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Release from Prison-A Topical Sermon on Freedom in Christ (and Overcoming Two Common Errors: Legalism and License)-Galatians 5:1-6, 13-26

By Charlie Vensel | March 25, 2007

Legalism: “Mark, do you want to go out to dinner with us tonight,” I asked. “No, I can’t. I’m in the middle of a two-hour devotion with my daughter. After that, I need to finish my Romans commentary, read the book of Isaiah, and pray for an hour. It is going to be a long night,” he replied. “A two-hour devotion? Your daughter is only six. You’ll kill her. And why so much study? Every time I call, you are in the middle of some extensive “quiet time”. You’re not in seminary, in fact, I know you’re behind at work. What is going on? You haven’t been the same since you started going to that new church,” I said. “Charlie, God says, ‘to teach his commandments to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.’” “Do you ever let her do anything else, you know, like play, color, or watch a little TV,” I asked.

“We don’t watch TV anymore; it is a waste of time and sloth is sin. The kids around here are all unbelievers just like their parents and we don’t want to be involved with them, and yes, we do have a Veggie Tales coloring book for after church on the Sabbath. “Mark, I’m concerned. Are either one of you enjoying life,” I asked. “Charlie, the Gospel is not about enjoying life. It is about sacrifice,” he said. “Mark, what about, ‘I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance,’” I asked. “Well, I just want to make sure I keep God satisfied with me and if that means I suffer, so be it,” he replied. I thought, “you worship him with your lips, but your heart is far from him.”

The Lord saved Mark about nine years ago, and for the last seven years, he has been trying to prove himself to God. I have watched him transform from a lively sinner into a stick-in-the-mud Christian. He has amassed great knowledge about God, reading all the best Christian literature, but he is absolutely miserable. His life is in shambles. He has no power, no joy; he is isolated, depressed and angry. He is trying to work his way into favor with God, believing his piety will provide his own salvation. Legalism is death; it is man’s counterfeit Gospel.

License: Bill was a leader’s leader; bold and courageous. About a year ago he organized his 800 member church to flee from an apostate denomination, leaving behind a brand new sanctuary and a twenty-year pension, to meet in a high school gym for the sake of the Gospel. He was persecuted by a liberal renegade bishop. We cheered Bill on and welcomed him into our AMiA fold as a brother. Bill was all over the papers, the TV, and the internet for his faithful stand. Right after their exodus, they embarked on another multi-million dollar capital campaign, their second in five years, and recently broke ground for a new facility and day school on ten prime acres. Everything was perfect! God was honored and a tremendous testimony was born!

About a month ago I was informed that Bill had just been fired as head pastor and and had his license revoked; it was discovered that he had some inappropriate boundaries with one of his parishioners. He is back in the papers, on TV, and the internet, but not for his courage. He leaves as a legacy: a wounded family, a nasty scandal and a homeless congregation in the middle of a building campaign. They are now the laughing stock of the wicked liberal churches in his former denomination.

I know Bill, he’s a friend. He is a godly man, one to emulate in fact. “How could this have happened,” I wondered. And then I thought…How often do we Christians set out to do everything right for the Lord, living by faith and holding tight to the Gospel. Persecution and trials come, we stand firm and God blesses us. But, fighting the fight, we get tired or like King David, begin to believe it is our own doing that we have had success; pride comes before a fall. Our guards come down and the Devil is there to tell us, “Live a little. You deserve it. Take a little time off.” Now, I am not making excuses for my friend, or for any Christian who hears the voice of temptation and succumbs, but we have all heard the voice telling us to lay down our faith for a while and “live a little.” License is death; it is Satan’s counterfeit Gospel.

The Church Father, Tertullian, once said that there are two thieves that try to steal the Gospel from us: legalism and license. It is no wonder that such a profound statement has endured all this time; he could not be more right. Our text this morning commends us to be free from the law, the yoke of spiritual slavery, while at the same time, not going overboard in our liberty. How then, can we be both free of legalism and its opposite extreme, license, while living an obedient and balanced life full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faith, gentleness, and self-control as our Scripture tells us? Before answering that question, let’s look make sure we identify the common erroneous approaches.

Since legalism is death, how do we identify it? In our text, we read, “You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace!” (Galatians 5:4 HCSB) The Galatians, living by the Spirit after having believed it was faith in Christ and his righteousness that made them acceptable for God, were coming under the influence of false teachers who told them to go back under the religious laws of Judaism, particularly the command to be circumcised. Paul tells them in no uncertain terms, that to do so is to bring them back under the curse of the law; it is to deface Christ’s saving work. The purpose of the law, according to Romans 3:20, was to point out to us that we are sinners; no one can live up to the obligation of the law by his own efforts. We, like the Galatians, are being warned not to go down the legalistic works-righteousness path of spiritual death.

Legalism is primarily reducing the Gospel to a set of moral rules or pietistic actions. It is seeking our justification, or our right standing before God, by our external behaviors. It is our natural tendency; as we are born sinners, we are born legalists. God created human beings to live in perfect obedience to God’s commands. We are hard-wired to follow his rules, but this gift was distorted in the Fall of Adam and Eve (Romans 1:21). Ever since, all of their descendants have thought they knew how to justify themselves. The result is legalism; a sinful and self-righteous counterfeit gospel that tells us we can be good enough to be in right relationship with God by our own merit.

This is what Jesus lambasts the Pharisees for in Mark 7:1-9, where the Pharisees asked why some of the disciples did not wash their hands before eating. Hand-washing was not required, but in their zeal for godliness, the Pharisees had made it so, believing that such overzealous piety would please God. But it really only propped them up as morally superior, giving them a false security and a false right to judge others. If you would have asked a Pharisee how they knew they were pleasing God, they would have replied, “I am a good person, I do what is commanded. I’m certainly better than those sinners over there.” Sounds like Mark, doesn’t it? Outwardly their behaviors looked godly and their zeal admirable, but inwardly their hearts were dark and black; they were hypocrites of the first order. Their standard of righteousness was only a set of external rules to be obeyed; they came to think a checklist of moral and pietistic behaviors made them acceptable before God.

I propose to you this morning that such legalism is idolatry; it is self-salvation where like Adam and Eve, one sees himself in God’s position as righteous judge and declares his own works, “good enough”. In completing his moralistic checklist, he worships himself, not the God of grace. Many Christians are Pharisees. As sinners, we are always prone to fall into the legalistic trap of the sinful nature, thinking we can earn our way into God’s favor, especially if we have done something wrong lately. The legalist motto is, “If I could just try harder, I will be a better Christian.” Do any of you ever think that? Here some clues to identify legalism:

1. Legalists fall often and have little or no power over over the works of the flesh listed in Galatians 5:19-21 (HCSB). They are defeated and despise their own hidden hypocrisy, yet hypocrisy is all they seem to do.
2. They are often overwhelmed with their sin, feeling they owe God something to make up for their past or present. They never feel forgiven. In essence, they believe the cross is insufficient to cover their sins, subtly denying the work of Christ. They believe if they could just try harder, Christ will forgive them.
3. The legalist has no sincere joy. They are hyper-critical, depressed, and feel as though God is way off in the distance somewhere. They feel the weight of trying to keep up with God’s demands. They work hard at moral perfection, but are always lacking.
4. Their relationship with Christ is a matter of checking things off of lists; asking have I prayed enough, read the Bible enough, witnessed enough, given enough, or have I been good enough, often going above and beyond, but they are not growing.
5. Outwardly, they look together and godly, but inwardly they are miserable. Their prayers feel more like vain repetitions or incantations, rather than dialogue with God, thinking, “If I could just pray the right words, God will be pleased.”
6. They are living for the next new Bible study or book, thinking that going through it they will discover the keys to trying harder, to get what everyone else has.

Paul makes it clear that legalism is not the proper response to the Gospel. In Galatians 3:3-5 we read, “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete by the flesh?…So then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?” (HCSB) Paul makes it clear that the Galatians were in right relationship with him by faith, not by outward moral behavior and pietistic works.

So then, are we free to do whatever we want knowing that we are considered righteous before God by faith in Christ alone, rather than our moral effort? Can’t we commit, “sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar?” For many Christians, some things in this list are fun. For others, this list characterizes their so called “Christian” lifestyle, for others they are painful temptations. Aren’t they all part of the law which we no longer have to pay attention? Can’t we do what we please? Such questions only identify an equal, but opposite, error in understanding Christian freedom. It is called license and it too is death.

Since license is death, how do we identify it? In Galatians 5:13 we read, “For you are called to freedom, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh…” (HCSB) It is clear that immediately after reminding the Galatians of their freedom from law, Paul anticipates their response to be one of license. Paul tells them in no uncertain terms that to think such a way is a grievous error.

License is primarily reducing the Gospel to that of forgiveness for sins. Now there are two types of people who embrace this position: the intellectualist and the emotionalist.

The intellectualist motto is, “Freed from the law, O blessed condition, I can sin as I please, and still have remission.” The intellectualist is not concerned with the lack of spiritual transformation in his life, while the legalist is consumed by it. Intellectualists are concerned with what they believe, rather than what they do. This person will be consumed by knowledge, playing the knowledge of the world against the knowledge of God, always adhering to the knowledge that causes him the most comfort in the moment. In other words, until he can make sense of everything regarding the Faith, he is not bound by anything but his own desires. The minimum these people would confess to believe is that their sins are forgiven, while otherwise living a pagan lifestyle. There is no change inwardly or outwardly, other than a little vocabulary or a well cited bibliography.

The intellectualist suffers from the same plight as the legalist; idolatry. He sees himself in the position of God, omniscient, declaring his thoughts to be the ultimate standard of truth and righteousness. He decides what is true or false, as neither a theologian nor a scientist. That he would maintain his own autonomy, rather than submit to Christ, or any other for that matter, is his primary objective. Rather than saying, “Lord, I submit to you at any cost,” he says, “at any cost, Lord, you will submit to me.” His knowledge remains in his head, never penetrating the heart. He believes God is reasonable, and a reasonable God would be impressed by him, and such reasonableness would justify him before God. Here are some clues to identify intellectualism:

1. Faith is primarily an academic exercise. For every reason there is to believe the things of God, there is a reason not to.
2. There is little or no fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. To the degree they are present, they are fabricated to construe “good manners” and serve one’s own interest, rather than an outworking of a transformed heart.
3. Like the legalist, they fall often and have little or no power over over the works of the flesh listed in Galatians 5:19-2. Neither are they really concerned by this. For them, they can continue in these things, always having a reason, “God will forgive me if these things really are sins anyway. Besides, I’m not that bad, but pretty normal compared to some I know.” They have reduced sin to “sins” and only repent for moral violations, not the sin behind the sins like unbelief, idolatry and pride. Consequently, they repeat the same old sins again and again; there is no power.
4. They would argue with God if God would listen.
5. Hates to be judged, always justifies himself, and very quick to judge others according to biblical standards while having the freedom to escape them himself.

The second type of libertine is the emotionalist. The emotionalist motto is, “Let go and let God…” This person is primarily concerned with how they feel. Given the goose bumps and warm cozies of so many popular authors that line the front shelves of the local Christian bookstore, they feel certain they are justified before God because of how they feel. If they feel warm and happy inside, they think God is pleased with them. When things are not working quite right in their lives, they seek experiences that assures them everything is positive. Here are some clues to identify emotionalism:

1. They have little interest in doctrine or truth, in fact would deny or avoid many parts of the Scriptures because they are “downers” or “secondary” focusing exclusively on positive hypotheses.
2. Secondary private revelation trumps Scriptures. If they do not like a command of God, or do not understand it, they do as they feel, rather than wrestle and struggle.
3. They believe God’s sole purpose is to keep them happy, so they do what makes them happy, paying little attention to the notion of “sin”. Many do not understand why the church makes such a fuss over sin anyway, unless they are talking about “mean” people or “bad” people.
4. They end up with a faith a mile wide and an inch deep. When trouble comes, they put on a fake smile and hide their tears. Everything is always “super” for an emotionalist when in public. They live in denial or drift away from church when crisis hits.
5. They are “grace” junkies and “love” addicts, and often view the OT as a time when God was angry and the NT as a time when he changed his mind.

Here again, the emotionalist has fallen prey to the same thing as the legalist and intellectualist; idolatry. The emotionalist, in light of personal experience, has made God over in his own self-image. He only worships a happy, loving, peaceful, and forgiving God, forgetting about God’s wrath, grief, judgment, holiness and vengeance. His feelings become the final arbiter of truth, and so long as he “feels” good, he feels he is justified before God.

Since the Spirit is life, how can we live by it? Simply put, Christ came to transform the whole person, not just our mind, just our behavior or just our emotions. The whole point of this passage in Galatians is to show us that it is by Christ’s Holy Spirit that this transformation takes place. Our text reads, “I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:16-18 HCSB) Both legalism and license fail to grasp the power of the cross. The legalist believes he has the ability to transform himself, the libertine is either skeptical about transformation or in a frenzy to be assured of it; both are false. Because of these ignorances, the Christian in question may not “possess his possessions” in this present life; he cannot be set free and live into all of the promises of the Gospel including a transformed heart. Let me say that again, he will not be able to walk in the fruit of the Spirit, but struggle forever with the works of the flesh.

But when one does learn the meaning of the work of Christ and the cross in the present life, a new door is open-a door so wonderful that often it gives the Christian the sense of something that is as new as was his conversion. That door is the Holy Spirit of Christ, the doorpost it the cross, and its threshold is Christian freedom.

It is the Holy Spirit that reverses the idolatrous nature of the false beliefs and replaces them with truth, reminding us:

1. We are truly sinful, our own righteousness is as filthy rags and we are in dire need of a different and perfect righteousness. We cannot be good enough by ourselves.
2. Because of Christ’s perfect obedience to the law and the cross, Christ’s perfect righteousness is given to us by grace though faith when we believe on him as Lord and Savior. As believers, God looks at us as he does his own righteous son. We are forgiven our sins and granted life eternal by his grace, not our doing.
3. A transformed heart that sees Jesus as Lord, rather than self, produces an inward change that manifests in outward obedience; therein is power. Outward obedience without inward correspondence is Pharisaical hypocrisy, spiritually defeating and frankly impossible.
4. As in Galatians 3:24, the fruit of the Spirit replace the works of the flesh.
5. We are both required to be obedient and empowered for it (Romans 8:12-17).

Brothers and sisters, let us lay down the notion of self-salvation; it is a false Gospel. We cannot live the Christian life of holiness by our best efforts, thinking ourselves good enough, or by feeling good. We must repent and believe the true Gospel (Mark 1:15). With regard to repentance, when we find ourselves living in legalism or license, we must turn away from self and back towards Christ, confessing our sins of idolatry.

With regard to believing the Gospel, fully believing it is a process; we are prisoners who have been set free, but we don’t believe it. Old habits die hard; we have been “institutionalized” in our autonomy. If you have seen the movie Shawshank Redemption, you will recall a scene when some of the younger prisoners are questioning an older prisoner’s reluctance to be set free. A couple of days before his scheduled release, the older prisoner accosts another prisoner in order to have charges brought against him so that he will not be released. The younger prisoners are dumbfounded; why would anyone do this? The answer given by Morgan Freeman, a long-timer himself, is that he is “institutionalized.” All he knows are these bars and fences. All he knows is how to function as a prisoner. He has no concept of freedom and these bars are comfortable, despite their misery. Freedom is a scary thing. Grace makes us profoundly uncomfortable. We are prone to do it our own way, professing a true Gospel, but living a false one; we always live our true theology.

We must ever remind ourselves of the Gospel promises to pass through the door of Christian freedom. Let us remember, it is Christ who justifies us, Christ who empowers, and Christ who changes us, Christ who forgave and forgives us, Christ who has the Word of truth and life, and Christ who makes us whole. Anything else we turn to, including ourselves, is futile idolatry.

Legalism is death, license is death and the Spirit is life. A Christian that embraces the fullness of the Gospel and the power of the cross will live in proper balance by the Holy Spirit. He will honor the law as the legalist saying, “I delight to do Your will, my God; Your instruction resides within me,” (Psalms 40:8 HCSB) and trust God to work out his sanctification as the intellectualist or emotionalist, “I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6 HCSB). This person will feel the anti-nomian pull, that temptation that says, “God will forgive me if I do this, so I may as well,” but his love for the Lord and the brothers will keep him on course. He will understand clearly what Paul writes, “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2 HCSB). Nor, will he be a stumbling block to his brother in his liberty, “[being] careful that this right of yours in no way becomes a stumbling block to the weak.” (1 Corinthians 8:8-9 HCSB)

Brothers and sisters, I leave you with this Gospel promise this morning: Because Jesus Christ has sent his Holy Spirit to those who believe on Him, we can lay down our sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I submit that if you are struggling with any of these, you have embraced some form of legalism or license or bounce back and forth between these two erroneous gospels as corrective action. But, because of the Spirit who directs our worship to Christ alone, we can live an obedient and whole life full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faith, gentleness, and yes, that elusive self-control.

Turn away from self and toward Christ, you will be transformed, and empowered to enter true Christian freedom. Amen!

Sources: A substantial number of these points, though modified, come from my class notes in Steve Childers’ course in Spiritual Formation I took at Reformed Theological Seminary-Orlando.

Topics: Galatians |

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