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006 | Legalism | Theology AMA
752 Plays5 years ago
One of the issues with legalism is that it tries to manufacture the spirit led life without the Holy Spirit. It removes the Holy Spirit and proof texts the scriptures.
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Transcript
Introduction to Verity Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Verity. I'm your host, Felicia Masonheimer, an author, speaker, and Bible teacher. This podcast will help you embrace the history and depth of the Christian faith, ask questions, seek answers, and devote yourself to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. You don't have to settle for watered-down Christian teaching. And if you're ready to go deeper, God is just as ready to take you there. This is Verity, where every woman is a theologian.
Addressing Abuse in Religious Communities
00:00:30
Speaker
Right before I sat down to record this episode, I was listening to an episode on another podcast. This podcast is called the Plain People podcast. My friend Jenny introduced me to it, and it's one that I can't universally recommend because it can be very triggering and it's very heartbreaking, but it talks about abuse
00:00:51
Speaker
that has occurred in some very conservative Amish and Mennonite churches. And because we lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania for a year and many of our friends there were ex-Mennonite or ex-brethren, I was just curious about the podcast and I've listened to several episodes.
Dangers of Legalism in Churches
00:01:12
Speaker
And so the last episode I was listening to was talking about an abuse case where the family was coming out of
00:01:20
Speaker
a Mennonite church that was extremely legalistic. Now I want to be sure to clarify, not all Mennonite churches are like this. This was a particular church that was operating this way. And the thing about legalism is that it
00:01:40
Speaker
inevitably leads to either hedonism, self-righteousness, or abuse. And we're going to get into what legalism is and how it shapes us, what we can do to avoid it and confront it biblically.
00:01:57
Speaker
But I wanted to just make that connection because when we add on to the Word of God, it can lead to some extremely serious abuses, not just living in self-righteousness or being arrogant, which is probably a lower level in our minds.
00:02:18
Speaker
sin than sexual abuse but it can also lead us to actually justify these grievous sins or cover up these sins because we've created a standard of quote-unquote righteousness that's only about the outward appearance and it doesn't tell us the full story of what's going on in someone's heart and so legalistic environments actually promote
00:02:43
Speaker
this cover-up, this secrecy, this hidden sin, because you cannot be vulnerable, you cannot be transparent in an environment like that. And that's not something that's relegated only to your occasional extremely abusive Mennonite church or Amish church. This happens everywhere.
00:03:06
Speaker
Every denomination we see this happen in the Catholic Church. We see this happen Willow Creek where we see these sexual scandals happening And why is it happening? You've got a power struggle or a power abuse from a spiritual leader whose outward appearance is what matters most and so
00:03:30
Speaker
I know that this is kind of starting out this episode very serious and perhaps even a little scary or discouraging, but I want to just relay how important the legalism conversation is because it isn't harmless. It isn't something that we can ignore.
Legalism in 'Stop Calling Me Beautiful'
00:03:50
Speaker
I would honestly say, I don't have numbers, this is just anecdotal, but I would honestly say that most people who leave the church do so because of legalism. It's a big deal. So, we're looking at chapter 5 of Stop Calling Me Beautiful, this first season of Verity.
00:04:11
Speaker
is going through the topics in each chapter of my new book, Stop Calling Me Beautiful, Finding Soul Deep Strength in a Skin Deep World. We're talking about how Christ gives us victory and strength to overcome in all areas of life, and specifically focusing on certain areas where Jesus is giving us that power. And we've talked about sexual sin, we've talked about community, we've talked about understanding the Bible rightly, and now we're talking about legalism.
00:04:41
Speaker
Now, this is something that I am so passionate about, not just because of the propensity for legalism to result in abuse, to result in people leaving the church or becoming hedonistic or becoming simply self-righteous and arrogant and proud of their own perceived righteous behavior, but because
00:05:03
Speaker
I grew up in very conservative circles, and I've watched the damage that legalism does, not just in the lives of other people, but in my own life, when I took on forms of legalism and added on to the freedom of Scripture, I've seen what that did to my heart, I've seen what that did to my friendships, and what it did to my view of God, because legalism destroys.
Understanding Legalism and Holiness
00:05:29
Speaker
It does not build up.
00:05:32
Speaker
So the first thing we want to talk about is what legalism is. And the way I like to describe it is it's man's shortcut to holiness. It's looking at scripture, expanding what is there, and saying, well, if we want to honor God, we need to do all of these things. We need to create these extra fences, and then taking those fences and saying, this is what God said to do.
00:06:01
Speaker
So many people point to the Pharisees in scripture as the first legalists, and I do think we need to be careful with this historically, because the more I understand the Jewish context of scripture, I actually have more compassion on the Pharisees. Now, I'm not saying I'm going up against what Jesus said to them directly.
00:06:22
Speaker
But we need to understand that the commentary on Torah, so the Mishnah, that they were mainly abiding by, wasn't all bad. It wasn't like, oh, they just invented all these rules on top of Torah, and so therefore they became legalists.
00:06:41
Speaker
No, there was a lot of commentary on Torah that was part of their understanding of how to walk it out. And the issue became when they elevated the commentary above Torah instead of using it as a tool to better observe the law of God. And so for us, we have that same struggle where we can tend to look at scripture
00:07:05
Speaker
and see, you know, commands to be in unity with our brethren. Well, what would make it easier to be in unity with our brethren? And we come up with some ideas. Maybe, you know, well, let's create a program at church where everybody has to pitch in and take turns in the nursery so that where everybody can have a chance to sit in the service. So
00:07:29
Speaker
Pretty soon you've got this program with everybody is taking turns in the nursery mandated I've never seen church do this, but let's just go with it mandated everybody takes the turn in the nursery and then you take
00:07:41
Speaker
that idea and you say you're in sin if you don't, you know, do your time. You're in sin or observing saying that someone's motives are sinful or wrong if they don't fulfill their obligation and that they're going up against the unity of the church because they're not participating the way that they should.
00:08:02
Speaker
This is kind of a vague example, but I hope you're seeing what I'm saying here is that we take the principle, we add onto it, and then we act as if God gave that addition, and we hold people to that. That's an example of legalism. But a more probably tangible example for you where legalism tends to show up is in modesty. So, modesty is a favorite for expanding on God's commands
00:08:30
Speaker
and adding on to what we were told to do. So we see a few commands in scripture regarding modesty. Really, they just say modest dress. And when we look at the context of where this discussion was happening, a lot of the modesty, what's modesty mean? It means humility. A lot of the modesty had to do with not showcasing your wealth,
00:08:54
Speaker
in a church that had mixed economic statuses. So don't come in, as Peter said, with your hair braided with golden pearls, which was typical for Greek women back then. Their hair could weigh as much as 12 pounds with all of the jewelry they'd have in it. They come into the church this way and they make the poorer people feel like they don't belong.
00:09:23
Speaker
Modesty was giving others this example of humility, of being open to community without, you know, flashing yourself around. Now, what has happened is we've taken that principle and we expand it and we say, well, true modesty
00:09:45
Speaker
is shoulder to shoulder, neck to knee. Anything other than that, God is not pleased with. And then we come up with verses to support that. And if that's your standard, totally respectable. The problem is when you take that standard and you then judge other people's motives by it.
00:10:04
Speaker
That is not our job. That is not in scripture. It's not in scripture. Even though when I was growing up as a teenager in the homeschool world, I had several girls tell me, it's in the Bible, shoulder to shoulder, neck to knee. It's in the Bible somewhere. And I remember looking through Leviticus going, I don't, you know, I don't love Leviticus, but I sure can't find this in here. You know, I've heard sermons where it was talked about how the tunics that were given to Adam and Eve
00:10:33
Speaker
were, you know, a standard set for how we should dress. All of this to say that legalism happens when we take what is clearly in Scripture, dress modestly, a principle of behavior that isn't super detailed, it isn't a checklist, and we expand it to become the checklist that we want and then we measure other people by it.
00:11:00
Speaker
Now, here's the thing that people often miss when it comes to legalism. Legalism takes many forms. Most people associate it with long skirts, long hair, purity rings, chaperone dates, but the other extreme is also true when someone says it's uptight or legalistic to refrain from swearing. Oh, you're just so legalistic because you're not comfortable swearing. Or to wear a suit to church or to only sing hymns.
00:11:28
Speaker
as if these things prevent a real relationship with God, that's another form of legalism. You can be just as legalistic about tattoos, trendy church services, as you can about dating and modesty. Legalism is any action added onto the Gospel in order to please God.
Legalism Across Different Church Environments
00:11:45
Speaker
I actually see this the most in charismatic environments, and for those of you who don't know, I come from a charismatic background. My grandparents were Assemblies of God,
00:11:54
Speaker
It's a strong legacy in my family, even though we're no longer in a charismatic church. And in the charismatic world, the legalism often takes a form of being open to the, quote unquote, Holy Spirit. And if you're not dancing around or as expressive in your worship, or maybe you're not comfortable with some of the words that are in some of the worship songs, or maybe you don't have the gift of tongues and you don't speak in tongues,
00:12:22
Speaker
they will say things like, well, you're not open to the Holy Spirit. You're not open to the leading of God. That's an example of adding on to Scripture, adding extra rules on in a different form than you might see in a fundamentalist Baptist church. So this takes
00:12:39
Speaker
It takes all different kinds of forms because legalism is not something that your indie fundy friend has a monopoly on. It is a spiritual problem and it can pervade any environment if you let it. And so it's important that we walk with the Holy Spirit to guide us into the abundant life Jesus promised and learn how to discern legalism and confront it in our lives.
00:13:09
Speaker
So a lot of legalism comes back to the right way to be a Christian. But the right way to be a Christian is to follow the Holy Spirit according to the word of God. And the thing about God's word, and the longer I study it, the more time I spend in it, the more I see this, he really is not super specific in a lot of the things he commands. A lot of what he commands is actually very broad.
00:13:36
Speaker
We hear about this often with dating relationships. There's no dating chapter of the Bible. It was written in a very specific culture. It addressed cultural issues at that time. And so it's up to us to take the principles that were taught and understand them in a whole different culture.
00:13:53
Speaker
And we know that the Bible is inspired and inerrant and it applies to all ages and all cultures. So our job is to understand what is the theological principle that God is after here and how does that translate to my day and age.
00:14:10
Speaker
And to go back to the modesty conversation, humility in dress. Am I drawing undue attention to myself, to my economic status, to my sexuality, to me in general? Am I a distraction?
00:14:27
Speaker
Now, the difference here is that God is not blaming anybody saying, you know, women are responsible to protect men and to keep them from stumbling, which is clearly unscriptural based on what Jesus said about adultery in the Sermon on the Mount, but rather that he's after a heart attitude.
00:14:48
Speaker
the heart attitude of dignity and honor, sanctity of life and sanctity of sex, these things are principles we live by. And if you truly believe in the sanctity of life, you will honor yourself and your body and you will honor others and their bodies. And that will translate to how you dress.
00:15:09
Speaker
It's actually very simple, but it requires walking with the Holy Spirit, listening to his voice and following in obedience when you feel that check in your spirit and say, I don't know if this is an appropriate thing to wear in this environment. And maybe it's time for me to lay down my freedom and choose holiness for the sake of this person who will be there or the environment that I'm in or how I'm presenting myself.
00:15:37
Speaker
One of the issues with legalism is that it tries to manufacture the Spirit-led life without the Holy Spirit. It removes the need for the Holy Spirit.
00:15:50
Speaker
and proof texts the Bible saying that, oh, the Bible says this, instead of understanding that the Holy Spirit expands the Bible and applies it to our lives when the areas that we aren't sure about or seem kind of gray need to be expanded.
True Holiness vs. Legalism
00:16:08
Speaker
He leads us specifically and that will lead
00:16:12
Speaker
to some differences in how we walk out our Christian lives. But the legalists can't stand that, because legalism requires a cookie-cutter Christian. But that's not the kind of Christian that God is after.
00:16:27
Speaker
He's after a holy Christian. And I realize that for some of you, this is going to be really hard to understand because you, we think in our human minds, well, if you're being a Christian, then you all have to look exactly the same way.
00:16:43
Speaker
And this is why we have some people who really take issue with denominations and think that all denominations are bad. Reality is when you understand church history, denominations aren't all bad. Many of the denominations that exist today are the product of little mini-reformations of people choosing to walk in holiness and splitting from a previous church that had chosen to depart from true doctrine.
00:17:08
Speaker
Even the initial Reformation that led to the entire Protestant diversity that we have today, the break from the Catholic Church, this happened because they were trying to reform the Church. Their intent wasn't to break it. They were trying to reform it. When that couldn't happen because of the state of the Catholic Church at that time, they broke off completely. And then the differences of theology resulted in different churches.
00:17:34
Speaker
While it isn't always ideal and there are some really dumb reasons that churches split, a lot of times it's over major doctrinal issues and leads us to a stronger body. So this isn't an episode about church history and denominations. We'll get to that another season.
00:17:54
Speaker
I just want to say that this legalism conversation ties into this because when you think that all Christians, they all need to look the same, they all need to do the same thing. No, we unite around the gospel in walking that out in holiness, pursuing holiness. Sin has to be defined the same way on the matters that God defined it, not on the matters of shorts versus skirts.
00:18:22
Speaker
God does not speak to that. And so it's our job to walk out our convictions with the Holy Spirit's leading in those areas. And remember that in the end, God's gospel is what needs to be furthered, not just our modesty standards.
00:18:39
Speaker
Okay, friends, we know that scripture applies to all of life and two areas of life where I see the influence of the Christian worldview the most is in relationships and sexuality. For a long time, that's actually what my blog was about, was about Christian sexuality and dating and marriage relationships. I've moved a little bit away from that on the blog, but I do have two books that focus on these areas and they are available on Amazon and on my website.
00:19:08
Speaker
So the first one is safe to feel, a 30-day devotional for women who struggle with affection. This is great for women who struggle with emotional intimacy or wondering why they want to withdraw when people want to hug them, kind of getting to the root of that struggle and what scripture says about it.
00:19:25
Speaker
The second one is called Christian Cosmo, the sex talk you never had. And this book is for any woman who needs to reframe her view of sexuality, to understand God's view of sex and what it means for her, especially if you never got taught a biblical sexual ethic from someone who loved you and cared about you. These books are both available on Amazon or also on FeliciaMasonheimer.com and all the proceeds from them go to support this podcast.
00:19:54
Speaker
Okay, so when we're looking at scripture's guides around legalism, as I said earlier, legalism always ends up in one of two ways in self-righteousness or hedonism. We can either end up exalting our own behavior or rejecting
00:20:11
Speaker
our faith in order to please ourselves. And both of these things start with a small view of God. So when I was in my teens, my parents suggested, strongly suggested that we not date in high school.
00:20:27
Speaker
And this wasn't like a rule. My dad wasn't on the porch with a shotgun. He just said, I dated in high school. Your mom dated in high school. We didn't end up with any of those people. So it's probably best if you just don't date in high school and just have a lot of great friendships.
00:20:43
Speaker
So we didn't. And I'm very grateful for that. I think it really helped me to stay undistracted during that period of time and set me up for success after high school. And so when I was 18, I got asked on a date. So how exciting, right? Well, I didn't know what to do.
00:21:03
Speaker
I guess I never really asked and immediately was thinking, what's the rule for this situation? So rather than actually be a normal person, I told the guy that he needed to call my dad. I handed him a business card and I ran up the sidewalk to my car.
00:21:24
Speaker
so handled that really well. But when I told my dad what happened, he started laughing and said, why on earth did you do that? I never told you a guy had to call me before you could go on a date with him. If he's a decent guy, I trust you. So my parents' initial rule was made out of love and care and wisdom.
00:21:49
Speaker
But I took their initial rule and created extra rules for myself, ones my parents never even gave me. This is an example of what we do with God's law. We take the law of love, which is meant to keep us in harmony with Him, a general principle for living, wisdom from Him that's His law of love, and we add extra burdens to His commands. Then, when the burden becomes too heavy, we blame God for being unreasonable, and we run from His grace.
00:22:19
Speaker
Do you see how ridiculous this is? It's as ridiculous as me handing a guy a business card as if my dad told me to do that when he never did. He had given me this wisdom. I took it, expanded on it, living in fear instead of trust, and ended up making a fool of myself. Thank heavens that I met Josh five years later because, good gracious, I might never be married otherwise.
00:22:46
Speaker
So, running from God, because of man-made rules, is a pattern as old as humanity. We see this with the Pharisees and Sadducees. When they reject Jesus, they knew God's promise of a Savior better than anyone else. But for all their talk about God and His Holiness, the Pharisees' view of God was actually quite small. They could not see how God could fulfill His Messiah promise through someone like Jesus.
00:23:17
Speaker
And they were more concerned with the rules that made people look good, no matter what was going on inside. And that's what legalism does. It limits God, it minimizes who he is, and it aligns us to his true work. Legalism presents him as caring more about outward actions than the heart behind those actions. And that's not what God is most concerned about. He's concerned about the motives of our hearts. Now, I want to add a little caveat here.
00:23:47
Speaker
hear sometimes from people who are coming out of legalism or were burned by legalism, that the motive of the heart is all that matters, so it doesn't matter how you behave. And the reality is this, when you love the Lord your God with all your heart, which is the first and greatest commandment, you're going to pursue holiness.
00:24:10
Speaker
You are. You're going to be kind. You're going to reflect God's goodness. You're going to be careful with what you're watching and how you talk. We're told, do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. So the difference here is someone who's being led by the Spirit and someone who's legalistic can be doing the exact same things for totally different motives.
00:24:37
Speaker
You could have someone over here who never swears, who never watches raunchy movies, because they love God dearly, and they want to honor Him and walk in holiness. And they follow the spirits leading when they sense, ah, I shouldn't be watching this, I need to turn this off. Whereas this other person who's led by legalism is doing so out of fear of what the people in their church might say, or out of judgment on other people who watch things that they wouldn't watch.
00:25:04
Speaker
You can be living the exact same life and one is pleasing to God and one is dishonorable to God because of the state of your heart. The legalist cannot please God with their holiness because they're really only after pleasing themselves and honoring themselves. Whereas the person who's led by the Holy Spirit into holiness, everything they do honors God because their heart is in the right place. That's the fundamental difference. It doesn't mean that we aren't pursuing holiness.
00:25:31
Speaker
So as we're kind of getting close to the end of this episode, I want to talk a little bit more about what we do in facing legalism and how we walk out of it. A lot of it comes back to understanding holiness and purity and grace. See, we can't earn peace with God through the law. We choose holiness because we already have his peace.
00:26:00
Speaker
Do you see what I'm saying here? We don't choose holiness to keep God's favor. God's favor is on us through Jesus Christ. Our identity is adopted as sons. We are in Christ. We are secure. So we choose holiness because it's who we are. It's not something that we're bartering with God.
00:26:22
Speaker
And that's why a lot of people coming from legalism live with this deep-set fear of God's judgment and even his hatred that he does not actually love them. They'll talk about the love of God, they'll talk about grace and truth, but it's neither gracious nor is it truthful because it's not expressing the love of God and giving his law.
00:26:46
Speaker
Legalism always misses the mark. It always presents God as this cosmic fun police or this guy up in the sky who's ready to drop an anvil on you, instead of presenting him as an all wise, all holy, all loving God who gave a law that leads us into holiness and keeps us in communion with him through Christ.
00:27:10
Speaker
But when we get things mixed up, when we start to view God through the wrong lens, when we start to view God as the unloving judge, our actions will reflect that. We will live and we will act in fear. We will not choose our actions out of love for Him and faith in Him.
00:27:35
Speaker
Though the religious leaders, so the Pharisees, followed every detail of the scribal law, that's not what God was after. Now, he did honor it. If you notice, Jesus mentions, and I don't have the verse reference here, but he mentions, you tithe a tenth of your spices, your dill and your cumin, but you do not observe the greater things of the law, justice and mercy.
00:28:02
Speaker
He said, you should have observed the latter without neglecting the former. So he wasn't saying, you guys are all distracted by pursuing these, being diligent to tithe. He wasn't saying, forget tithing, just pursue justice and mercy, which I frequently hear now in the progressive camp that it doesn't matter about what the Bible says about these things. What matters is that we pursue these principles of justice and mercy and love.
00:28:30
Speaker
Well, Jesus said, pursue those things and also honor what I told you to do. Live the way I told you to live, but don't neglect the greater things in pursuit of the minutia. And legalism will always major in the minors.
00:28:51
Speaker
instead of majoring in the majors. We are to major in both, is what Jesus is saying. And when you're majoring in justice and mercy and love and honor for people and for God, the minutiae, the smaller things of the law will naturally flow from you because you've got it where it belongs. You have the right relationship.
00:29:16
Speaker
Now, if you grew up in an environment that required certain clothes, types of music, dating roles alike, letting go of the rules can feel like letting go of Christianity. And accepting Christ's offer of freedom to follow His Spirit into holiness feels like a big risk. How do we know what the Bible condemns and what we're free to do in Christ? So we'll talk about that in just a second, but I want to read Matthew 11, 28 through 30, which says, Jesus is talking here.
00:29:43
Speaker
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." The word yoke here was a euphemism for teaching, has rabbinic teaching. In contrast to the heavy burden of legalism, Jesus' teaching is easy. Following Him is not complicated.
00:30:13
Speaker
Some of the religious leaders in that day did make it complicated, and some churches today do make it complicated, but God wants us to rest in His Spirit and from that place of restful trust to walk out our faith and confidence.
00:30:27
Speaker
And this is what Jesus meant in John 15 when he said, remain in me as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. You cannot please God with your modesty and your worship and your daily choices and your words and your media unless you remain in him. And what you do is a product of that abiding.
00:30:57
Speaker
Legalism cannot substitute the spirit-led life.
00:31:03
Speaker
God leads us to true heart change and unless that happens external behaviors have no eternal merit. So there's recently been a blog post I guess it's gotten a resurgence. I wrote a rebuttal against it I think a year ago or so it's called men prefer debt-free virgins without tattoos.
00:31:27
Speaker
Written by the transformed wife. It's a very well-known Extremely conservative blogger and in the blog post so she's since her original writing She's added an addendum saying that there's redemption for women who who have a sexual history but for at least the first two years at this post ran she didn't have that addendum on there and so
00:31:51
Speaker
She wrote this blog post saying that men don't want women with a sexual history. Christian men don't want women who have debt or have tattoos. And unfortunately, that covers a lot of us.
00:32:08
Speaker
And so the the post I don't really understand the motive of the post or how helpful it was supposed to be because in the end all it did was really preach a condemnation over women who are trying to you know find their way to the Lord or are walking with the Lord and are now sitting here going okay so there's no chance for me of finding a godly man because you know I have one or all three of these things.
00:32:35
Speaker
But the issue is, when you look at a post like this, legalism always starts with a little truth, and that's why it's so convincing. The Bible does advise us to make wise use of debt and to not go into debt foolishly or impulsively. This is in Psalm 37, Proverbs 28 and Matthew 25. And God is clear that sexual promiscuity is outside his will, it's evidence of living in the flesh, 1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Thessalonians 4.
00:33:04
Speaker
But the author of the blog post took these biblical truths and expanded them, presenting her opinion as God-ordained law. But when we compare this post to what scripture says, we find a different story. The Bible does not expressly forbid going into debt.
Misinterpretation of Scripture and Legalism
00:33:22
Speaker
In Matthew 18, Jesus told a parable to pick the
00:33:25
Speaker
a lender relationship. We know that debt is not ideal but is in some circumstances unavoidable and it can be paid off with wisdom and diligence. When Josh and I got married, he had $30,000 in student loans. We paid it off in 15 months. Thank you Dave Ramsey.
00:33:42
Speaker
we got married, I could have turned around and said, my husband isn't a good choice because he had this student loan debt. Another example is this loss of virginity. It can occur from a promiscuous lifestyle, but it can also occur at the hands of rape or sexual abuse.
00:33:59
Speaker
So now are we going to tell every victim of sexual abuse and rape or even women who have made sinful choices in their past that there's no hope for them? That there's no chance of them finding love? And I don't think any addendum at the end of a blog post can really make up for this kind of condemnation because it does not reflect the hope of redemption.
00:34:22
Speaker
2 Corinthians 5 tells us that there's redemption for all of those who are in Christ. And then lastly, regarding the tattoos, the only mention of tattoos is in Leviticus where they are forbidden in the context of pagan idol worship, Leviticus 19.28. And this law was very specific to the culture in which Israel lived at the time.
00:34:42
Speaker
So this post, which causes such an uproar online, illustrates an important point. Legalism is always the product of misinterpreted Scripture. When we look at the actual truths God has for us, we find freedom leading to holiness.
00:35:02
Speaker
It might actually surprise the author of the blog post to know that when I married Josh, I was a debt-free virgin with no tattoos. But he wasn't drawn to me because of that. It was because of our shared love for Christ, even though my husband was not a virgin, had tattoos, and had $30,000 in student loans.
00:35:22
Speaker
because Jesus died for everyone, and our righteous choices come from a desire to walk out that identity and what He gave us. So we don't take biblical principles and we expand these to universal commands, so use money wisely, expanding it. It's a sin to go into debt.
00:35:44
Speaker
And while some things such as sexual purity are commands from God, they are commands colored by grace. Only in Christianity do we have a hope for restoration. Jesus redeems it all. Legalism brings condemnation. Grace brings hope. So the last thing I want to leave you with is if you grew up in this Christianity of law and regulation, leaving legalism,
00:36:12
Speaker
and doing whatever the Holy Spirit leads you to do may sound like a scary thought. I believe it was, it might have been D.A. Carson said, or Dwight Moody actually, it might have been him, follow the Holy Spirit and then do whatever you want. And that's kind of a shocking statement. But when you're following the Holy Spirit, whatever you do will reflect the heart of God. That's the freedom we have.
00:36:40
Speaker
when you are walking with Him and listening for His voice in the Word consistently and not getting your sustenance on easy little devotionals that don't actually teach you what God says,
00:36:54
Speaker
When you are in the Word and seeking Him and walking with Him and cultivating that thriving relationship, you will have the wisdom to know this is the right decision. This is what to wear here. This is what to say here. This is the person to date. He will give you that wisdom. But it's a step-by-step relationship. If you just had a checklist of things to do, you wouldn't even need a relationship with God. It wouldn't be a relationship with God.
00:37:20
Speaker
So if you're seeking a checklist, what you're really saying is you don't want a daily relationship with God. And that's a heart issue. And that's something we all have to be willing to sit there and say, why do I want to shortcut the relationship I'm supposed to have with a holy and loving God?
Grace and True Worship
00:37:41
Speaker
Legalism is a shortcut, but it cannot lead you to a deep spiritual life.
00:37:48
Speaker
The right way to be a Christian is to follow the spirit according to the word. When we live under condemnation, we naturally condemn other people. But when we live under grace, we are quick to offer compassion. We celebrate those who are growing in faith alongside us, not comparing how they work out their salvation to how we're working out ours. But we are free to worship.
00:38:16
Speaker
not according to tradition or regulation, but in spirit and in truth.