Thought 120
Legalism
I have walked down the road of legalism before, have you? I once decided to read the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible) for my devotional time. At that time, I usually read one chapter a day, and after I got through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy I became really legalistic. The reason that I fell into legalism was because I was solely dwelling on the laws of the Old Testament and not remembering the balance of the grace and salvation of God for several months. My “Bible knowledge” at this time was also very patchy. I knew the Sunday school stories, but themes of Grace, Mercy, Forgiveness, and Love had never really been ‘hit-home’ (internalized) to me. It is not wrong to read the Old Testament; the Bible clarifies that in 2 Timothy 3:16-17; but, both the Old and New Testaments should be viewed in light of each other. The temptation to be legalistic has occurred multiple times as I have read the Bible, but the Holy Spirit has protected me by revealing to my mind the correlation of Scripture verses from the New Testament to the Old. The same has occurred as I write these devotions, the Holy Spirit often brings a Scripture to mind and then helps me to understand it so that I can write a Biblically-sound devotion; and when I go blank on where a Scripture is located—thank God for the internet and all the Bible tools/concordances that are available there.
Another Angle:
Vincent Newfield, a man I respect, mentioned in one of his Sunday school classes that, “Where your focus goes, the power flows.” My focus used to be exclusively on the laws of the Old Testament; as a result the power of God’s grace was limited in my life because I was only reading and meditating about sins and rules. Regulations became the determiner for spirituality in my mind during that time. Yet God protected also me during that time, and kept me from being snatched away by the enemy and eventually showed me the error of my thinking. Even now, I sometimes have to fight that old pattern of legalistic thinking.
I became like my friend(s) during those months of reading and dwelling on Old Testament Law. To clarify, my friends were the laws at that time: your friend can be a person, a game, a book of the Bible, a fantasy, research, technology, wisdom, finances—anything! Where our attention focuses we naturally invest time and energy, and we must be careful that our focus is not always on the studying the law, sin, and rules; but rather, a balance of the grace and forgiveness of Christ coupled with the hard commandments of our Lord—there must be balance.
Points to Contemplate:
Ø Without the vital balance in our focus, as described above, we cannot be as effective in witnessing as God wants us to. We cut ourselves off from the Holy Spirit when we trust following certain rules and rituals rather than following His leading. Beware, you become like your friends. Will you stand against the ideals of the culture and embrace God, the Word, and a relationship with the Holy Ghost over lifeless rules and rituals?
Ø The biggest argument for a legalist not to be a legalist is the Salvation message.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV
