The Right & Wrong Definitions of Legalism

By Dane Gardow

The church has always been plagued by legalism, with problems ranging from unnecessary division to damnable, apostatized forms of Christianity. Even the fear of falling into the extreme of legalism has caused many to run so far away in the opposite direction that they end up falling into all sorts of other extremes that are just as serious as the system from which they have sought to escape. Therefore, an accurate understanding of legalism is absolutely critical for one to embrace true Christianity. While the term "legalism" is often erroneously equated with God's law, it actually involves a self-righteous misuse and manipulation thereof.

The Significance of the Law of God

It is necessary, first, to have a biblical understanding of the law of God. The law of God is a mirror of His own nature, the revealed declaration of His will expressed in His commandments, and the standard by which He judges what is right from wrong. The apostle Paul esteemed God's law as "holy, just, and good" (Rom. 7:12). Legalism, therefore, cannot be equated with the law of God in the same way that alcoholism cannot be equated with wine. Alcoholism may be the result of an abuse of wine, but it is not the wine itself. Likewise, legalism is an abuse of the law, not the law itself. When God's law is incorrectly equated with legalism, its place and authority are undermined, accountability to God's commandments becomes despised or deemed unnecessary, and obedience is seen as legalism. For example, it is not uncommon to hear those who view God's law this way say, "You cannot judge; that is legalism," when they are rebuked for sin. Dr. John MacArthur notes that such thinking causes people to "insinuate that it is heresy equal to Galatian legalism to demand that sinners forsake their sins, commit themselves to Christ, obey His commands, and surrender to Him."^[1] This thinking corresponds with antinomianism, which is a dangerous, heretical teaching that states that God's law is irrelevant.

On the contrary, God's law is so relevant that it is the only standard by which sin is exposed (Rom. 3:20; 7:7). The apostle John defined sin as "lawlessness" (1 John 3:4). If Jesus calls all who will follow Him to believe the gospel and repent of sin, without which He warned all would perish (Luke 13:3), then God's law certainly has a place in the lives of believers. With a sobering warning, the Lord declared that those who disregard His law and "practice lawlessness" will be rejected by Him on the day of judgment (Matt. 7:23).

The Biblical Definition of Legalism

Legalism is, rather, an abuse of God's law, and involves a self-righteous attempt to gain merit from God or favor from man. One of the purposes of God's law is to show sinners their need of a Savior, a need which would drive them to Christ in faith for the righteousness God requires (Gal. 3:24). However, the Pharisees missed this intended purpose and sought, instead, to gain their own righteousness by works of the law and not by faith, and thereby esteemed themselves before God. The problem here is not God's law but a warped, self-centered motive behind keeping it. Legalism does not involve obedience from the heart, as a demonstration of one's love for God, for this is what Jesus expects of His followers (John 14:15). What legalism involves, on the other hand, is an attempt used by someone to justify himself and gain some kind of merit before God. When people begin trusting in their own works or obedience as the basis upon which they are justified and accepted by God, they have fallen into the damnable error of legalism.

Legalism: Manipulation of the Law of God

Legalism often involves a manipulation of the law of God, whereby His commandments are added to or invalidated. Jesus condemned the Pharisees as those who "transgress the commandment of God for the sake of [their] tradition" (Matt. 15:3). The legalists in Jesus' day were those who found ways to excuse their sins and absolve themselves from being held accountable to God's law by setting up in its place a tradition of their own.

Legalism: Imposing Conscientious Convictions

Legalism may also involve personal convictions being imposed upon others in areas not governed by biblical principles. If believers are found in sin, they are, by all means, worthy of rebuke, and must be called and expected to repent, as prescribed by the Lord Himself (Matt. 18:15-18; Luke 17:3). However, people should not be confronted in the same way when they do something that is not deemed sinful by God's word (e.g., eating pork), because they are at liberty to do so, as long as they are neither sinning nor causing other believers to stumble.

Legalism: Keeping the Law of Moses

Finally, legalism may involve an insistence on keeping the law of Moses. False teachers plagued the Galatian church by demanding that one must keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. While the law of Moses is indeed a revelation of God's law, many of its commandments and laws—such as circumcision, dietary laws, and observances of feasts—were given under peculiar circumstances and for specific purposes, most of which served as visual representations of the spiritual realities that came in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Therefore, to insist upon keeping what the Bible deems as "shadows" (Col. 2:17; Heb. 10:1) is to abuse the law of God by disregarding its intended purpose and ignoring its fulfillment in Christ.

Conclusion

Legalism consists of the abuse, manipulation, invalidation, and replacement of the law of God with man-made traditions or convictions, but not of the law itself. Obedience in and of itself is not legalism, but a self-righteous motive behind obedience, in seeking to gain merit through works, is. Since an unbiblical definition of the term "legalism" exposes one to the dangers of falling into the extremes of striving to keep God's law for salvation or disregarding the law completely, it is crucial to cultivate and reinforce a correct understanding of the term.

Footnotes

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