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Romans: The Power of the Gospel Message 84 of 150
The Trap of Legalism
Pastor Anthony King· May 19, 2024
Romans 7:7
Christianity is not keeping a list of rules. It is a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, and this sermon shows how to avoid the trap of legalism.
“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”
Romans 7:7
The series
Verse by verse through Paul’s letter to the church at Rome: the Gospel of God’s righteousness, from our ruin in sin to life lived as a living sacrifice.
Legalism at its simplest iteration is salvation by works.
Legalism at its most complex, and sometimes tolerable, is an emphasis on external conformity.
Rules are good.
A desire to obey God is good.
A desire for holiness and righteousness is good.
Rules are a tool to help me live for God. Rules are not the goal, Christlikeness is.
The Pharisees
Pharisees had wealth, status and power.
Pharisees were concerned with ritual purity, tithes of food and keeping the Sabbath.
The Pharisees love for the rules of the Law made them enemies of the message of grace.
The Consequences of Legalism
Addition to Scripture
Legalism frequently adds extra-biblical rules and regulations as requirements for being considered a faithful believer or part of the community.
Judgmentalism
It breeds a self-righteous, critical spirit that looks down on those seen as less strict in their adherence to the rules and traditions.
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.Luke 18:10-12
Bondage
Rather than the freedom found in Christ, legalism brings bondage to guilt, fear, and the endless striving to meet unrealistic standards for acceptance.
“But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”
Galatians 4:9-11
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy means “one who wears a mask.” Hypocrisy is not a Christian who fights against sin and loses at times. Hypocrisy is a Christian who gives a manufactured, curated outward show while harboring and reveling in secret sin.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.”
Matthew 23:27
A Spirit of Pride
Legalism fosters a self-righteous attitude that one’s obedience to rules and standards makes them spiritually superior to others. It boasts in self-sufficiency rather than relying humbly on Christ’s grace, exalting one’s own efforts over the supremacy of Christ’s work.
But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,Matthew 23:5-6
Elevation of the Importance of Some Rules to the Exclusion of the Rest
Elevating the importance of some biblical rules to the exclusion of others can lead to a dangerous imbalance and misinterpretation of Scripture, as it fails to consider the full context and intended meaning of the text.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.Matthew 23:23
Obedience from the Heart
We should all have personal standards. Standards are guardrails that help me live out my convictions.
Legalism takes place when I take my own personal standard and measure you by it.
One can be correct on Bible doctrine, but wrong on the practical philosophy of the Christian life.
Bible-based Christianity rejects legalism as a perversion of the Gospel of grace, emphasizing that good works are the fruit, not the root, of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
God doesn’t love you because you behave yourself. He loves you because He is love and He is gracious.
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Romans 7:7
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