the sake of winning it for Christ, but rather simply as an expression of supposed Christian liberty.

This form of progressive legalism has just as much of a Pharisaical attitude of self righteousness that points its finger at others and thanks God that they are not like others. Take out the proud part of that stereotype and you will find believers in Jesus that love Him that fit that description. Legalism is more about an attitude than it is about certain things we do and don’t do. 

This attitude can sometimes hide under the idea of becoming like those around us for the sake of winning them for Christ, but strangely enough very few people are won to Christ by these types of believers because this form of liberty is not actually true Christian liberty that invites the fullness of the Spirit’s life to be lived through us, which is what we need in order to effectively win the world for Christ. Maybe there is some truth in Jesus’ words “The world will hate you” (John 18). The worldly systems and religious systems under varying degrees of control of the enemy will in some measure have distain for those who want to live lives truly honouring Jesus and loving him. We should be helping people out of these systems and not become like them for the sake of comfort and avoiding criticism. 

This neo-legalism is no less harmful than traditional legalism. The belief that law-keeping, traditions and the keeping of extra biblical rules or practices are the grounds of our acceptance with God or somehow make God look upon us with more favour is harmful no matter in what package it comes in even if it is wrapped up in legalistic liberty. 

Sometimes those reacting to traditional legalism can swing over to neo-leaglism. The reason for this that legalistic attitudes need to be repented of and the root needs to be taken out. This is most likely to happen to those that have very little understanding and experience of God’s grace. 

Effects of Legalism 

What can be some of the effects of legalism in our lives?

Pride

Someone who is affected by legalism will experience the temptation to think of himself as better than others. Like the Pharisee that went into the temple to pray and thanked God that he was not like others around him. Often this manifests in Spiritual pride in which there is the attitude that me or my church group are doing better than anyone else in following Jesus; that somehow due to our traditions, extra biblical applications or practices we are somehow more accepted by God than other Christians and churches.

A critical spirit

Having a constant critical attitude towards other believers in Jesus who are not keeping the same rules, regulations and traditions that I keep. This causes me to be suspicious and project caution on anyone who is not part of my group. A critical spirit constantly judges others relationship with God to not be as genuine as my own because that person is not following certain man made standards the way I am. 

The inability to love freely and genuinely

Love is most often conditional in environments where there is legalism and it is only given to the other person if the person measures up to the man made standards and expectations. The reason why is that if a person is fully loved and accepted before they make changes to comply with certain man made standards that person might not be incentivised to adopt these very standards. The idea is that if God doesn’t fully accept someone who hasn’t adopted my standards, then I probably shouldn’t either. Love bombing of new converts and then rejection of them later when they don’t accept and live out the expected man made standards is common. 

Fear

Legalism blinds us with fear mindsets such as, “If we let go of these standards, beliefs, ideas, or traditions where will we end up? We will end up like everyone around us who we might be trying to be separate from. Maybe I can survive but my children will not be able to.” Legalism puts more trust in the wisdom of man to preserve faith than in the power of God at work in us by the Spirit. If in any area of your life you are being controlled, propelled, coerced by fear you need to evaluate if you are not in some measure under demonic influence. Legalism forces us to perform outwardly and encourages superficial relationships with God and others. It also views anyone as threatening that might disagree with my ideas instead of someone I could possibly learn from.

Division and Disunity

Legalism will always cause us to separate from those around us who are not like us. This first happens in our hearts and then in practical outward action. Legalistic churches often have endless devisions about trivial, secondary theological issues, and extra biblical applications that are not found explicitly in scripture. A legalistic attitude does not always begin by judging those outside and in other churches, it often begins by harshly judging the person in the pew beside me because that person isn’t living up to my expectations. Legalism puts division and disunity in the body of Christ on steroids. 

Legalism causes a big cycle. It fosters spiritual pride that causes us to think of ourselves as better than others. This develops into a judgmental and critical attitude towards those who don’t believe as we do which leads to the inability to love others like Jesus loved them. The result of the lack of love produces fear; fear that others will influence us in ways that will take us away from that which we think is safe for us and those around us. The lack of love and a fear response causes disunity and division. We divide with other believers over things that threaten to take us away from our traditions, extra biblical applications. 

As this cycle keeps churning it produces individuals who are hurt, disillusioned, fearful, disconnected from God, against the church, misunderstanding God, unable to properly understand God’s word, faithless, deconstructing, antagonistic, abused, broken and much more. 

It’s time it stops. It’s time that the people of God take a serious look at the effects of legalism; the belief that law-keeping, traditions and the keeping of extra biblical rules or practices are the grounds of our acceptance with God. 

Steps to Freedom

Knowing the Truth

The first step in finding freedom from legalism is to know the truth. In John 8 Jesus said that “when we know the truth we will be set free.” That is why I spent the majority of this article defining legalism and the ideas, thoughts and effects that legalism produces. Once we recognise the truths about legalism and its effects we can move forward into a life of liberty that Christ offers to us. If we keep believing lies about the necessity of living under legalism, we might stay under a certain level of bondage because it feels safe and familiar or others might reject us if we chose to not live under certain man made rules. 

Understanding Grace

We are accepted by God and we are brought into the right relationship with God because of his grace that was extended to us through the work of Jesus. It is through Jesus’ death and resurrection that we are justified and made right with God the Father. It is by God’s grace through freely offering to us his son and our faith that we are saved and kept saved. True faith always obeys Jesus. A heart filled with faith and love towards Jesus keeps obeying Jesus. 

Ephesians 2:8 

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

It is by God’s grace, His unmerited, undeserving, favour, that we could not have possibly earned that we are saved. Salvation is a gift. A gift cannot be earned but rather is received with gladness knowing that a gift is an expression of love from one person to another. God’s gift of his son was a radical display of love towards us. We choose to believe in Jesus for our salvation and we keep on believing in Jesus to experience ongoing salvation. 

God brought salvation to mankind in this way so that our salvation would not be of works so that no one could boast in themselves. If salvation was the accomplishment of our works in any way, we could boast about how good we are. But through God’s plan of salvation, God alone receives the glory, and we joyfully, from our hearts, thank and worship God compelled by his love. 

One of the beautiful things about the gospel is that it propels us to be active in good works. These are just as much a part of God’s plan for us as everything else pertaining to salvation. Walking in God’s grace will cause us to love him and obey him. 

Just because some believers apply and live out scripture differently than the way I do does not mean that they are walking in disobedience. Sincere followers of Jesus have many times interpreted scripture differently. A measure of that in the church is to be expected.  

If we have not received God’s grace we struggle to give grace to others. We hurt and offend those around us. When we understand grace we can love others regardless of where they are  in life. 

Learning to enjoy friendship with God

In John 15:15 Jesus connected hearing the voice of his Father to friendship with him. 

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” 

Jesus said that His disciples were no longer just servants but now friends. The reason why is that they were hearing from Jesus everything that the Father was speaking to him. Friendship with God involves hearing the Father’s voice. It is impossible to have a deep and intimate friendship with God without hearing His voice. In the larger context it is also impossible to have a relationship with God without obedience to Jesus. 

A healthy relationship with God is both hearing God and walking in obedience. Friendship with God without obedience leads to lawlessness. Obedience without friendship leads to a slave-like relationship with God. 

We were created to hear God’s voice. In the beginning there was no bible or tradition, only man and God who appeared and spoke in an audible voice. This was God’s original intent. To walk with us and talk to us, to be friends and to have us enjoy him forever. What are the times you enjoy the most in life? Aren’t some of those times you spend with friends? Just as friends are meant to enjoy each other, so also God’s intention in relationship with us is for us to enjoy Him and to find our deepest pleasure in Him.

Repentance

I want to call us to freedom through repentance from any plants of legalism that are rooted in our hearts. Repentance from the effects of legalism such as spiritual pride, a critical spirit, the inability to love freely and genuinely, fear, and causing and aiding disunity and division in the body of Christ. Repentance from trying to perform for God in order to be pleasing to Him instead of accepting His love for us. 

Confess to God today that you want to be free and receive and walk in his Grace! Repent of legalism and its effect in your life and then begin to make everyday choices that oppose the legalistic choices, attitudes and actions that you have been walking in. This will bring a beautiful renewal in your relationship with God and love towards others in a deeper way than you have experienced before. 

I’m so thankful that Jesus brought me back to the first love I had when I believed in Him. My love and commitment towards Him has matured and grown but the freedom I had with him in the beginning has been restored.

Photo by Katarzyna Pe on Unsplash

Footnotes:

1. This is a revised definition from John Piper
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2. Wearing dresses is a beautiful way for women to dress. My wife wore only dresses for many years as do many of our friends and family. The form of dress is not what makes us legalistic, but a heart posture of self-righteousness because of what we wear. ↩︎