Resove to Remain Free

Last week we dealt with the primary topic of legalism, which seemed to strike a chord with many of those who attended the service. But the term can be defined in many ways, so I want to begin this morning by giving you what I mean when I say legalism.

When I speak of legalism, there are several issues at play in my mind. First, I view legalism as anything that adds to the commands and principles of Scripture. The illustration that I used from John 9 last week is a case in point. God gave to Israel in the Law of Moses, the command to “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). The details that God gave to Moses as to what that meant was essentially to not work on that day and to not have others, even your animals, working for you on that day. It was also strongly implied that it was a day to set your mind on God. The Pharisees and rabbis had added several hundred additional regulations to what the sabbath day law entailed.

In our time and church culture, legalism appears in the form of mandating that you can only use certain Bible translations, such as the KJV, or that you can only sings the old hymns in church, or that you must completely avoid drinking alcohol, or that you can’t have a TV in your home, etc.

I also view legalism as anything that restricts the grace and freedom that Jesus paid for with His life to provide for those who believe. I am obviously not talking about anything that the Bible defines as sin – grace and freedom do not mean that you can murder someone without consequence, or commit adultery without consequence, or even tell a lie without consequence. It is not legalism to condemn sin, to admonish brothers and sisters in Christ who commit sin, to correct sinful behavior in the church, but it is legalism to expand the definition of sin beyond what the Bible says.

Lastly, I view legalism as depending upon adherence to even the commands of Scripture as a means to earn or gain salvation, or as a means to hang onto your salvation. And this is why, I believe, Jesus devoted more of His time on earth rebuking the sin of legalism than any other sin. Legalism destroys grace alone as the means of salvation. Legalism deceives people into believing that they are saved by their actions and merit, which cannot save anyone. Legalism will likely be the primary reason that many will be surprised to discover that they were never truly saved.

In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’.”

If you are depending on anything, even miraculous signs, and wonders, to assure you of salvation other than grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, you will find yourself in hell when you die and cast into the lake of eternal fire at the Great White Throne Judgment. This is why I said to you last week that legalism is far worse than licentiousness or abusing God’s grace by seeing it as a license to sin. Sin can be forgiven, thinking that you are saved by your works will damn you to eternal punishment.

Turn with me in your Bible to the Book of 2 Corinthians.

Even though I will be spending our time this morning in another passage of Scripture, I want to begin with what the Holy Spirit used to set me on this topic.

2 Corinthians 6:11-12

Let’s pray.

The sense of Paul’s words, “but you are restrained in your own affections”, reveals to us that our legalistic ways are the result of our own personal desires. We can obviously and most definitely be influenced by others to succumb to legalism, but in the end, we are self-deceived and view such ways as righteous and good and holy, no matter how miserable they make us.

So, with that as an opening thought, turn with me in your Bible to the Book of Galatians.

Galatians 5:1

Spurgeon opens his commentary on this chapter with the words, “God grant us the grace to keep grace! God grant us faith enough to live by faith, even to the end, as the freeborn children of God, for His name’s sake! Amen.”

Paul’s Letter to the churches in Galatia is unique among his other Letters in this way: He has nothing good to say to them in the opening. In all of his other Letters, Paul has at least some words of commendation or affirmation before he starts teaching doctrine. In this Letter, Paul opens with rebuke; and the harshness of his words are because he is confronting legalism. Paul spends the first four chapters and part of this fifth chapter confronting, rebuking, admonishing, and even blatantly attacking the people of these churches because they were becoming staunch legalists.

So, Paul launches into finally coming around to some application of the principles that he has unashamedly taught with, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject to a yoke of slavery” (v. 1).

There are two imperative Greek verbs in this verse. Imperative verbs are ones that call for immediate and decisive action; these verbs essentially leave no room for debate and should not be taken as optional courses to consider. The two imperative verbs are translated in the NASB as keep standing and do not be subject.

First, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free”. In other words:

Christ has set you free

so that you could be free

so be free!

We are far too often like the dog who has been raised in a small kennel. After growing accustomed to and comfortable in that kennel, you can completely remove the gate, but the dog will keep going back to that kennel for the rest of its life.

Many believers have grown accustomed to the man-made rules and regulations of legalism, that pastors and other church leaders or denominational boards have enacted – often well-meaning pastors and leaders – to the point that they believe these mandates are Scripture and will scamper back to the comfort that they have developed over the years in following these man-made precepts instead of living in the freedom that Christ purchased for them at the cross.

It is excruciating for many to let go of such, and even when we think that we have been freed from some of these things we can find ourselves seeking the comfort of our old kennels. So, Paul unleashes the first of his two imperatives to those who have tasted the freedom that they have been given – keep standing firm! Resolve to fight against the almost magnetic draw to return to your old legalistic ways. Take a stand and determine in your heart to live in the freedom that cost Jesus Christ His life.

As we are often reminded concerning our nation, the freedoms that we currently still have was by no means free. The cost to obtain the freedoms we enjoy was paid for by countless lives in battle after battle fought on American soil and around the globe. We should thus never take these freedoms for granted and always be grateful to those who paid the price on our behalf. The reason the current direction of our nation is so difficult to accept is that we seem to be telling all of these soldiers that their sacrifice was senseless, that we’ll give up these freedoms for some twisted form of socialism and government control. Even people who have not experienced being raised in a kennel want a kennel – it’s utterly ridiculous!

But as senseless as such is, it is infinitely worse to surrender the freedom that we have in Christ. The freedoms that Christ has provided to believers did not come without cost, but they instead came through the Son of God experiencing unimaginable pain in sadistic torture and an inhumane death on a cross of wood. And when we choose legalism over the liberty of God’s grace, we are telling Christ that His sacrifice was utterly foolish – “Jesus, we’ll keep our bondage to the Law, thank you – that was pretty stupid of You to go through all of that.”

Do words like that shock you or make you cringe a little, calling Jesus foolish and stupid? Beloved, that is exactly what you and I do when we choose legalism over the freedom that His life, death, and resurrection provided for us through no cost of our own. If law and rules and restrictions and regulations and traditions play any part in our salvation or sanctification, then everything that Jesus did is meaningless. Jesus paid it all as the old hymn states. He didn’t pay half or 75% or even 99%, He paid it all.

So, beloved, I ask you right here and now to be radically honest with yourself about what is going on inside of you. Are you pleased with yourself and convinced that you are performing your religious and moral duty rather well – or at least satisfied that you are doing better than others, at least in your own mind? Comparing ourselves to others is comforting; I get it, but it is an outrageously false assumption that being better than the next person makes a difference in our standing with God.

As I have said in the past I will say again, there is absolutely nothing you can do to make God love your less but there is also absolutely nothing you can do to make God love you more. This is essentially the definition of our freedom in Christ. Each of us can be the unique and treasured person that God created us to be without fear of falling out of His favor or losing our salvation or even no longer being loved by Him as fully as He has always loved us in Jesus Christ. That’s true freedom!

So, once you grasp what true freedom in Christ means and once you apply that freedom to your life in a biblical manner, keep standing firm in that freedom. Be diligent to not slip back into old patterns and old habits. Don’t ever go back to your kennel. Resolve to remain in full and radical and bodacious freedom! Because the moment that you retreat, the tendency is to keep retreating until you have retreated back into your comfortable kennel.

Paul then gives the Galatians and us a second imperative, the same one really, but from the negative perspective – do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

I think this should be obvious, but we can experience the genuine and exhilarating freedom that grace affords us and then drift back into legalism – maybe not the exact same forms of legalism but legalism, nonetheless.

For example (and this is a somewhat silly example), like me you may have grown up in an era or an area of the country where it was expected for you to wear your Sunday best to church each week. In some churches you were looked down on if you did not dress appropriately, and appropriately is always subjective to the particular church culture. In a growing number of churches today, it is now mostly blue jeans and a casual shirt if not a ragged T-shirt – even for many of the pastors. In such a culture you could be looked at funny for wearing a suit or a nice dress. One form of legalism traded for another. Again, a somewhat silly example but I hope you get the potential problem.

It is our nature to want to fit in with the culture and climate of the groups we are associated with. And fitting in means adhering to the written or implied rules, which when in a church setting is an extremely short leap into legalism. Do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery – of any kind! And instead of trying to avoid a return your kennel, throw the thing away!

Galatians 5:2-10

Just so you do not get confused by all this talk of circumcision, this was the legalistic issue at hand in the churches of Galatia. You could substitute any other issue of legalism if it helps you to understand what is being taught in these verses. The point is that the people of these churches had been deceived and drawn away by false teachers – teachers who were not willing to let go of the Law of Moses – and who were thus believing that circumcision was required for salvation. Not sure where this left the women, but that was their false teaching and that was what these churches were falling back into.

In verse 7, Paul writes, “You were running so well”, meaning that you were growing in grace, growing in sanctification, growing in becoming like Jesus Christ; “who hindered you from obeying the truth?” I trust you see in this that following any form of legalism is following a lie. Following man-made rules or rules that have been added to the purity of Scripture is not obeying the truth, which leaves you with following a lie and you are subjecting yourself again to a yoke of slavery.

None of the ridiculousness of legalism comes from God (v. 8), and when you engage in legalistic ways you will infect others around you with this cursed behavior. Verse 9 couldn’t be clearer in this regard – “A little leaven (or yeast) leavens the whole lump of dough”. Your legalistic tendencies could possibly be responsible for dragging the whole church down with you. This demonic infection of legalism was quickly spreading throughout all of the churches in Galatia, and Paul implies that it all began with one man in verse 10.

This is how dangerous it is – do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

There is no time to fully develop the rest of what Paul relates in this chapter, but let’s at least do a drive-by.

Galatians 5:13-14

The calling to salvation is a calling to freedom. Such incredible freedom can lead to the extreme of believing that sin doesn’t matter anymore, which is another false belief. To avoid such, Paul suggests that we use our freedom to serve one another in the love of Jesus Christ. We fulfill the Law within the bounds of our freedom when we love one another, which is expressed as we serve one another.

Legalism serves self. Legalism serves Satan. Legalism throws love and service out the window. From a spiritual perspective, there is nothing worse for the church than legalism because is crushes grace, tosses freedom aside, and enslaves people to that which you have already been freed from. Your chains are gone, you’ve been set free – why, oh why do you want to put those chains and shackles back on your wrists and ankles and waist and neck?

Galatians 5:17-18

Be prepared for the battle of your life though. The flesh desires the deeds of the flesh, which are all based in pride and selfishness and legalism satisfies pride and selfishness. You’ll be miserable in the process if you are truly saved, but pride and selfishness will be satisfied. The Holy Spirit within you will be at war with your flesh to help you stay free of those chains, but it will be a battle if you choose to walk in the flesh instead of walking in the Spirit.

Are you beginning to see why Paul wrote back in 2 Corinthians 6:12 that you are restrained by your own affections? Every aspect of legalism is a victory for the flesh and a victory for Satan’s influence in your life. But if you are born again, if you have repented of your sins and confessed Jesus as Lord of your life, you have all the help that you need to defeat the flesh and to defeat the influences of Satan in your life – you have the Holy Spirit living within you which means the almighty omnipotent power of God within you. All the combined power of Satan, of his demons, and of your own flesh are no match for the power of God.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”

Let’s pray.