Wayne' World...(14Aug08)

Daily Rhythms

Legalism Arouses and Aggravates Sinful Passions

Does the Honeymoon have to end? Mine did. I had months and months of powerful times with God, but it ended. However, remember that God didn't end the honeymoon, I did, with legalism. I suspect this happens to most Christians. We begin totally by grace, the gift of righteousness. But then we can't rest there, and grow there. Grace is too radical: It is diametrically opposed to the world system in which we are immersed. Our world system defines human worth mainly in terms of production, beauty, power and wealth. Thus, we feel insecure with grace, and we grasp again at a legalistic, production basis for acceptance.

Legalism is any attempt on our part to establish legal righteousness for ourselves before God. Legalism is essentially self-righteousness. But God uses our thickness of skull! Because the pain and the pride of our legalism will ultimately drive us back to justification by faith. Beginning with Romans 3:20 here are the basics of this process:

….because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

See, ultimately, instead of perfecting us, our legalism exposes our sinfulness simply because we always fail to keep the law perfectly. Here is a fact worth remembering: Any spiritual principle, no matter how biblical, which is used legalistically (made into a law for righteousness) will do one thing for sure. It will show us that we are in sin. So we are forced to go back to justification by faith. Rom 3:20 is pure and simple truth. Through the law comes, not righteousness, but the knowledge of sin. If you sin (or if you are a human being) legalism will make you worse.

When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced sinful deeds, resulting in death. Romans 7:5

You see, God's law relating to morality can actually arouse sinful passions. This is not because God's law is evil but because of the weakness of our flesh and God's law diagnoses the problem for us. Thus any legalism, especially when it is based on biblical principles, will aggravate rather than alleviate your sinful desires. Externally, law can control sinful passions, even as a prison can contain criminals. Thus, civil law can externally control society. Galatians 3:23 enunciates this principle clearly, speaking of being, "kept in custody under the law," and "being shut up" (as in Rom 11:32). This terminology is usually termed incarceration, imprisonment. But incarceration is not transformation. It is external, not internal. It is prison, not freedom. And God never implies that the Law by itself transforms anyone.

Well, if God's law used legalistically arouses sinful passions, and if the law merely incarcerates, does it have any value beyond revealing or exposing sin? Yes, the Law has great value beyond diagnosing sin, but only if we use it lawfully. That is, we must us the Law properly, not attempting to use it to establish legal righteousness. Once you know this you will learn to love God's Law (Michael Eaton – If you walk by the Spirit of God you will accidentally obey the law). The Psalmist said,

Those who love Thy law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble. Psalm 119:165

All of Psalm 119 sounds like this. The law can be a dear friend. But if you use it to establish legal righteousness, the Law automatically turns against you. God doesn't want His Law to be your enemy and that's why He, cancelled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:14

The Lord wants His entire Word to be for you, not against you. Let no one deceive you: Even the Psalmist knew grace and mercy, or else he could not have loved the law. Grace and mercy were available in the Old Testament too. We will have more to say concerning how the entire bible, including the moral Law, can work as your dear friend. But you can't get there until you've been here. The Law of God militates against legalism because it constantly reveals our sin and our need for grace. Thus, just in case you've fled back to legalism because grace was too simple therefore too difficult, the Law of God works on your sin; even arousing and aggravating it, to bring you back to grace. If per chance you have succeeded in legal righteousness, then the word of God will ultimately reveal spiritual pride and self-righteousness in you, to bring you back to grace, and to His righteousness and obedience

Will you return to grace today? Jesus is calling you now. You can begin a new honeymoon with the Lord today. You can experience, afresh and anew, the joy of your salvation. You can experience security and power of imputed righteousness and forsake the insecurity of legal righteousness.