Legalism or Love?

Romans 13:10 “Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Jesus opposed the proud but gave grace to the humble. Chief among the proud were the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees – those who should have known better, but were blinded by their own pride and theological sophistication. They were professional legalists. For them, it was all law (what they must do) and no gospel (what Jesus has done). Do we sometimes behave like them?

Mark Driscoll preached a sermon on ‘How to Become a Legalist’. Here’s how to go about it: 1) Make rules outside the Bible. 2) Push yourself to try and keep your rules. 3) Castigate yourself when you don’t keep your rules. 4) Become proud when you do keep your rules. 5) Appoint yourself as judge over other people. 6) Get angry with people who break your rules or have different rules. 7) ‘Beat’ the losers.

Alternatively, a true understanding of Jesus’ message is so liberating. My relationship with God is not determined by my past or my present, but by Christ’s past and his present. It’s not about turning over a new leaf, it’s about receiving a new life. As Tullian Tchividjian writes: “We tend to think of the gospel as God’s program to make bad people good, not dead people alive. The fact is, Jesus came first to effect a mortal resurrection, not a moral reformation, as his own death and resurrection demonstrate… Progress in obedience happens only when our hearts realize that God’s love for us does not depend on our progress in obedience.” So Martin Luther is right when he says: “It is not imitation that makes sons; it is sonship that makes imitators.”

How will the above change how you live? Is the way you live your life rooted in legalism or love? How might your life look like lived under the banner that reads, ‘It is finished!’?

God Almighty, I choose to live a life of love and freedom today. Amen!