"Stand fast, therefore, in
the liberty with which Christ has made us free."
(Gal. 5:1a)
One of the questions most often
asked of those of us who hold the grace position is, "As a
Christian, can I live as I please?" The answer is, "You have the
freedom to try!" To understand the freedom that we have in Jesus
Christ is to have a deep understanding of and appreciation for
the grace of God. As a child of the living God, we are free
forever from the guilt and penalty of sin (Rom. 8:1). But this
freedom does not mean that God is finished with His work in our
lives. Receiving the free gift of life in Christ is just the
beginning. God then begins the process of conforming us to the
image of His Son (Rom. 8:29-30). But this conforming process
continues to be God’s work of grace in us.
"Being confident of this very
thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Phil. 1:6)
What is the Christian life? The
Christian life is developing a close, intimate, personal,
private relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. God in His
grace motivates us to develop this relationship, not with laws
and penalties, but by love and trust.
"For as many as are led by
the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not
receive the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you
received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out 'Abba,
Father.' The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit,
that we are the children of God and if children, then
heirs-heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ-if indeed we
suffer with Him, that we may be glorified together." (Rom.
8:14-17)
The One who lives within us,
loves us, and releases us to love Him in return. Responding to
this kind of love and trust with obedience and service should
become as natural as breathing. We please Him by obedience
because we can do nothing less.
It is much like the difference
between a dog raised in the country and one brought up in the
city. The country dog, never having been penned up, doesn't know
what it is like to be restricted. But he doesn't run off! The
city dog, on the other hand, which has been penned all of his
life, one day finds his gate opened, and off he goes. He may
return or he may not. If the country dog, raised free, were
penned up for a short while and then released, he might run off
temporarily. But before the sun went down, there he would be,
sitting on the front porch-not because he was forced to- but
because he knew to whom he belonged.
The believer in Jesus Christ is
God's forever child. Fellowship with the Lord means simply to
become at home with Him. This was Paul’s prayer for the
believers at Ephesus.
“So that Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted
and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the
saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” (Eph.
3:17-19)
Those who do not understand grace
living make this accusation. “If you preach grace alone, then it
will lead to loose and careless living.” This is not at all what
grace teaches us. Our godly lifestyle is not to be lived because
any law demands it, but because grace teaches it.
"For the grace of God that
brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that,
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age." (Titus
2:11-12)
Once we have experienced the
grace of God by trusting Jesus Christ as our Savior we are not
to go back under a set of legal standards to live our lives
before God.
"And be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage." (Gal. 5:1b)
The yoke of bondage is legalism.
Legalism is the opposite of living the Christian life in the
liberty that we receive in Jesus Christ. Having launched out
into this personal relationship with Christ, we are not to slip
back into religious rituals or rules in order to attempt to
please God.
Paul abhorred one sin more than
any other in the believer's life-the sin of legalism. In his day
Christians were falling back under the spiritually bankrupt
religious influence of Judaism. Judaism consisted of meetings in
elaborate buildings draped in beautiful cloth with furniture
trimmed in gold. It also involved religious ceremonies with
ornate costumes, eloquent reading of the Old Testament law,
religious commentary on the law (preaching), singing, impressive
public prayers, breathtaking sacrificial ceremonies with the
smell of the burning altar, and religious festivals such as
Passover, Unleavened Bread, First fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets,
Atonement, and Tabernacles. All of this activity became a
substitute for an intimate relationship with Christ.
Those who were coming to faith in
Jesus Christ were raised in this religious climate. Although the
death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ marked an end to
all of these rituals, the flesh of the new believers wanted to
get back into this religious climate. But Paul taught them to
go on with Christ.
Legalism today is the attempt to
live the Christian life based on a system of man-made rules and
regulations. The motivation for keeping these rules becomes
self-righteousness, or glorifying self through religious
ritualism. In the South, religious tradition is as much a part
of life as farming, quilting, hunting, fishing, and cornbread.
"Church" is a tradition in the
Bible Belt. Rather than being the means used by the Holy Spirit
to make disciples of Jesus Christ, having “church” often becomes
the end in itself. Heard in thousands of homes every Sunday
morning is the question, "Hey, you goin’ to church today?"
Church is where we hear preaching and at times are inspired,
convicted and even converted. It is where we see our children
grow up, get baptized, and marry. It is where we meet friends
and family, eat great food and talk about life. What church we
attend or what religious denomination we belong to, for the most
part, depends on our upbringing. We prefer church with a nice
building with a steeple, organized meetings, Sunday School
classes, a choir (organ and piano), visitation programs,
deacons, elders, bishops, an offertory, and some reverence for
the Bible.
These are all good things and can
all be used to communicate the living word of God. But it is
the word of God that produces a genuine relationship with Jesus
Christ. These "good things," can also become a substitute for a
taking in the word of God. The believer can unknowingly begin to
worship these activities rather than worshipping the Savior. We
can begin to worship our worship. Traditions become a part of
our lives and are passed down generation after generation. There
is “comfort zone” with them, a sense that this is the Christian
life.
A person who is living in
legalism will change his behavior pattern to conform to a set of
moral standards, thinking that he is pleasing God. The feeling
is, "If I go to church regularly, sing in the choir, give my
money, and don't drink, smoke, chew, or dance, then I'm okay."
The Bible tells us that there is an "appearance of wisdom" in
feeling this way.
"Therefore, if you died with
Christ to the basic principles of the world, why, as though
you were living in the world, do you subject yourselves to
regulations, 'Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,'
which all concern things which perish with the
using-according to the commandments and doctrines of men?"
(Col. 2:20-22)
Paul drove his point home when he
said,
"These things indeed have an
appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false
humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value
against the indulgence of the flesh." (Col. 2:23)
These self-denials make us feel
good about ourselves spiritually and not good about those who do
not cooperate.
"For we dare not class
ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend
themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves,
and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." (2
Cor. 10:12)
Living a legalistic lifestyle
produces pride, and pride is the result of the flesh. Works
performed or temptations denied can be a product of
self-reformation. A person whose life is built on a faulty
foundation of human traditionalism and personal convictions and
not upon the word of God will seldom come to understand what it
really means to walk in the Spirit of the living God. This
lifestyle becomes so ingrained in him and so much a part of him
that he becomes blind to what it really means to live the
Christian life. Legalism becomes a subtle substitute for a pure,
simple relationship with the all-knowing, all-powerful,
unchangeable God. This, my friend, is why Paul feared legalism
so.
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