Faith and Works - Legalism

I feel like I need to clarify some of what I was saying yesterday to make sure that there’s no confusion. I said that in order for faith shown as genuine, it must lead to works. In other words, if we have true faith, we necessarily will produce fruit in our lives. It is true that works follow genuine faith, so much so that James can speak in the way that he does in James 2 and not contradict Paul.

But even though they are thoroughly bound together, they still play very distinct roles. Faith is the means of salvation for the believer. Faith in Christ saves apart from any works. Works flow from that and reveal the reality of it, but they do not contribute to salvation in any way.

The notion that good works contribute to salvation, or somehow gains favor in the sight of God for the believer, is legalism. I hesitated to even use that word because there’s a lot of misunderstanding and baggage that comes with it, but then again that means it needs explaining all the more.

First of all, let me make it clear the legalism is not a list of rules, and in fact it has very little to do with rules. The Bible is full of rules that we should live our life by, granted some people misinterpret them or misapply them, but that is not legalism. Furthermore, legalism is not based on whether or not your convictions are biblical or not. My interpretation of the demands of scripture is not what makes me legalistic.

This is how Tony Reinke describes legalism:

Legalism is (most dangerously) a soteriological [salvation] problem. That is, legalism is a false gospel. Legalism is the damning lie that says God’s pleasure and joy in me is dependent upon my obedience.

It is legalism that causes the Pharisee to look proudly into the sky in the presence of a tax collector. It is legalism that causes a missionary in Africa to think God is more pleased with him than the Christian businessman in America. And it is legalism that causes the preacher behind the pulpit to think God is more pleased with him than the tattooed Christian teenager sitting in the back row.

So to say that works are necessarily a part of the Christian life is not legalism. To say that these works put us in a better position with God is.

Faith in Christ makes us fully acceptable to God. When he sees us, he doesn’t see what we’ve done wrong, and he doesn’t see what we’ve done right (because even that is not good apart from his working in us), but he sees what Christ has done. He sees the perfect life that Jesus lived, which by his sacrifice was imputed to us.

Legalism happens in the church when we begin to apply the demands of scripture to our lives in such a way that we begin to see what we have done as good in itself and not boasting in the cross and the cross alone. Romans makes it very clear that the cross prevents boasting of any kind except to boast in the work of Christ.

The irony of legalism is that the strict fundamentalist and the license liberal both have the same potential to be legalistic. When the person who drinks a glass of wine looks down on the fundamentalist for all of the rules and believes himself to be a better Christian because of his interpretation of scripture, he is being just as legalistic as the fundamentalist who looks down on the drunk teenager for being a bad Christian. The question with legalism is not are my beliefs biblical, but rather what do they get me?

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. (Galatians 6:14-16)