The roots and fruits of legalism

Introduction

Hallelujah.

This morning, we come to our 10th message from the Gospel of Mark. And based on Mark 7:1-23, as the elder has read, I’d like to share a message with the title, “The roots and fruits of legalism.”

How many of us have ever felt unclean before God? I don’t know about you, but even after believing in Jesus for years and years, it’s still difficult to admit that sometimes, I feels like God’s frowning upon me. Like I’m not doing well enough. I’m not being holy enough. If that’s you, then I’m glad I’m not alone.

In Mark 7, Jesus’ disciples get frowned upon by God’s priests. They don’t follow the standard behavior, and eat without washing their hands in the proper way. The Pharisees see this happening, and they’ve got a problem with it.

From their perspective, and these were the pastors back then, their cleansing rituals were important in order to be clean before God. Not physically. It wasn’t about germs or hygiene. But spiritually.

In their mind, the cleaner you are, the more worthy you are. But if you fail to follow the cleansing rituals, you become unclean and unworthy. This concept is called legalism, which is the idea that our actions, our behaviors, or our conduct can increase or decrease our worthiness before God.

So the Pharisees accuse Jesus for not teaching His disciples properly about purity. But they’ve picked a fight with the wrong guy.

And Jesus responds in two parts. First, He scolds the Pharisees. Second, He tells the truth about being clean before God. He says that we are not defiled by what comes in from the outside, but what comes out from the inside. The sin is in our hearts.

This morning, we’ll unpack this passage in three parts. First, we’ll look at the roots of legalism. Second, we’ll look at its fruits. And third, we’ll look at how Jesus uproots us away from legalism.

The roots of legalism

So first point: the roots of legalism. We’re going to look at it from a practical perspective first, and then a spiritual perspective.

Legalism from a practical perspective

Legalism has a negative connotation attached to it because the Pharisees tried to obey the law without understanding the law. But we’ll see that it’s not entirely bad or unimportant.

As we’ve said, legalism is the idea that our actions and our performance determine our worth. It’s an emphasis on the need to perform certain deeds in order to meet a certain goal.

In the business world, is this important? In a way, your products or services have to meet certain standards. Restaurants are graded according to standards of food hygiene. So we could say that there are elements of legalism in the business world.

From an academic perspective, legalism also plays an important role. Our students have to take exams in order to prove that they’ve learned something. And if someone does well in school, they can go to better universities like NUS or Harvard.

From a social perspective, there are important elements of legalism as well. People usually get hired based on their skillset and competencies, on what they bring to the table. When it’s time to vote, we vote for the candidate we trust to perform their duties well. And legalism is also how we keep dangerous people in prison. We hold their past actions against them.

So legalistic thinking is all around us. It also has other names, such as the survival of the fittest, or the law of the jungle.

Legalism from a spiritual perspective

But what about from a spiritual perspective? Does God give us what we deserve? Does He judge each person according to their works? Does He hold us accountable for our sins?

If the answer is no, then hell’s just an empty threat. There would be no need for Christ to come.

But if the answer is yes, then that means the Pharisees were right.

What does Jesus say?

He says that the Pharisees were on the right track, but they weren’t right enough.

They saw the purity laws in Leviticus, about which animals were clean and unclean. What cleansing processes they had to go through after touching a dead body, or after having a skin disease or rash. So they knew that the problem was uncleanness before God. They correctly identified the kind of problem. But they didn’t properly assess the severity of the problem.

It’s like seeing two doctors for a rash. One tells you it’s caused by an external issue, maybe you didn’t wash your face or you used the wrong facial product. The other tells you that it’s caused by internal toxins from inside.

And Jesus is like the second doctor. This is His diagnosis.

Mark 7:20–23 ESV

And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

So the Pharisees say that we have a problem with sin. Jesus agrees. They say we need to become clean before God, or else we’ll be judged by God. Jesus also agrees.

Matthew 16:27 ESV

For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

But what Jesus doesn’t agree with is the severity of the problem. They underestimated the problem. And as a result, they overestimated their own ability to solve it.

The Bible says that we aren’t good enough. It’s true. We aren’t clean enough. Also true. But what’s not true is that we can wash the sin away on our own.

So legalism has two roots: an underestimation of sin, and an overestimation of ourselves.

In Mark 9:43-47, Jesus says, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. If it’s your eye that makes you sin, cut it off.” But is it really our hands or feet or eyes that make us sin? It’s our heart.

So from a spiritual perspective, is legalism true? Yes and no. Yes there’s a problem. No, we aren’t the solution. Because we can clean what’s on the outside, but we can’t clean the sin in our hearts. It’s like asking someone to perform surgery on themselves.

And so the real question isn’t “Is legalism true?” but “Does it work?” And Jesus says, “Absolutely not.”

The fruits of legalism

Second point: the fruits of legalism.

Now, what happens if we decide to self-medicate with legalism? The wrong medicine makes our condition even worse than before. It creates more problems. And we see four of them in today’s passage. Four fruits of legalism.

Comparison mindset

The first is a comparison mindset. And we see this in the Pharisees, who compare themselves with Jesus’ disciples. “They are bad, we are good.”

Legalism gives us the same mindset of comparison. But it’s not just about comparing the things we have. It’s about comparing our worth as human beings.

So if we compare two diamonds, we might compare their qualities of size, shape, and clarity. And based on that, we would assign worth to each diamond. “This diamond is bigger and clearer than the other, so it’s worth more than the other.”

That’s comparison. But legalism assigns worth, not only to objects, but to people.

“My diamond is worth more than yours, so I’m worth more than you.”

“My performance is better than yours, so I’m worth more than you.”

That’s what the Pharisees were doing. They measured the value of each person by their obedience to the law. They drew a line in the sand between the worthy and the unworthy.

What does Jesus say to that?

Matthew 7:5 ESV

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Lifestyle of Hypocrisy

Next, legalism leads to a lifestyle of hypocrisy.

Mark 7:6–7 (ESV)

And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

The word hypocrite actually comes from the Greek word ὑποκριτής (hupokritaes), and it was what they called actors back then. Hypocrites wore masks and played their role according to the script.

And the thing is that the Pharisees believed that if they played the role well enough, that’s all that mattered. They focused on the outer form rather than inner content.

But they ended up becoming like an actor who refuses to take off his spiderman costume after the filming’s finished. What about us? Do we sometimes put on our superhero costume before coming to church?

Jesus says that He sees through their acting and costumes. He sees past the outer form, and into the inner content. He is the God who sees into the heart of men, and their hearts were far from God. And this leads to the next consequence. It makes their worship in vain.

Vain worship

Legalism results in vain worship.

Jesus denounces the Pharisees for their vain worship. Empty worship. And He quotes the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 29:13) in saying that their hearts are far from God. What does that mean?

When we worship, we lift up sacrifices and offerings to God. We lift up praises, the choral anthem, prayers, and tithes and offerings.

But the most important thing we lift up to God is our hearts. Or else it’s all in vain.

So how do we do that? It’s through thanksgiving.

Psalm 86:12 (ESV)

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.

Psalm 9:1 (ESV)

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

On the other hand, legalism makes it impossible to have thanksgiving. Because legalism is about earning and deserving. It’s about getting what we deserve.

We see this in Luke 18, where Jesus talks about a Pharisee and a tax collector. Both are praying. The Pharisee lists all the things that he has achieved, and somehow thanks God.

Luke 18:11–12 ESV

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

Does that make sense? “Thank you because I did this, and this, and this. Thank you because of my hard work.” No one gives thanks like that.

When a boss pays his employees, they might say “Thank you.” But if he or she gives a huge bonus, they’ll say “THANK YOU.” What’s the difference? The second one has heart in it.

When we thank someone, we thank them for what they did. We can’t have thanksgiving for something we earned on our own.

So a legalistic mindset makes it impossible to lift up our hearts to God in thanksgiving. And if our hearts are far away, then our worship is in vain.

Ineffectiveness of God’s Word

Finally, legalism makes the Word of God ineffective or void.

Mark 7:13 ESV

thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

What does it mean to make void the Word of God?

The Greek word for “make void” is ἀκυρόω (akurou), which means to make something ineffective, or to render something powerless. How did the Pharisees make the Word of God ineffective?

Jesus said that they didn’t apply it to their hearts.

Mark 7:18–21 ESV

And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,

See, the Word of God has the power to cleanse us from sin, but it has to be applied in the right way, to the right place. Our hearts.

However, instead of applying it to their hearts, the Pharisees applied it to their hands and feet. And so because of that, their hands and feet were very busy in keeping the Word of God, but their hearts remained unclean. That’s why the Word was ineffective.

It’s like rubbing a panadol on your forehead to cure a headache. Is that going to work? You have to eat it first and absorb it. It has to be applied in the right way.

God gave the law at Mount Sinai for the purpose of relationship, to live in God’s presence. They were like house rules. But what legalism does is it repurposes God’s Word for personal benefit. It’s inherently selfish.

It’s like doing the laundry or washing the dishes not in order to be helpful, but because you want something from your spouse.

The Pharisees became like the older brother of the prodigal son in Luke 15, who never left home and always did what he was told. He obeyed the house rules. And now he thinks he can tell the father what to do on account of his good behavior, rather than on account of being his son.

Legalism makes God’s Word void and ineffective.

And the Apostle Paul had something to say about this.

Galatians 2:21 ESV

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

But that’s not all. The Pharisees then took it to the next level.

They started picking and choosing which laws they liked, and they built new laws upon those laws, and told people to obey all of it. They called it the tradition of the elders. And several of them are mentioned in Mark 7.

The washing of hands

The washing of cups, pots, and dining couches

The corban principle

The Pharisees would teach people to apply the law of Corban to offer to the temple what would otherwise benefit their parents. It was a special dedication to the Lord. But there’s no law of Corban in the Bible. And who does it benefit? The ones working at the temple.

So in other words, they had a habit of preferential obedience. Instead of receiving all of God’s Word, they would pick and choose which laws they liked, and they would build laws upon them for emphasis.

They put their traditions in the place of Scripture, and themselves in the place of God. How could the Word of God be effective in their lives?

If comparison is a mindset, then hypocrisy is a lifestyle. Vain worship is a consequence. And the Word of God becomes ineffective.

Let us think about if the Word is effective to us each week. If not, do we share the same problem as the Pharisees?

Now, how does Jesus respond to them?

How Jesus uproots us from legalism

Third point: how Jesus uproots us from legalism.

Jesus reveals the true nature of our problem

First, as we’ve already seen, Jesus reveals the true nature of our sin problem. It’s so severe to the point that we couldn’t possibly help ourselves. It’s a heart problem that won’t go away no matter how many times we wash, no matter how many rituals we follow. And no one else can help us either, because it’s a worldwide pandemic. Everybody’s infected.

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

King David knew this for a fact. He had lived such a glorious life with innumerable achievements, and yet even as a pillar of the faith, he fell into sin. And so he prayed desperately to God, asking for God to create in him a clean heart.

Psalm 51:10 (ESV)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

How does God answer David’s prayer? God’s covenant with David was covenant number 5. The first was with Adam. Second, Noah. Third, Abraham. Fourth, Moses. Fifth, David. Sixth, the new covenant. And this is what it says.

Ezekiel 36:25–26 ESV

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

God makes a covenant promising to make us clean, to give us a new heart and a new spirit. Who makes this happen? Jesus. How does He do it?

Jesus fulfills the law on our behalf

He fulfills the Law on our behalf. He didn’t come to say our sins don’t matter. Neither did He say that the Law doesn’t matter. He came to fulfill the law.

Matthew 5:17–18 ESV

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

How did Jesus fulfill the law? Through His clean life, and His unclean death.

He lived a clean, sinless life, in full obedience to the Law.

And He died an unclean death. On the cross, He took on our uncleanness upon Himself. All our sins. And He fulfilled the judgement of Law upon sinners by dying in our place.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

That’s how Jesus fulfilled the law. It was never meant for us to fulfill, but to fill us with thanksgiving for what God would do in Christ Jesus. That’s why Paul calls it a guardian.

Galatians 3:23–25 ESV

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,

The Law was and has always been about relationship between us and God. But if the consequences of sin have been dealt with on the cross, then does that mean we can live however we want? That’s swinging the opposite way of legalism into another false doctrine called antinomianism.

Legalism takes advantage of the law.

Antinomianism takes advantage of grace.

And both attitudes reveals a complete lack of faith, love, and thanksgiving to God.

Conclusion: How should we wash?

So in conclusion, how should we wash?

Time to be real here. There are times in our walk of faith where we feel unclean before God. There are times where we feel especially guilty or unworthy to be in His presence. And in those times, how should we wash? What should we do?

Should we read 20 chapters of the Bible and pray on our knees for 3 hours? It’s not a bad idea. But if we think that it turns God’s frown upside down, we are sorely mistaken.

Paul’s letter to the Galatians was addressing this specific problem. False teachers had come by and reintroduced legalism to the congregation. And this is what he said.

Galatians 3:1–4 ESV

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

What’s he saying? He’s saying that if we try to wash ourselves clean before God, it’s like taking a bath in the sewer. We make our situation even worse, and the fruits of legalism would fester within us.

So what should we do?

We need to remember and surrender.

We need to remember what Christ has done, and surrender our feet to Him.

John 13:5–7 ESV

Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”

This is the central pillar of the Christian faith. God washes our feet. The sinful places we’ve been to. The mistakes we’ve done. He erases that, and makes us clean again. It’s not something we could earn, and yet it’s something He yearns to do for us.

Luke 23:42-43 tells us about the thief who was crucified beside Jesus. What works did he have? He had done nothing for Jesus, except to insult Him moments ago. He had no righteousness of his own. And yet in that moment when he put his trust in Jesus, he became cleaner than any Pharisee. That’s the Gospel.

So we need to remember and surrender. That’s it. Nothing more. If we’ve sinned, we need to repent and return to the One who makes us clean.

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

We are made clean by nothing but faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone.

Who could possibly be worthy of such a thing? No one. Not me, not Billy Graham, not Mother Teresa. No one.

And yet Jesus waits there, bucket filled and towel in hand. And without judgment, with eyes of love and compassion, He waits for us to come to Him, take a seat, and give Him our dirty feet.

Can we do anything when someone’s washing our feet? We can only sit there. There’s nothing we can contribute to our own salvation, except to receive it by faith as a free gift of grace.

And so the moment we surrender our feet to Jesus, we are made new. He washes all our past sins away. He washes all the uncleanness away. We become as clean as the Son of God Himself.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, we remember Your righteous life and Your atoning death. We remember Your call to Peter and the disciples to sit before You, as You washed their feet. And now, Lord, we surrender our feet to You. We surrender our uncleanness to You. Wash us clean by Your blood, shed on the cross for us. And make us new. In Your name, we receive Your purity and Your righteousness. And in Your name we pray, amen.