I have a confession for you. I hate legalism. Absolutely hate it. Can’t stand it. In my opinion, it’s an absolute perversion of the Gospel. If Jesus is the Good News, legalism is the un or anti-good news.
If you were to ask a hundred self-identified Christians if they were legalists, I guarantee you that most, if not all of them, would deny it. It’s ironic, because if you were to ask people out in the world, why they don’t like Christians, I believe that one of the more common answers would be, “legalism.”
I would probably side with the secularists on this one, but in fairness, legalism is also part of what makes us human and is hard-wired into us. We like to draw lines on the sand, while including some people (especially ourselves), and excluding others. It happens on play grounds, schools and happens in clubs and fraternities. We like creating boundaries where we get to be the insiders, and everyone disagreeing with us becomes the outsiders or “bad guys”. The problem comes when we apply this approach to following Jesus.
For Jesus, the most important thing wasn’t drawing up lines or figuring out who was in or out, it was love. We should love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul and mind. For Jesus, it was about being in relationship with himself. Secondly, as Jesus tells us, we should love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40). Who is my neighbor? Are they the people in my church? Well, accordingly to the parable of the Good Samaritan, basically everyone, especially, the people who don’t share my values or beliefs, is my neighbor (Luke 10:25-37). All of those boundaries which serve as my security blanket get broken down and destroyed. Time and time again, we see a Jesus who made an extra effort to love the marginalized and disenfranchised of his day. The people that Jesus had a problem with were the religious ones, the legalists, the ones who thought that they had an inside line to God.
Luke 11
46 Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
We haven’t really learned from the words in our own Bibles, because in our churches, we have made so many things mandatory and essential. It may all be for a good “cause”, but the problem with making a bunch of other stuff “mandatory,” is that it’s not long before those “mandatory” things become a phony kind of gospel in and of themselves.
Of course, when we decide to follow Jesus, none of us wake up one morning and tells ourselves, “I want to be a legalist.” Instead, it’s usually about wanting to pursue the truth. I want to be a good Christian and to be a “good” Christian I need to do “these things.” Soon, we’re no different than the Pharisee-legalists that followed Jesus around, thinking that their good lives gave them an inside line to God.
Here’s a story from my own personal experience. How would you feel if church services and bible studies were absolutely mandatory, but for serious injury or dismemberment? From personal experience, let me just say that this is not a good place to be. Sure, I understand all of the supposedly spiritual reasons why church or Bible study is important, but from my own personal experience, these things should never become religious requirements. I was once at a place where virtually everything, including church volleyball leagues and drama festivals were mandatory. On one occasion my wife missed the church service because our two year old daughter had a 100+ fever and was throwing up. As a result we were rebuked by the pastor and his wife, who felt that this was simply not a good enough excuse. The rationale for all of these mandatory activities and rules was simple. As Christians, we can draw closer to God by loving one another. You cannot learn how to love one another without fellowship. Therefore, if you want come closer to God you must attend all of these church functions. One result of this legalism is that we felt pretty good about ourselves. We looked at all of the churches where members weren’t expected to do all of these things, and we congratulated ourselves for our commitment to God, and yet it was also a very tiring kind of life. Before making my decision to follow Jesus I was in bondage to sin, but now in the church, I had become in bondage to rules and expectations.
Leaving that church environment and coming to the Greater Boston Vineyard was like a breath of fresh air, but I soon realized that my recovery would take more time. For much of my life with Jesus, being a good Christian was all about doing stuff for him. It was hard for me to be in Christ and not to feel this sense of anxiety that I needed to be busier for God and do more things and become more involved for Him.
Not long, after coming to the Vineyard, I attended a meeting for a new ministry opportunity. As the pastor was talking about the commitment for this opportunity, I felt my anxiety level and blood pressure rising. “Could I commit the time?” “Would it be too much?” Clearly I wasn’t ready to participate and so I stepped away from this opportunity. This kind of thing has happened on a few different occasions at the Vineyard. I am so thankful to be an environment where I don’t feel judged or condemned for not being more involved. Right now, I am just trying to learn how to love Jesus for the joy of it. One of the challenges for me is how I can live out my faith and my life with God. It’s a challenge that doesn’t come with any pat answers, because it’s a challenge that can only be resolved through prayer and through genuinely asking God His desire for my life. I want God to speak to me and lead me to opportunities where He can use me and bless me. Yes, there is a kind of tension there, when your Christian life is not being prescribed for you, but it’s a good kind of tension.
My experience with legalism might be little extreme, however you don’t have to be at a legalistic church to be a legalist. Most of the time, legalism doesn’t come from any authority figure or church, but instead it comes from ourselves and our own desire to be better than the person next to us. Recently, I read Carl Medearis’ book, “Speaking of Jesus: The Art of Not Evangelism.” It’s an absolutely awesome book and “must read”, which made me rethink a lot of the ways I think about faith and following Jesus. (I am going to try to write more substantively on Medearis’ book in the coming weeks) So many times in my life, it hasn’t been about following Jesus, instead it’s been about being religious and it’s been about plugging myself into a religious system. What is clear from the gospels is that religion never saved anyone. So, why have I tried hard to point people to religion, and to being involved in church, as the way to life? The only one who can save us and give us life is Jesus. With all of this in mind, how can my life be more about Jesus and less about the religious garbage that filled my life? How can I point people to Jesus? These are some of the questions that I want to consider in the coming weeks.
