Is It Legalism to Expect Christians to Obey The Bible

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Salvation in Christ Alone and the Wrath of God

People are tired of hearing nothing but doom and despair on the radio. The message of Christianity is that salvation is found in Christ alone and any who reject Christ therefore forfeit any hope of salvation, any hope of.

Heaven.

The issue is that humanity is in sin and the wrath of Almighty God is hanging over our head.

They will hear his words, they will not act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment, when the fires of wrath come, they will be consumed and they will perish. God wrapped himself in flesh, condescended and became a man, died on the cross for sin, was resurrected on the third day, has ascended to the right hand of the Father where he sits now to make intercession for us.

Jesus is saying there is a group of people who will hear his words, they will act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment come in that final day, their house will stand.

Legalism, Nominal Christianity, and Obedience to God's Commands

So Tim, probably one of the most common experiences that most Christians will have if they take the Bible seriously at all, if they realize that the Bible is God's Word that has given us specific promises and also specific commands to conform our lives to understanding that we have confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord, meaning that he reigns over our life, that he gets to say in terms of how we live our lives now.

One of the common experiences for any Christian who thinks that way, which all Christians think that way, is that inevitably in our culture right now you're eventually going to be called a legalist by someone.

As you point out people's sin, you know, as you point out unrighteousness in our culture, you are going to have more and more people who don't like hearing you call the things that they love sin and unrighteous and things that will separate them from God.

And so they'll just, the sort of like knee-jerk reaction is to say, well, you're just a legalist. So in light of all of that, the question for today's episode is, is it legalism to expect Christians to obey God?

Yeah, that is a very common experience that most people have, and part of the reason why that's a very common experience is that the church is really so dominated by a nominal Christian, you know, nominal Christian kind of identity.

So there's so many, you know, Christians in name only that functionally, you know, maybe they go to the church once or twice a year on Easter and Christmas, if that, you know. And that's about it, and that's the extent of their religious commitment, and that's particularly predominant in the South.

And so for many people like that, you know, any expectation that anyone might have that we are supposed to actually obey God is going to be viewed as functionally legalism. But then, as you read the Bible, that really is the furthest thing from the truth as it relates to that.

So, you know, the Bible, you know, over and over again encourages us to obey God's commands. Jesus will say over and over, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments, and my commandments are not burdensome.

So you can read that in the Gospel of John, 1 John, it happens over and over again, Law, the importance of keeping God's commands. And so whatever Jesus has come to do, He did not come to free us from keeping His commandments.

So then why is the, I mean, you know, Christian, well, not Christians, the nominal Christians, they sort of just fall back on this claim, right? And sometimes it's, sometimes it's, hey, I'll call you a legalist, sometimes, hey, you know, I'll call you, you know, Pharisee, Pharisaical.

But the problem is, I mean, this is kind of like the evangelism thing that we talked about a few weeks ago, where we said, hey, look, everyone's saying you should evangelize people one way, right? But then I read the Bible, and I look at Jesus and the Apostles, and they're doing something completely different compared to what everyone is saying now.

And it feels like this is a similar thing, where Jesus over and over again tells people to obey God, right? And so... Surprise! Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, big, big surprise. But, but it legitimately, that does sound like something that would surprise most, like, most people.

Sure. I mean, you know, for some reason, we're okay with, you know, when Jesus says, tell, you know, says, hey, go and sin no more, right? We're okay with that. But then when a Christian comes along and says, go and sin no more, all of a sudden, it's, you know, legalism, Pharisee, whatever.

So, so why, why is there such a disparity there?

Why Obedience Is Not Legalism

Yeah, well, there's a lot of things that are happening that are leading into this kind of problem that you're talking about. So, you know, part of it is related to just the idea that biblical ignorance is really at an all-time high.

I mean, there's so, I mean, there's so few people who actually ever really make any serious attempt to read the Bible at all. So part of, part of it's related to that. Like, there's just vast biblical ignorance as it relates to these things.

But then also, I mean, there's been the easy-believism kind of teaching that's infiltrated the church. Dallas Theological Seminary was a seminary that was pushing out some of these things. And so there became like the lordship controversies that happened a few decades ago, where there was a lot of individuals who, who were really teaching that you can basically be a Christian your whole life and not show any evidence of it whatsoever.

You know, salvation is simply just mental ascent to, you know, certain propositions that Jesus came to die and saved by grace through faith. And so there was this teaching that spread through the church that basically says that there's plenty of people who accept Jesus as Savior, but not as Lord.

And those people who accept him as Savior are those who, they'll be saved. They just won't be experiencing God's blessings in their life, whether you're talking, mostly you're talking about just financial blessings or you know, relational blessings or that, that kind of thing.

So obedience was viewed as purely optional, like a purely optional thing. And you know, part of that is just a distortion of the Bible's teaching that we're saved by grace through faith, not on the basis of works.

And so they almost viewed works as something that were bad, right? So works can't save you, so therefore the end, right? And you hear a lot of people arguing this way as it relates to just, you know, like trying to ask the question, you know, can you be a Christian and you know, not be baptized, for instance.

And so then, well, it, like the way that logic works in their mind is that, you know, you have the thief on the cross who wasn't baptized. So yes, like baptism is a part of obedience, but then, you know, it doesn't save you.

So in their mind, it's almost not important. So the only thing that matters is getting saved, and everything else after that is just not nearly as important. In fact, if you put too much pressure on yourself, it may be that you're trying to work, trying to earn your salvation through works.

And so there's just, so part of it's this anti-lordship kind of position that many preachers were preaching, and that works became just an all-purpose, like, bad word, right? So works are bad. You know, and that's not what the Bible's talking about.

The Bible's talking about meritorious, like, there's no meritorious actions that you're going to perform that are going to cause you to cancel your sin debt.

So you're telling me that the Bible says obeying God isn't bad?

Shock, right? Yeah, yeah. So, but it's not, right? So if you love God, you'll keep his commandments. And then part of that too, though, is just related to just a misunderstanding of the problem of the Pharisees.

So, you know, many pastors have come along in this kind of framework and taught that the Pharisees were the bad guys. And the reason why the Pharisees were the bad guys is because they tried too hard to obey.

And so, you know, they were viewed as, like, the fastidious law keepers. And I mean, what had happened with the Pharisees was that, you know, Jesus says, you neglected the weightier matters of law. So the problem with the Pharisees is they were lawless.

Like, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. You know, so they tithed mint and dill and cumin, but they neglected the weightier matters of law.

And they had workarounds to keep them from obeying the Bible. So instead of honoring their father and mother, you know, you can say, every, like, I'm going to devote all my income to the temple or whatever.

Let it be, you know, a gift to God or whatever. And so they had workarounds. And the problem was that they didn't actually obey. What they obeyed was their tradition, which they set up around the law and neglected to actually do what the law says.

So, you know, you have all these things filtering into this perspective of, like, legalism is obedience, essentially, in their minds. And, you know, and I guess what I would point out is that legalism really isn't a biblical word at all.

It's just a word that we use to describe certain errors of law. And so in their mind, in the minds of people who have embraced this non-lordship salvation view, any attempt to seriously obey the Bible will be viewed with suspicion.

They'll be viewed as someone trying to earn their salvation and not resting in the righteousness of Christ attributed to them as a free gift. And then you're being pharisaical, meaning you're just, like, too hyper about obeying.

And really, you're, you know, you're not under the law, you're under grace. So therefore, you know, free from the law, be an antinomian. And that's what they're talking about, that all these things are just, you can't get further from the truth here.

What Legalism Actually Is

Okay, so those are, so those are obviously, you know, they're misunderstandings or misrepresentations. What, what would, you know, what would legalism, what is legalism in reality then?

Yeah, I think, you know, legalism is errors that are related to the law. Typically, you know, more specifically, it'd be like pharisaical kind of errors at that point. And, you know, what real, like, if you want to say what would be things that are sinful that are described as legalism in general or errors related to the law, any, any real attempt to earn your salvation through law keeping, that would be a legalistic impulse there.

So, you know, that's, like, that's wrong. We shouldn't try to earn our salvation by law keeping. But then you're not doing that by trying to obey God, if that makes sense. So, like, trying to obey God is not trying to earn your salvation.

That's just, like, I love God. Like, if you love Him, you'll keep His commandments. And we want to be well-pleasing in His sight. So, any attempt to earn your salvation, that would be legalism. I mean, any attempt to add to the Bible commands that aren't actually there, that would also be legalistic in that way.

So, that was part of the Pharisees' problems. You know, they came up with 490 Sabbath laws.

Sounds reasonable.

Yeah, in order to be, like, a fence around the Sabbath, you know. So, you want to treat the Sabbath seriously. And so, you come up with all these laws that are surrounding that. And, you know, if you're a Christian who's coming up with, you know, commands that the Bible doesn't have, or principles that the Bible isn't commanding, and you're binding those on people, then, you know, I mean, a common example at that point would be, like, maybe it's a sin to watch an R-rated movie or something like that.

Well, I mean, it could be. But, you know, I don't know. That seems like an arbitrary standard. And it depends on what the rating is there for, and why, and everything else. And so, I mean, I wouldn't want to just come up with a hard, fast rule like that.

You know, that could be a legalistic thing, adding to the Bible things that aren't there. But, so, there's a variety of, like, you know, legal kind of issues, the pharisaical kind of issues like that.

But whatever legalism is, obedience is not legalism, that's faithfulness.

Judging Sin, Not Hearts

So, one of the arguments that a lot of people bring up, you know, we mentioned earlier, hey, when you read the Gospels, I mean, Jesus is always, you know, confronting people's sins. He's hanging, I mean, He's spending His time with sinners, right?

No one's denying that. But then what we do deny is that He only spends His time with them and doesn't, you know, preach the Gospel to them.

And just hangs out with them as they're sinning.

Yeah, yeah. He's not, like, simultaneously approving, you know, of what they're doing. He's calling them to repentance constantly, which is part of the reason why they kill Him, right? And so, one of the common objections here with that idea is that, well, He's Jesus.

He knows their hearts perfectly, because He's God. We don't, because we're...

Don't judge, basically.

Yes, we don't know their hearts because we're, you know, finite men, which is true. And, you know, the Bible does say we can't know the depths of even our own hearts, let alone the hearts of others. So, what is the response there in terms of, like, is that legalism to say, to look at someone and say, hey, don't do that, that's sin?

Is that legalism?

Well, yeah.

So, what's happening is, you know, everyone's new favorite Bible verse there, thou shalt not judge, is being caught.

Yeah, it's the memory verse. It's the pagan memory verse.

Judge not, lest you be judged, right? But, I mean, the point of that passage is to say with the same judgment you use, that judgment will be measured against you. And really what's happening there is it's a prohibition against unjust judgment.

But then, you know, you have to remember, you know, why do you say to your brother, like, let me remove this speck from your eye when you have a log in your own eye? What you're told is to remove the log out of your own eye so that you can see clearly, to remove the speck out of your own brother's eye.

So, there's much in the Bible about the importance of being your brother's keeper, right? Saving a soul from his wandering. You know, if anyone's caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness.

Look unto yourself, lest you be tempted. You know, Matthew 18, if your brother sins, confront him, right? So, the good shepherd goes after the lost sheep. So, over and over again, we have responsibility to each other.

And what you have is essentially, you have like an antinomian kind of, I don't want any standard. I'm a law to myself. No one has a right to tell me what, you know, autonomous kind of idea. No one has a right to tell me what to do.

And all that's mixed with just, you know, judge not, misinterpretation. And then you just get this, you know, everyone does what's right in their own eyes, right? There's no king in Israel. Everyone does what's right in their own eyes kind of framework with that.

But whatever, you know, legalism is, it's definitely not obedience for sure.

Final Appeal to Obey the Truth

So, basically what you're saying is, if we're going off of the definitions that our society has provided, then it's probably better to just be a legalist then.

Right, right.

Well, I mean, again, legalism isn't a biblical word. And so, I mean, often if, you know, I get accused of being a legalist all the time. And, you know, my typical response to that is to say, hey, if, you know, if it's being a legalist trying to obey the Bible, then I guess call me a legalist, whatever, you know, I don't care.

Knock yourself out, you know, but God says if you love Him, He'll keep His commandments. And I'm just going to go with Him on that one.

Okay, fair enough. This has been another episode of Bible Bashed. We hope you have been encouraged and blessed through our discussion. We thank you for all your support and ask you to continue to like and subscribe to Bible Bashed and share our podcast with your friends and on social media.

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Now, go boldly and obey the truth in the midst of a biblically illiterate world who will be perpetually offended by your every move.