LEGALISTS Are Obsessed With the LETTER of the LAW

Legalists by definition are obsessed with strict adherence to the letter of the law, whether the rule in question is biblical or extrabiblical. This would include things they feel the Lord instructed them to do or not do.

A good example from the New Testament is when the Pharisees objected to Jesus’ mere intention of healing a man’s deformed hand on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6). The Pharisees were so ridiculously detailed and rigid with their rules concerning “working” on the Sabbath that they objected to Christ doing any type of healing “work” on that day. The Lord was so disgusted by their stubbornness that he shot them all a glance of anger. This was righteous anger, of course, but anger nevertheless. He then proceeded to heal the man despite their legalistic objections. This was a wordless reprimand and the Pharisees were so offended they decided to murder him!

Can you imagine people being so blinded by legalistic zeal that they object to an incredible healing? Make no mistake, this is what the poison of legalism does when people are seriously infected. Those who are not contaminated, by contrast, are ever-ready to praise God when people are miraculously healed and set free. Take, for instance, the occasion where blind Bartimaeus received his sight through faith and immediately glorified God. The passage goes on to say, “And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God” (Luke 18:43 NKJV). This is how normal people react to incredible healings and life-changing miracles. Not so with legalists. They’re so corrupted by rule-ism they can’t see the forest for the trees!

Here’s a more mundane example: Say you feel inspired to declare a two-day fast and at around 46.5 hours you have a peace after accomplishing everything you intended, but you sit there for 90 minutes watching the clock until exactly the 48-hour mark to break the fast. This is letter-of-the-law-ism, which is a form of legalism. It’s stupid and unnecessary. If the Spirit inspires you to take a two-day fast and you feel peace and release to break it at 46.5 hours, please do so. You’re not committing a grievous sin by not waiting till precisely the 48-hour mark.

To have this attitude with scriptural laws is bad enough, but legalists obsess over the many nitpicky, joy-sapping rules they continually dream-up. For instance, the Messiah and his disciples were walking through the fields one Sabbath and picked some heads of grain to quell their hunger. Since it was the Sabbath, the Pharisees argued that the disciples were guilty of working because they plucked the grain and rubbed it in their hands before eating. To their legalistic way of thinking this was equal to reaping and threshing. The Law did forbid working on the Sabbath but it was intended to be a blessing not a burden. The Sabbath was supposed to be a welcomed rest and celebration of God after a 6-day work week, not a joyless ritual observing man-made technicalities. Christ’s simple-yet-brilliant response says it all: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).*

* You can compare the three accounts of this occasion as shown in Matthew 12:1-8, Mark 2:23-28 and Luke 6:1-5.

God is always interested in blessing people by setting them free whereas religionists are intent on burdening others and putting them into spiritual bondage. Concerning the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, Christ said: “They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:4). By contrast, the Bible says:

This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, ⁴ for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

1 John 5:3-4

All of God’s moral laws in the Old Testament can be condensed into two basic commands with three applications: Love God and love people as you love yourself (Matthew 22:37-40). That’s it — it’s the law of Christ, the law of love. And these commands are not burdensome because believers are born of God and have the spiritual nature to fulfill them with joy. The only believers who can’t do this are those who fail to put off the flesh and are therefore flesh-ruled. As such, the “law of sin and death” is at work in their lives and this is no fun because sin’s reward is death. But those who walk in the spirit are spirit-controlled and therefore the “law of the Spirit of life” is in motion, which is a higher law than the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).

To illustrate, did you ever marvel at how huge aircrafts are able to defy the law of gravity and soar above the landscape? How do they do this? It’s simple: They activate a higher law, the law of lift and propulsion, which neutralizes the law of gravity. As long as the higher law is in motion the lower law is rendered powerless. Just as the physical law of lift and propulsion enables people to conquer gravity and fly, so the law of the Spirit of life deactivates the law of sin and death when it is in motion. This is “walking in the spirit” or “participating in the divine nature.” This law is not burdensome, but human religion is.

Notice what Christ said on this matter:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

Yes, there is a yoke and burden to serving the Lord, but unlike the yoke of the flesh or the burden of religion Jesus’ yoke is easy and his burden is light. How so? Because that’s the nature of the law of love and love is the fulfillment of the Law (Romans 13:8-10).

Speaking of joy-sapping rules…

Legalism Saps Life, Freedom and Joy Because “the Letter Kills”

The problem with obsession to the Law—“the letter”—is that this mentality kills:

[God] has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 3:6

Focusing on rules above relationship with God, including extra-biblical rules, will naturally sap life, freedom and joy because “the letter kills.” Why should believers focus on relationship with God? Because 1. loving God is the first and greatest command, and 2. God is the Fountain of Life and therefore only in the light of his presence are we able to see spiritual light (Psalm 36:9). Consequently, the further we get away from the Creator, the further we get away from the life and light that only God gives. Life, freedom and joy will diminish and ultimately die once on the path of spiritual darkness, which is any path that distances oneself from the presence of the LORD.

I heard a minister put it like this: “Worldliness is anything that cools your affection for God.” This includes anything that comes under the brackets of “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” (1 John 2:15-16).

In the mid 1st-century, the churches in Galatia were infiltrated by the Judaizers who were legalists that insisted on circumcision and obedience to religious laws to inherit salvation and please God. Once the Galatians were infected by legalism their joy was sapped, which is why Paul asked them, “What happened to all your joy?” (Galatians 4:15). Why was their joy sapped? Because “the letter kills”!

Simply put, legalists are joy-stealers. They’re grumps. When Christ made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem the crowd of disciples began to joyfully “praise God in loud voices” whereupon the Pharisees commanded Jesus to make them stop! This can be read in Luke 19:37-39. You see, legalists are never happy in the midst of exuberant believers. Whether they know it or not they’re not being godly—“like God”—because joy is actually a trait of God. It’s a “fruit of the Spirit” and therefore a part of the LORD’s character.

As such, it comes as no surprise that God wants his people to be filled with joy. As it is written: “the joy of the LORD is your strength” and “in [God’s] presence is fullness of joy” (Nehemiah 8:10 & Psalm 16:11). Needless to say, the presence or absence of joy is a good indicator of where you’re at spiritually. If you have little or no joy, be sure to examine yourself to see if you’re infected by legalism in some way (or in bondage to the flesh, i.e. libertinism).

If not, your problem may be that you need to go deeper into praise & worship. Praise is celebration, which ushers in the presence of the LORD while worship is adoration, the natural response to being in his presence (Psalm 95:1-7 & Psalm 100). Regularly experiencing God’s presence is conducive to joy because in his presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11).*

* I used to struggle with depression for years and shared it with a couple Christian counselors. They told me I needed “to be on medication.” In other words, “take a pill” (and, of course, another pill to counteract the side effects of that one and so on) Around this same time I was at my back door one day when I heard the Spirit say, “This shall be a house of praise & worship unto my Name.” I reflected on it for a moment and responded, “Okay.” Although I was already a praise & worshiper I upped the ante. I started blasting praise & worship music at my house 24/7. I no longer praised & worshipped the LORD now and then; I became a praise & worship warrior! It became a 24-7 thing more and more (Hebrews 13:15). God inhabits the praises of his people (Psalm 22:3) and so my house naturally became a habitation for the manifest presence of God. Not just my literal house, but also the house of my body. In other words, praise & worship wasn’t just reverberating through the confines of my house and property, it was playing in my heart and mind. This solved my depression problem because light naturally displaces darkness: the light of joy displaced the darkness of depression—Praise God!

To further illustrate that the letter kills, let me share a couple examples from everyday life:

Carol & I were at a NFL game years ago where a beach ball was being bounced around in the stands before the game. The people were having a blast hitting the ball high into the air, which would then land on others yards away. They would do the same, and so on. It didn’t take long for a security person to come along and try to confiscate the ball. He was having a hard time because the ball kept bouncing around at giant leaps as he chased it through the stands. Of course he wasn’t happy about the situation; in fact, he was totally grumpy.

At one point someone in the stands held the ball and waited for him to come and confiscate it but, as soon as the sourpuss arrived, the guy hit the ball into the air and everyone laughed all the louder. Mad as a hatter, the curmudgeon continued to chase the big bad beach ball until he finally apprehended it.

Yes, I understand that the stadium probably had rules about beach balls bouncing around in the stands, but the game wasn’t playing and the people were having a good time, which is what these events are all about. Besides, the ball was light and harmless. The sourpuss could have eased up on the rules a bit, but like all staunch legalists he was hell-bent on enforcing the law to the letter.

Another good example would be NFL refs who are so obsessed with the rules of the game that they throw their flags at the slightest possibility of an offense. It’s just so frustrating to see great plays canceled out due to some overzealous ref. This slows the game down and saps the life out of the players and audience.

In a recent game, a defending player was flagged for supposedly roughing the passer in the middle of the 4^th quarter, which cost the defending team a whopping 15-yard penalty. When the announcers showed the replay it was clear that the man didn’t do anything to warrant the penalty and they stressed this. But nothing could be done and the entire course of the game shifted because of some gung-ho ref and his little yellow flag. Just the same, legalists can derail an entire church or sect with their stubborn obsession to the letter of the law.

If you watch football you know exactly what I mean—incredible plays called back because of some trivial contact that even the announcers admit wasn’t really an infraction. It happens all the time. Similarly, legalists in the church prevent spiritual growth, miracles and great moves of the Spirit with their fanatical rule-ism. They sap the life, freedom and joy from the people of God! And then we wonder why believers get disillusioned and leave the church because it’s so sterile, routine and impotent.

Am I saying game rules are wrong in football? Absolutely not. Rules are necessary for obvious reasons. What I’m objecting to is overzealous refs throwing their flags at the slightest appearance of an infraction, which unnecessarily bogs down the game. I’m also objecting to the ever-increasing rules added for the sake of safety or what have you. Dreaming up more and more life-stifling rules isn’t the answer. If the players can’t stand the heat they should get out of the kitchen.

The same can be applied to government. Politicians keep passing more and more laws to the point that society is stifled. How many laws do we need anyway? We’re over-regulated, pure and simple, and some laws are so useless they’re a joke, but we keep passing more and more. It’s absurd and it’s sapping the life out of the citizenry and economy.

As previously stressed, Christianity is so simple: Love God and love people as you love yourself. Obviously if a person truly loves God they’ll surrender to his means of salvation and spirituality and not their own, which is religion. When believers fulfill these two simple laws they automatically fulfill all the moral law (Matthew 22:36-40). Of course, this isn’t accomplished by trying to force our flesh to comply, but rather by putting off the flesh and its deceitful desires and putting on the “new self” (Colossians 3:9-10).

This article was edited from Chapter 3 of…