- LEGALISM 'li.gəl.iz.əm noun. Excessive adherence to law or formula.
- 2. Dependence on law or merit, instead of grace and faith, for righteousness before God and salvation.
- [Legalist 'li.gəl.ist noun.]
The absence of grace is legalism: Subtract the optimistic attitude, the forgiveness which should immediately follow when we slip up, the trust that God can take care of the details and manage our biggest messes. It’s when people figure yeah, God saves, but he only cares to save those who merit it with our good karma.
Most Christians are aware legalism is the wrong route to God. The evangelists drummed the idea into our heads pretty early: Salvation is through grace and nothing else. We can’t earn salvation; we shouldn’t try. If we try, we’re kinda trying to do an end-run around God and the system he set up, which is for Jesus to take out our sins. And the only reason we’d wanna do an end-run around God is pride, sin, delusion, or some other evil or self-centered motive. Don’t be that way. Embrace his grace.
So we do. Well, most of us do.
’Cause many Christians don’t fully trust God’s grace. It’s a faith deficiency. We might believe God lets us into his kingdom… but we’ll also believe in order to stay in the kingdom, or keep our place or rank in it, we gotta deserve it. So back to karma we go.
Hey, karma’s a hard mindset to give up. It’s deeply ingrained in human culture. Some of us grew up with it, and have been trained to live our lives by it. Because karma is fair: This for that, quid pro quo, equal rights, equal pay for equal work, I scratch your back if you scratch mine, and let the punishment fit the crime. It’s even in the bible: Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Ex 21.24 People should get what they deserve.
And that’s why we still find it all over Christendom—with people insisting if we Christians don’t behave ourselves, we might lose our salvation. With Christians who figure in order to get right with God, we gotta do bonus good deeds, or various acts of penance. With churches who demand, in order that we be right with them, that we first do various things for them… things which tend to make them look legalistic and cultlike. Heck, some of ’em are cults.
The ancient Galatians did this too, which is why Paul had to tell ’em to cut it out.
- Galatians 3.1-11 KWL
- 1 Unthinking Galatians. What put a spell on you?
- Before your very eyes, Christ Jesus was presented as crucified.
- 2 I only want to know this from you: Is the Spirit given to you
- by working the Law, or by hearing and trusting?
- 3 This is why you’re unthinking: You started in the Spirit, and now you finish in the flesh.
- 4 Did you suffer so much for nothing? (Because if you’re right, it’s really for nothing.)
- 5 So is giving you the Spirit, working power among you
- by working the Law, or by hearing and trusting?
- 6 Like Abraham “trusted God and was deemed righteous by it.” Ge 15.6
- 7 So understand this: These “children of faith” are like Abraham.
- 8 The scripture, foreseeing how God justifies gentiles by their faith,
- fore-presented the gospel through Abraham—that “all gentiles will be blessed through you.“ Ge 12.3, 18.18, 22.18
- 9 Hence those who act by faith are blessed with Abraham’s faith.
- 10 Whoever works the Law is under its curse, for this is written:
- “Everyone who doesn‘t persevere in doing all this book of the Law‘s writings, is cursed.” Dt 27.26
- 11 Clearly no one‘s justified under the Law:
- “The righteous will live by faith.” Ha 2.4
The Galatians had been taught before they could become Christians, they first had to become Jews—and follow the Law. The ancient Christians had a whole council about this, and concluded no they don’t. But the alternative “gospel” of meriting our salvation had caught on—because it’s so easy to regress into karma. It’s what we’re used to.
And it’s not how God’s kingdom works. His kingdom runs on grace. Always has. The LORD didn’t save the Hebrews from Egypt because they deserved it; he saved ’em because he made friends with their ancestors. The LORD doesn’t save humanity from sin because we earned it—we so haven’t—but because he loves us regardless. God’s grace runs completely contrary to karmic principles. So much so, it outrages people who value karma.
Which is why they subtly try to slip Christianity back into those karmic principles, where they feel safe and comfortable. But in so doing, they harm and distort Christianity. And since humans are creatures of extremes, of course we take the rules and reciprocity too far, and wind up with legalism.