The Heresy of Legalism
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION:
INTRODUCTION:
ILL: Playing a Movie
One of my favorite stories comes from a man who used to be in our church. He and his wife were close friends of our family, but they have now moved to another part of the country. We really miss their joyful presence.
When he was a youth worker many years ago in an ethnic community, he attended a church that had Scandinavian roots. Being a rather forward-looking and creative young man, he decided he would show the youth group a missionary film. We’re talking simple, safe, black-and-white religious-oriented movie. That film projector hadn’t been off an hour before a group of the leaders in the church called him in and asked him about what he had done. They asked, “Did you show the young people a film?” In all honesty he responded, “Well, yeah, I did.” “We don’t like that,” they replied. Without trying to be argumentative, the youth worker reasoned, “Well, I remember that at the last missionary conference, our church showed slides—”
One of the church officers put his hand up signaling him to cease talking. Then, in these words, he emphatically explained the conflict: “If it’s still, fine. If it moves, sin!” You can show slides, but when they start movin’, you’re gettin’ into sin.
C. Swindoll, The Grace Awakening, Word, 1990, pp. 160-161
Punchline: Legalism as the fear of the new!
ILL: Didn’t Enjoy It
The story was told some years ago of a pastor who found the roads blocked one Sunday morning and was forced to skate on the river to get to church, which he did. When he arrived the elders of the church were horrified that their preacher had skated on the Lord’s day. After the service they held a meeting where the pastor explained that it was either skate to church or not go at all. Finally one elder asked, “Did you enjoy it?” When the preacher answered, “No,” the board decided it was all right!
Punchline: Legalism can be the fear of enjoyment.
ILL: Forsaking the World
Forsaking the World
Forsaking the World
“I am in earnest about forsaking ‘the world’ and following Christ. But I am puzzled about worldly things. What is it I must forsake?” a young man asks.
“Colored clothes, for one thing. Get rid of everything in your wardrobe that is not white. Stop sleeping on a soft pillow. Sell your musical instruments and don’t eat any more white bread. You cannot, if you are sincere about obeying Christ, take warm baths or shave your beard. To shave is to lie against Him who created us, to attempt to improve on His Work.”
CIT: Legalism distracts the Christian from God’s powerful salvation through false promises of regulation
CIT: Legalism distracts the Christian from God’s powerful salvation through false promises of regulation
CIM: Don’t let legalism become your tradition and your God.
CIM: Don’t let legalism become your tradition and your God.
CIM: Don’t let legalism become your tradition and your God.
CIM: Don’t let legalism become your tradition and your God.
Legalism defined:
Legalism defined:
The essence of legalism is trusting in the religious activity rather than trusting in God. It is putting our confidence in a practice rather than in a Person. And without fail this will lead us to love the practice more than the Person.
Jack Deer, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, p. 151
Legalism
Legalism
ILL: Nothing can choke the heart and soul out of walking with God like legalism. Rigidity is the most certain sign that the Disciplines have spoiled. The disciplined person is the person who can live appropriately in life.
Consider the story of Hans the tailor. Because of his reputation, an influential entrepreneur visiting the city ordered a tailor-made suit. But when he came to pick up his suit, the customer found that one sleeve twisted that way and the other this way; one shoulder bulged out and the other caved in. He pulled and managed to make his body fit.
As he returned home on the bus, another passenger noticed his odd appearance and asked if Hans the tailor had made the suit. Receiving an affirmative reply, the man remarked, “Amazing! I knew that Hans was a good tailor, but I had no idea he could make a suit fit so perfectly someone as deformed as you.”
Often that is just what we do in the church. We get some idea of what the Christian faith should look like: then we push and shove people in to the most grotesque configurations until they fit wonderfully! That is death. It is a wooden legalism which destroys the soul.
- Richard J. Foster
Source unknown
I.) Let no one judge you according dietary and calendar practices. (V16-17)
I.) Let no one judge you according dietary and calendar practices. (V16-17)
Therefore.... Because the powers and principalities have been defeated your salvation is sufficient in Christ…let no one judge you...
Therefore.... Because the powers and principalities have been defeated your salvation is sufficient in Christ…let no one judge you...
…Let no one pass judgement [IMPERATIVE] (to judge unfairly or harshly....to judge to hurt)
…Let no one pass judgement [IMPERATIVE] (to judge unfairly or harshly....to judge to hurt)
Food & Drink - Pagan context (food and wine & strong drink being prepared for cultic & religious worship).
Food & Drink - Pagan context (food and wine & strong drink being prepared for cultic & religious worship).
Forget about deciding what’s right for each other. Here’s what you need to be concerned about: that you don’t get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. I’m convinced—Jesus convinced me!—that everything as it is in itself is holy. We, of course, by the way we treat it or talk about it, can contaminate it.
If you confuse others by making a big issue over what they eat or don’t eat, you’re no longer a companion with them in love, are you? These, remember, are persons for whom Christ died. Would you risk sending them to hell over an item in their diet? Don’t you dare let a piece of God-blessed food become an occasion of soul-poisoning!
God’s kingdom isn’t a matter of what you put in your stomach, for goodness’ sake. It’s what God does with your life as he sets it right, puts it together, and completes it with joy. Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ. Do that and you’ll kill two birds with one stone: pleasing the God above you and proving your worth to the people around you.
So let’s agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; don’t drag them down by finding fault. You’re certainly not going to permit an argument over what is served or not served at supper to wreck God’s work among you, are you? I said it before and I’ll say it again: All food is good, but it can turn bad if you use it badly, if you use it to trip others up and send them sprawling. When you sit down to a meal, your primary concern should not be to feed your own face but to share the life of Jesus. So be sensitive and courteous to the others who are eating. Don’t eat or say or do things that might interfere with the free exchange of love.
Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. You’re fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you’re not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe—some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them—then you know that you’re out of line. If the way you live isn’t consistent with what you believe, then it’s wrong.
-23
-23
Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.
For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.
For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness.
But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down),
or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;
for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?
How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”
However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have;
“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
And their words to the ends of the world.”
But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? First Moses says,
“I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation,
By a nation without understanding will I anger you.”
And Isaiah is very bold and says,
“I was found by those who did not seek Me,
I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”
But as for Israel He says, “All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
Romans
1 Corinthians 10:23-33
Looking at it one way, you could say, “Anything goes. Because of God’s immense generosity and grace, we don’t have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster.” But the point is not to just get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.
With that as a base to work from, common sense can take you the rest of the way. Eat anything sold at the butcher shop, for instance; you don’t have to run an “idolatry test” on every item. “The earth,” after all, “is God’s, and everything in it.” That “everything” certainly includes the leg of lamb in the butcher shop. If a nonbeliever invites you to dinner and you feel like going, go ahead and enjoy yourself; eat everything placed before you. It would be both bad manners and bad spirituality to cross-examine your host on the ethical purity of each course as it is served. On the other hand, if he goes out of his way to tell you that this or that was sacrificed to god or goddess so-and-so, you should pass. Even though you may be indifferent as to where it came from, he isn’t, and you don’t want to send mixed messages to him about who you are worshiping.
But, except for these special cases, I’m not going to walk around on eggshells worrying about what small-minded people might say; I’m going to stride free and easy, knowing what our large-minded Master has already said. If I eat what is served to me, grateful to God for what is on the table, how can I worry about what someone will say? I thanked God for it and he blessed it!
So eat your meals heartily, not worrying about what others say about you—you’re eating to God’s glory, after all, not to please them. As a matter of fact, do everything that way, heartily and freely to God’s glory. At the same time, don’t be callous in your exercise of freedom, thoughtlessly stepping on the toes of those who aren’t as free as you are. I try my best to be considerate of everyone’s feelings in all these matters; I hope you will be, too.
Festival, New Moon, Sabbath - Jewish context (the imposition of the jewish calendar and holy days as necessary for holiness)
Festival, New Moon, Sabbath - Jewish context (the imposition of the jewish calendar and holy days as necessary for holiness)
Or, say, one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So, each person is free to follow the convictions of conscience.
Romans
Shadow of things to come…vs…Substance belongs to Christ
Shadow of things to come…vs…Substance belongs to Christ
What you are looking for in regulations and mandated practices has already been accomplished in Jesus
ILL: Movie Trailer vs. Feature film
II.) Let no one disqualify you according to self humiliating spiritual disciplines and worship practices. (V18)
II.) Let no one disqualify you according to self humiliating spiritual disciplines and worship practices. (V18)
…Let no one disqualify you… [IMPERATIVE] (to defraud you of the prize. or to deprive you of salvation, or to declare you unworthy
…Let no one disqualify you… [IMPERATIVE] (to defraud you of the prize. or to deprive you of salvation, or to declare you unworthy
forcing you to adhere to asceticism...
forcing you to adhere to asceticism...
Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vols. I–X—A–Z Asceticism, Ascetics
In the early Christian church the name was given to such as inured themselves to greater degrees of fasting and abstinence than other men, in order to subdue or mortify their passions. See EXERCISE. The Christian ascetics were divided into ubstinentes, or those who abstained from wine, meat, and agreeable food, and continentes, or those who, abstaining from matrimony also, were considered to attain to a higher degree of sanctity
ILL: Beating your body into submission like an athlete.
III.) Your true growth comes from your connection to God and not legalistic practices. (V19)
III.) Your true growth comes from your connection to God and not legalistic practices. (V19)
Nourished - Fully Supplied
Nourished - Fully Supplied
knit together
knit together
…Grows with a growth only from God.
…Grows with a growth only from God.
ILL: Food that makes you feel full, but does not nourish you. When you think your spiritual growth and maturity comes from overzealous practices Dr. Jesus will assess us a malnourished.