by Jacob Ninan
It is common to call out others as being legalistic, and we may not realise what it actually means, or more seriously, how legalism may be affecting us too. Usually, it is those who are strict with keeping rules who are called legalistic, but from a biblical point of view, legalism is a wrong way of life aimed at receiving acceptance with God.
The main aspect of legalism is to imagine that by following certain laws or rules of behaviour, we can earn our acceptance with God. The assumption is that we are essentially good, and that it takes only an adherence to certain external forms to tip God's scales in our favour. Many people imagine that on the final day God is going to weigh our good deeds against our bad deeds, and if we can make sure that our good can outweigh the bad, we would be safe! Many nominal Christians also have this view of life. But the problem with this is that God's standards are so high that whatever we do, we will always come short and there is no way we can be perfect before Him. Many nominal Christians think also that as long as they ask for forgiveness whenever they do wrong, they can ensure that their good is acceptable enough. No. They don't understand that they are so sinful in their nature itself that God cannot accept them as they are.
After Paul became a Christian, he was very concerned for his fellow Jews who were rejecting Christ. He could see that some of them were zealous about keeping the Law as a means of becoming righteous but did not understand the righteousness that God was offering them through Christ freely (Rom.10:1-4). There is only one way of becoming acceptable to God, and that is through the righteousness of Christ getting credited to God. Our sins that stood between God and us had to be removed first, and for that God placed their punishment on Jesus. Now it is possible for us to go to God and ask for forgiveness and acceptance, as we admit our sins, express our desire to turn from sin and to live for God. This is grace, but legalists cannot understand this. They don't understand that no one can be justified before God by their own works (Rom.3:20), and that they can instead receive it free as a gift from God through faith in Jesus as their Saviour. Legalism is the way all religions of the world propose to find salvation.
Those who are Christians only in name and who have not been born again, also follow this legalistic approach. Some try to keep the Ten Commandments, and some others rely on attending church, reading the Bible, praying, taking part in communion, getting baptised, etc., expecting such things to make them acceptable to God. Some make it a point to attend church on special days such as New Year, Good Friday, Easter and Christmas, believing that this would add virtue to their side. But they must understand that unless they are born again, they cannot have any place with God (Jn.3:3). We need to admit we are sinners in the sight of the holy God, and ask for forgiveness on the basis of the grace of God that He has provided through Jesus.
Another aspect of a legalistic life is to pay excessive attention to external rules, thinking that as long as they do these things they would be 'godly'. They avoid certain things that are considered wrong, such as smoking, drinking, movies, dancing, etc., hoping to keep themselves holy. Some people can go to extremes in this direction, wearing only certain types of dresses, avoiding make-up and perfumes, avoiding ornaments, not mingling with certain people, avoiding the theatre, etc. Jesus pointed to the Pharisees of His day to illustrate this type of legalism. In trying to be holy in all the small details of life, such as tithing even from the kitchen plants, they missed out on keeping their heart right before God and people (Matt.23:23). When they prayed, they did it publicly and when they gave to charity, they made a fanfare of it. Jesus said that in all this, their intention was to get the applause from people for their godliness (Matt.23:5). He told them to start with cleansing themselves within their hearts first, which would then follow on to their external behaviour too (Matt.23:25,26).
Once we are born again, we want to live in a way that is pleasing to God. So we draw up boundaries for ourselves for everything that we do. God's laws are our boundaries, and we expand these laws to cover the many details of our life. That was what the Pharisees originally tried to do. But they ended up with external forms, forgetting to keep godly values in their heart. Some people think of those who strictly follow boundaries as legalistic, almost as if becoming a Christian and coming under grace gives us freedom to throw off all boundaries! Our godliness must be in our heart attitudes, which can then be seen in our external behaviour. But if we focus or content ourselves with external things that others can notice, that is another part of being legalistic.
What it means to people who have not yet been born again is that they should give up relying on their behaviour and rituals to earn their salvation, and go to Jesus, humbly acknowledge and confess their sins, and receive forgiveness and acceptance as a free gift which they do not deserve.
When it comes to those who have already been born again, we should realise that godliness does not consist of external rules of behaviour that we keep, but a true godliness in our heart that keeps growing more and more into the character of Jesus.
There could be two wrong reasons people have because of which they try to manage their external behaviour, to think that in that way they are going to achieve acceptance from God, or to think that this is what constitutes godliness.
But there are also two good reasons for controlling our external behaviour. The first is that we want to avoid certain things because we are convinced in our heart that they are wrong. Secondly we don't wish to do certain things even though we are convinced in our heart that they are all right, because we fear our example may stumble less mature people who are watching us and cause them to do those things even though they think these things are wrong.
Let us look at some examples to make this clear. Here is a believer who is convinced that a TV would bring all kinds of worldly value into his home. There is another Christian who has been convicted in his heart that he has been wasting too much time watching TV. They both decide not to have a TV in their house. Their children may not understand this at that time, and may think that their father is weird because others in their church have TVs. Some others in the church may start calling them legalistic because according to them, they are placing too much attention to external rules! But that is a misunderstanding.
Here is another believer who believes that there is nothing wrong in itself to drink wine in moderate quantities, because Jesus had no problem with that. However, he believes that if a younger person sees him drinking wine that person may get into the habit of drinking and become an addict. So, for the sake of others, this believer avoids drinking.
Can we now see that certain people are placing certain restrictions on their external behaviour because they are convinced in their heart that it would be the godly thing to do. But others who do not have such convictions, either because they have not thought much about such things or because they do not care about godliness that much call such people legalistic! But that is not right!
On the other hand, think of people who are following certain practices just because they have grown up used to them or because they are the accepted norms in their church. They are not following them because they are convinced that this is a godly thing to do. That is seen when they move to another church, when they quickly put away their previous practices and adapt to the patterns in the new church! If while they were in one church they did not have a TV, now they have no problem having one! Can you now see what it really is to be legalistic?
It is not only for our individual lives that we need to draw lines of boundary, but when we are parents we need to place them for our children, and when we are leaders in the church we have to draw boundaries for the people in the church. It is obvious that we cannot say we are free from the Law and have no boundaries at all! That would be lawlessness! But when we draw boundaries, we must do it out of conviction in our heart, and then we must also take the effort to explain the meaning of these boundaries to those we want to come inside them. Obviously, people can go wrong in their understanding of what is right or wrong, including churches.
It brings us to another point, that because of the differences among people, depending on our personalities, our experiences, the doctrines we have been taught or under which we have grown up, etc., we may do things differently. On one hand, we must learn to keep growing in godliness, walking before God with our heart open before Him (Prov.4:23). On the other hand, every minor difference we see in others must not become such points of contention that we finally lose our fellowship with those who are truly our brothers and sisters (Rom.14:20). At the same time, we need to check our beliefs and convictions to see if we are really right, and in this context it will be good to understand the convictions of others. Let us give up legalistic behaviour and learn to live from our convictions.