Legalism Is a Fear-Based Culture that Leads to a Complex Life
I have gone to legalistic churches that have nearly made me turn away from God many times. Until I found the one church that made my ears perk up after moving to Colorado. I learned that my salvation wasn’t from anything I did or didn’t do outside of my faith that Jesus died for me. I can’t read more of the bible to get into heaven, or read less of it. If I don’t attend church, that won’t take my favor away from God no more than attending church will. Giving to charities, adopting children, tithing nothing will get you into heaven without faith….but if you do absolutely none of those things, you’ll still get into heaven as long as you believe.
Furthermore...we all sin. We fool ourselves if we think we are righteous and rarely sin because we sin in our hearts daily. That sin naturally separates us from God if we don’t have faith. So if we can never be perfect or lose our faith in heaven, why follow any rules at all?
God gave us the 10 commandments as guidelines for how to treat one another and live life. The more I study these commandments, they are perfect in almost any society’s structure. It doesn’t add ritualistic things that one must follow to complete their salvation. It’s a basic common sense road map for how to be a decent human being.
Ironically, Jesus had more anti-religious rules than anti-cultural ones. He would work on the Sabbath, He once trashed a church building, he condemned religious people and hung out with the unpopular crowd. He hung out with people pharisees and “religious” people would never be seen with. Though “holy people” didn’t like him very much, his community did.
So how does legalism create a complex life? The legalistic Christian has created a culture that believes following rituals and rules makes them closer to God. This Christian sub-culture believes they bring glory to God by not engaging the folks that Jesus came to save. In this way, they are anti-Jesus by separating themselves from their culture. Jesus demonstrated on numerous occasions why this separation does nothing but create a wedge between the Christian and non-Christian. Their separation creates and perpetuates isolation and does exactly the opposite of the mission Jesus gave us, to share the love of God with as many people as possible.
Notice I said share the “love” of God. Not condemnation, not rules and rituals, but the “love” of God. Once a person loves God, seeks to know God, that person starts to reflect God back toward other people and in turn starts to live a life more pleasing to God. One that reflects a natural obedience to those ten commandments. It’s really that simple. If you happen to slip up and not keep a commandment…well that’s where grace steps in and fills in the holes. Reflect on the mistake, talk to God about your struggles and leave God room in your life to help right some wrongs.