The Opposite Of Legalism
By Phil Scovell
I was listening to a Christian program that I have personally
heard, and appreciated, for literally decades. The guess speaker that
day was one I had heard in previous broadcasts. He calls himself a
preacher but I have heard others refer to him as a motivational
speaker. He appears to be both, that is, he teaches and makes
Biblical principles applicable, by story telling and illustrative
examples. That sounds like a preacher to me but in all fairness, his
goal very likely is motivational but not just for the sake of making
his listeners feel good. He truly brings home the importance of
having a personal relationship with Christ.
Later it was explained he also holds public speaking training
seminars around the country at various times for people to attend and
thus to become better public speakers.
As I sat and listened to the first part of this two part
presentation, I felt spiritually uncomfortable for some reason. I
didn't feel he was wrong, necessarily, nor did he in any way
marginalize the Bible or Biblical precepts, as far as I could tell,
but something felt wrong. I focused more closely on his method of
public speaking, the stories he told, the humor he incorporated in
order to illustrate a point, and I found nothing out of place. In
fact, his speaking technique was flawless. Still, I felt something
was wrong but could not put my finger on it. The feeling I had was
spiritual in nature.
The next day, the second part was broadcast so I took time to
listen. It was in the second presentation I recognized what I had
been feeling earlier. It had to do with the implication of Christian
legalism or what some now call performance based Christianity.
In one of his stories, he told about how he had learn to fly a
small airplane. As he flew along one day, he entered small puffy
clouds to see what it would be like. After experimenting a few times,
by entering and exiting various small clouds, he found a larger cloud
and entered it. Later, when he popped out of the cloud, he was flying
completely upside down. This frightened him a great deal, of course,
and upon landing, he signed up immediately for instrument flying. He
commented on there being a large number of thick books filled with
rule after rule after rule and he memorized them all in order to pass
his instrument exam. Now, he said, he doesn't get lost in clouds
because he flies by what the instruments tell him. He compared this
to how we get the most joy out of living for Christ. It was at that
point I turned my radio off.
Sitting in the silence of my room, I reviewed everything the man
had said. Frankly, I really had no major disagreement with anything
he had been teaching until he came to the comparison of living for
Christ by rule. I turned the radio off because I had already lived 50
years of my life by legalism, rules and regulation, and performance
based Christian methodology. Now I knew from personal experience,
such did not work and wasn't even a Biblical concept or principle. It
is, unfortunately, still widely taught and accepted as Bible based.
His implication, or application, seemed to be that all the rules had
to be kept or; what? No joy? At least that was what I got out of his
teaching.
A basic definition of legalism is living by a set of Biblical
rules. Some weaken this statement by considering the Christian life
to be a set of "Christian rules" lived by. I trust you are noticing
the words I am using. If not, you'll miss the progressive downward
drift. Another lower level of definition might be a set of "religious
rules." Still others may reduce it to just a "set of rules," or
"moral rules," by which we all should live. I've even heard some call
them "cosmic rules," or, "universal rules." Regardless, the key word
is "rules." In our case as born again Christians, I am staying with
the first definition because unless you are born again, it makes
absolutely no difference what rules you live by; you won't be going to
Heaven because you lived by any set of rules even if you think they
are godly in nature. Notice, I used a small letter "g" there and not
a capital "G" to illustrate.
Concerning born again Believers specifically, and Christianity in
general, we often think of Old Testament law when thinking about
legalism. These rules were required. Yet no one was ever able to
keep the letter of the law so a sacrifice was offered once a year for
all the sins of the nation collectively. According to Chapter 7 and 8
of the book of Hebrews, Jesus fulfilled all Old Testament law by
becoming the supreme sacrifice for sin.
Growing up as a independent Baptist, we considered liberal
churches to be those types of ministries that kept few Christian
standards. For example, in my own life, I was not allowed to play
with neighborhood friends on Sundays. I could not ride my bike on
Sunday. We never went out to eat on Sundays. My sisters didn't wear
shorts. As a young assistant youth pastor in the mid seventies, my
wife didn't wear shorts or slacks but only skirts and dresses. We
didn't own a television for a period of time. In fact, my whole life
was made up by two lists of things I did, and didn't do, for the Lord.
The good list was long but the negative list was just about as long.
I didn't smoke, go to movies, drink, cuss or swear, and I could
continue until a book was written on this topic. The question is, did
I do anything wrong by living this way? No. Nothing I was doing was
wrong, on the surface, and in many respects, was beneficial to me
personally as far as self discipline was concerned. It had nothing to
do, on the other hand, with my relationship with God.
I was listening to one of my favorite radio preachers recently
when he used an illustration that disturbed me. He was actually
speaking on the topic of having a close personal relationship with the
Lord. He wanted to prove that his listening audience did not, in
fact, have such a relationship. This was, by the way, a taped message
before a live audience but I heard the tape over his daily radio
program.
As he taught, he asked how many people listening to him had ever
been in a service, church meeting, where someone gave a spectacular
testimony. He suggested, that the testimony was something highly
unusual such as a person encountering an angel or something like that.
Then he stated that most people hearing such a miraculous testimony,
will sit in their seat and rather than rejoicing with the person, will
think to themselves, "Well, God never does anything like that for me."
He declared this was pure and simple selfishness and self
centeredness.
After the program was over, I sat and reviewed in my mind all he
had said and wondered why I felt uncomfortable about what he said
about selfishness. It didn't take long for the Holy Spirit to reveal
the truth to me. The Bible teacher, unfortunately, may have been
right but only under some circumstances. Most people that I
personally know, are envious of such deep and personal spiritual
encounters because they desire to know God that intimately. This man,
by the way, preaches dogmatically against legalism but in this case,
as well as at least one other example he has used, is nothing but
legalism in its rawest of forms. Why are we so afraid to live with
Jesus as the only rule to live by? Why do we have to perform to make
God happy? Why do we have to have a Sunday school pin that is as long
as a football field that we ostentatiously have to wear to church
every Sunday to make sure people know just how faithful we have been?
Have you ever wondered why tithing is preached so imperiously? I have
heard it preached more than once that if you don't attend every
service, including Sunday night services and midweek services, you are
casting your vote that the church close its doors on those nights.
Yeh, and a chicken has lips, too. I have even heard it preached that
if you work on Sundays, you are living outside the will of God. I was
in a church once that when weddings were conducted, if you had been
involved with premarital sex, you could not be married in a white
wedding gown, if you were the woman of course, and you could not be
married, in this church, in the main auditorium. Please show me this
in the Bible. Why do we have to read the Bible once every year, or
twice or three times, to be spiritual? I've read the Bible 114 times
in my life, and once I read it twice in one month from cover to cover,
and guess what? I ain't one bit more spiritual than you are. In
fact, I know many people that are so far superior to me spiritually, I
look like a spiritual midgut in comparison. I know Jesus though, and
we are friends and he is my brother and He loves me like his own son.
Come to think of it, I am, that is, one of His own sons. So why,
please tell me, do we have to become Christian circus animals,
preforming before others, in order to be loved and accepted by God?
That's right. We don't. How do I know this? Well, the thief on the
cross wasn't Baptized. He never graduated from seminary. He never
read the Bible, He wasn't even the member of a church. Yet, Jesus
said today, right now, he was going to join Him in paradise. Go
figure. The thief on the cross didn't even have time to practice his
Christianity but we are going to see him in Heaven.
May I ask where you are in God today? Are you a performer? Are
you an achiever? Are you perhaps a spiritual goal setter? "Oh, no,
Brother Scovell. I do all these things because I want to. I like
pleasing god." Me, too. May I respectfully submit that God isn't
impressed with anything you can do even if you are a Christian? He
doesn't collect Sunday school attendance records. He doesn't print
bibles to sell to the Christian public. He doesn't market Christian
preaching tapes of His sermons for tax deductible gifts of 6 dollars a
piece. He doesn't sell crosses you can wear around your neck as
necklaces. Quite simply, He loves you just as you are. No, He
doesn't appreciate sinful living nor does He bless sinful behavior.
However, you haven't committed the unpardonable sin just because you
didn't read your Bible and pray for 15 minutes this morning. He
hasn't stopped loving you because you didn't take communion last
Sunday. His standards, my friend, are far above anything I have
mentioned. No, you cannot, nor will you ever, be able to obtain His
standards. He has fulfilled all that for us and thus, when we come to
Him, we come to Him on His terms. His terms are, "Come as you are."
Did you ever stop and think that God doesn't look at you with clothes
on? You are naked before Him and He isn't ashamed of you either. He
is waiting for you to stop being ashamed and accepted for who, and
what, you are in His sight and not yours. As long as you see yourself
as you are, you won't see yourself as Jesus does. In short, the
opposite of legalism is Lordship. Seeing yourself as Jesus does is
Lordship. So what do you see? If you se anything less than what
Jesus sees, you are denying the fullness of the Gospel message and you
are believing lies about yourself. It is time to stop lie based
thinking so you can stop performance based spirituality.
Safe Place Fellowship
Phil Scovell
Denver, Colorado
Mountain Time Zone
Phone: 303-507-5175
WWW.SafePlaceFellowship.COM
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