Uncertain legalism

Dear ...

Thank you so much for your thoughtful comments. And what you brought up spoke to the heart of confusion many Christians are bound in even with a sincere heart to embrace the truth of the gospel.

The pitfall of legalism is acknowledged, preached and accepted by most believers. It is as clear as black and white. But how one interprets legalism often becomes the very justification of it -- and even unwitting reinforcement of the idea incorporated in the sermons and belief. This is where I insist we need a clear divide between law and grace by which a believer can escape that twilight zone of uncertainty. Then and only then a firm foundation of grace (and not just a cursory recognition and appreciation of it but still deeply rooted in law) can take hold in the hearts and minds of God's select in the truth of faith, hope and love.

But the separation and definition I urge goes beyond description of what is really meant by "law" in the new covenant, and how it is different from legalism. I have had feedback from brothers and sisters steeped in legalism insisting they are only for the spirit of law in the commandment of Jesus to love God and love our neighbors. If not for the insidious influence and subtlety that plays to our core nature as human beings most believers are intelligent and devoted enough to avoid legalism proper in not just following to the strict letters of law but needing the love to first flow out of our hearts.

What you wrote centered on clarifying what law really means in terms of the gospel; and you nailed it on the head. Law (or more specifically the spirit of it) is an outflow of love, and without love law is made moot and even becomes a curse. In your full description of the origin, essence and purpose of law you will find no disagreement from believers of all sides to the grace argument. Therefore that is what most responses to my thoughts on grace protest of  -- that why bash them constant over their heads about law and grace when they already know what Christ really meant to manifest by "law" in the gospel?

What I (and Paul, I believe) speak to in terms of law is not of the external behaviors but the internal motivator. It is the mentality of law; a psychological, philosophical and even emotional belief steeped in the worldly tradition translated unchecked in to the spiritual walk. The world is a merit-based system where rewards need to be earned and all things need justification by equal value in return. Just the term: "I obey because I love God" seems innocent and reasonable enough but in truth is legalistic -- especially when what should be a devotional and worshipful promise from a revelation and acceptance of God's love becomes elevated to a doctrine of "should" from the pulpit. This in essence becomes law in terms of commandment from man. What Jesus describes as fruits of love morphs into terms of law that justifies love. This is prevalent when the teaching is based on how a Christian should look like, behave like and talk like if he is filled with love and the holy spirit. Then all this mad dash to convince, encourage, even coerce, observe and and the inevitable judging/condemning oneself and one another when any should fall short.

This is not the spirit of grace, which centers not on how we behave but just the faith God will work in us for the good of His will. Instead of "I obey because I love God (or God loves me)" grace teaches us that "the spirit of God that indwells me lives through me," or "Jesus living in me is my obedience." When our faith is in Him that works in us then it is no longer about our performances but His sovereign power to transform and sanctify us.

The spirit of law doesn't change and remains perfect. But it is our attitude and perspective that needs to be re-focused. And in such case we must be very forceful and decisive to extinguish law as a necessary part of faith from a believer's mind. Again, that is not to be critical of law and relegate it to irrelevancy. God found fault with the law (first) covenant, so we should as well even though there is no flaw in law. The flaw is in us but God's love delivers us from it where otherwise law only sentences us to death. Knowing the flaw and insufficiency of law to deliver His people God still conveyed law to us. Where the grand plan of salvation is of love, yet the original intent of Mosaic law was not love but to bring us to a fearful state of discovery of how inadequate we are. The law was meant to condemn us so we may be in need of salvation. No, God's love is found, magnified and glorified in grace and only grace, which we have no part in but faith. From faith (believe His grace redeemed us from the bondage/strength of sin -- law) we have hope (confident expectation of goodness and life, not just a baseless wish), and the sweet flow of love pours forth, not because it is commanded of us, but love commands us.

What you wrote in the last sentence is very lovely: "...we then complete the law out of love of God. This doesn't mean we are perfect, but every act of love is perfect in God's eyes." Moving as that statement is when view from the perspective and revelation of grace, it is ripe to be twisted to mean, "if we love God then we need to complete the law by obedience." Certainly the motivation is out of love, but once made a law in and of itself it voids the very love intended to express, and the propagation of a natural expression of love calcifies into a rigid doctrine that chokes the very life from that love. That is the true danger of a law-based belief -- it literally makes one's Christian walk into a litany of dos and dont's, cold as stone and lifeless. Worse it is in keeping a believer under condemnation of not good enough and not doing enough, and the daily chore of confessing, rededicating and failing instead of the effortless joy in trusting Jesus Christ living inside us and enjoying the intimacy we already have resting in His grace and redemption.

Some may view this as spiritual laziness, but it is the truest expression of faith, hope and love. There is no shame in waiting when we are in grace, but the flesh is stirred by law (mentality) to justify and return what is received, and interprets fruits of life to be fruits of the knowledge of good and evil for us to bear. By faith in grace, our hope is confidence that He will work in us according to His time and His way that love may bear fruits of the sweetest kind. Amen

James

Not understanding grace

Hi Yxxx,

When you first responded to this email I sent, I also received another one from a sister. She simply added, "and, humble obedience."

I believe this is a similar sentiment as your statement, "God's law serves as the checkup or boundary for us not to be deceived by the Satan.  So you may not boast of having(or believe you have) obedient heart, but break God's law at the same time."

It seems you and others hold the opinion that, without the law (I believe apart from what Jesus commanded about love, because boundary was not defined, and only the written law -- ten commandment and other behavior-related terms -- is the clearest definition of what is right or wrong) as checkup, one is prone to self-interpretation on good and devil even in grace. And a step beyond that is the pride that is apparent for disregarding the written law.

Implied in the response was that the heart remains in the dark even after salvation and the indwelling of the holy spirit. Of course, if one is self-deceived about how grace works in his life, such may be the case. And we can very well determine that even one who professes acceptance of grace but whose actions run counter to law, and is unrepentant and unashamed about it, or even unaware of obvious transgressions, this believer does not understand grace in its full glory, and is obviously unmoved by the spirit.

But the solution to the disconnect is not using more law to make sure of conformance, which is only an exterior-driven behavior that moves not the heart. If by knowledge and commandment we come to obedience, it is empty of heart; yet if we appeal to the heart, the spirit living inside wills to learn of such knowledge without commandment.

And the only narrow doorway to such work of the spirit is by grace. When we have full revelation of grace, it is no longer our own heart that governs but the heart of Christ. The Bible is clear that we now have a new heart, a soft heart with God's law written in it. What is faith then but to believe God's word and trust that we are no longer masters of our hearts but God Himself. This is true obedience in humility, and no more worrying about being boastful.

In grace we have nothing to boast about; but in law we do for it is our performance that is measured. And if we view grace as licensing sin and irresponsibility, then no wonder some are quick to warn to be careful not to be blinded and flaunt it with abandon, and that grace must be weighted with the clarity and instruction of law. But this is pure human reasoning that is not substantiated by the scripture where Paul emphatically warns about the danger of law and not grace!

We must let grace shine, and be patient with it even if it works slowly in the heart than law with the mind. True obedience is to have no boundary demanded, but an unwillingness to stray from the will of God who gives us the spiritual wisdom to walk in light and not stumble into darkness. Amen!

James

Answer to "Law is our boundary."

Dear Yxxx，

Thank you for putting so much thought into this. I hope to come to a closer understanding of God's will in grace.

If by practical life everyday you meant the ceremonial law, then no question they don't apply anymore because the significance of those laws found substance in the person of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. But the spirit of the ten commandment (law written in stone) certainly are not done away with because it represents the righteousness of God in our everyday living. I agree that law is not destroyed but fulfilled by Jesus Christ; but in Him we are no longer bound by the law of doing but on a higher plane of being.

If your emphasis is finding out the boundary of God's law in detail description, you will spend the rest of you life searching for a definitive line and not find it. Can you say with confidence that you have discovered it, or come close? Or more so than those who live not to know the law by by the spirit of grace? And even if you find it and are able to define it, what then? Our problem is not in knowing right or wrong, but abiding in the right and not the wrong. The mistake of the pharisees were not that they didn't know the law clearly enough! They were blinded by their knowledge of law in not being able to see grace even when He was right in front of them. The same mistake can be made -- and is being made -- by believers today, trying to know the law in order to obey the law so as to live righteously when the only true righteousness is found abiding in grace. Paul clearly stated in Galatian 5:4 that such is fallen away from grace. In order to live by grace we must have the confidence in grace to guide us by the spirit. Law consciousness is the veil that blinds us from full revelation of grace! It keeps us in judgment. Look at the church in its present state.

And the spirit of law is not that difficult to know and understand: Love God and love one another. There, is your boundary, but more than that -- it is a law without boundary, for to have boundary is to do just enough where love overflows what is minimally required. Law is not separate from grace, and grace contains all that law can be and much more. Otherwise you have to say that grace is not enough and we still need law, which is saying Jesus is not enough, or grace is not the entire truth. For grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The spirit of law is in grace, but the requirement of law is not. Jesus fulfilled the requirement of law on the cross for us already. What are we doing keep on trying to meet that requirement ourselves? It is a sign of unbelief or at least nonacceptance of His redemption.

As always, I uphold the law as perfect and holy. But it's purpose is not for us to obey, for we can never do it to a standard God requires. Otherwise Jesus didn't have to come to die for us. And if you want to keep the law you are consigning to the consequence of any failure on your part. For as you said, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. How confident are you about keeping perfectly the requirement, and staying within the boundary of God's law -- even if you know it? Is trying your best good enough for God? And if you stand on both grace and law it is mixture that frustrates grace. No, only grace can give us rest that we are righteous even in our sinful state, and that the holy spirit will sanctify us to become truly holy, and knows and needs no boundary nor constraint. Jesus doesn't need to know the boundary of law -- and we can as well when we surrender completely to Him. Trying to keep the law is not complete surrender.

It is true that for a new believer, many of what they do they view not as sin. And as they grow in knowledge of Christ more of their imperfection is realized. As such, if one is not standing on firm ground of his righteous in Christ, such growth of one's sin awareness becomes even more of a bondage instead of the freedom Christ's blood was intended to bring us. We don't stop growing just because we are in grace. But let's grow in grace to know the heart of God and not grow in our knowledge to be acceptable to God. For if one is sincere in the search of law it never fails that one becomes even more under its condemnation in not being good enough. No, we don't need to know how sinful we truly are when we are in grace, because faith in grace is already acceptance of that fact, and the blood of Jesus cleansed us of all of it. God's goodness leads us to repentance, and His forgiveness empowers us to love.

And when we have His love flowing out of us like rivers of living water, law has already done it's job and should depart like Moses did on the mount of Transfiguration, and not to follow the people of grace into the land of rest. In keeping law it is not of love; and love above all is the heart of God.

James

Good work 2

Dear ...

Thank you for putting so much thought into this. I hope to come to a closer understanding of God's will in grace.

If by practical life everyday you meant the ceremonial law, then no question they don't apply anymore because the significance of those laws found substance in the person of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. But the spirit of the ten commandment (law written in stone) certainly are not done away with because it represents the righteousness of God in our everyday living. I agree that law is not destroyed but fulfilled by Jesus Christ; but in Him we are no longer bound by the law of doing but on a higher plane of being.

If your emphasis is finding out the boundary of God's law in detail description, you will spend the rest of you life searching for a definitive line and not find it. Can you say with confidence that you have discovered it, or come close? Or more so than those who live not to know the law by by the spirit of grace? And even if you find it and are able to define it, what then? Our problem is not in knowing right or wrong, but abiding in the right and not the wrong. The mistake of the pharisees were not that they didn't know the law clearly enough! They were blinded by their knowledge of law in not being able to see grace even when He was right in front of them. The same mistake can be made -- and is being made -- by believers today, trying to know the law in order to obey the law so as to live righteously when the only true righteousness is found abiding in grace. Paul clearly stated in Galatian 5:4 that such is fallen away from grace. In order to live by grace we must have the confidence in grace to guide us by the spirit. Law consciousness is the veil that blinds us from full revelation of grace! It keeps us in judgment. Look at the church in its present state.

And the spirit of law is not that difficult to know and understand: Love God and love one another. There, is your boundary, but more than that -- it is a law without boundary, for to have boundary is to do just enough where love overflows what is minimally required. Law is not separate from grace, and grace contains all that law can be and much more. Otherwise you have to say that grace is not enough and we still need law, which is saying Jesus is not enough, or grace is not the entire truth. For grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The spirit of law is in grace, but the requirement of law is not. Jesus fulfilled the requirement of law on the cross for us already. What are we doing keep on trying to meet that requirement ourselves? It is a sign of unbelief or at least nonacceptance of His redemption.

As always, I uphold the law as perfect and holy. But it's purpose is not for us to obey, for we can never do it to a standard God requires. Otherwise Jesus didn't have to come to die for us. And if you want to keep the law you are consigning to the consequence of any failure on your part. For as you said, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. How confident are you about keeping perfectly the requirement, and staying within the boundary of God's law -- even if you know it? Is trying your best good enough for God? And if you stand on both grace and law it is mixture that frustrates grace. No, only grace can give us rest that we are righteous even in our sinful state, and that the holy spirit will sanctify us to become truly holy, and knows and needs no boundary nor constraint. Jesus doesn't need to know the boundary of law -- and we can as well when we surrender completely to Him. Trying to keep the law is not complete surrender.

It is true that for a new believer, many of what they do they view not as sin. And as they grow in knowledge of Christ more of their imperfection is realized. As such, if one is not standing on firm ground of his righteous in Christ, such growth of one's sin awareness becomes even more of a bondage instead of the freedom Christ's blood was intended to bring us. We don't stop growing just because we are in grace. But let's grow in grace to know the heart of God and not grow in our knowledge to be acceptable to God. For if one is sincere in the search of law it never fails that one becomes even more under its condemnation in not being good enough. No, we don't need to know how sinful we truly are when we are in grace, because faith in grace is already acceptance of that fact, and the blood of Jesus cleansed us of all of it. God's goodness leads us to repentance, and His forgiveness empowers us to love.

And when we have His love flowing out of us like rivers of living water, law has already done it's job and should depart like Moses did on the mount of Transfiguration, and not to follow the people of grace into the land of rest. In keeping law it is not of love; and love above all is the heart of God.

James

Good work

Any good work we do do out of demonstration of faith, and not demonstration of righteousness; do out of witnessing for the grace of Christ, and not witnessing of our worth; do out of obedience of heart and not obedience to law.