New To The Journey Out of Legalism?

Love Note # 1 Welcome to Grace! And….Avoid that Other Ditch.

You have visited this site which may mean you are coming out of the darkness of some form of legalism, with emphasis what you should have been doing to be saved. Welcome to your coming to see that you may have been minimizing the greatest event in history – the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, our Savior.

May I share one simple point that might be helpful as you move into closer relationship with Jesus and out of religious or human systems? You know human nature. The tendency is to jump from one ditch to the other. In this case the human reaction could be to rejoice in God’s grace and jump into a loose attitude toward sin.

The one point that might help you at this stage is this: remember that God’s grace has been applied to you as a child of God. You are forgiven. You are now pure and clean through Him. At the cross sin was not eliminated from the face of the earth or yours and my nature. You may be tempted to think that sin is no longer a “big deal” because of grace. If we take this jump, we go from one heresy to another: from Legalism to Antinomianism.

What is antinomianism? (From Got Questions.org)

Question: "What is antinomianism?"

Answer: The word antinomianism comes from two Greek words, anti, meaning "against"; and nomos, meaning "law." Antinomianism means “against the law.” Theologically, antinomianism is the belief that there are no moral laws God expects Christians to obey. Antinomianism takes a biblical teaching to an unbiblical conclusion. The biblical teaching is that Christians are not required to observe the Old Testament Law as a means of salvation. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He fulfilled the Old Testament Law (Romans 10:4; Galatians 3:23-25; Ephesians 2:15). The unbiblical conclusion is that there is no moral law God expects Christians to obey.

The Apostle Paul dealt with the issue of antinomianism in Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” The most frequent attack on the doctrine of salvation by grace alone is that it encourages sin. People may wonder, “If I am saved by grace and all my sins are forgiven, why not sin all I want?” That thinking is not the result of true conversion because true conversion yields a greater desire to obey, not a lesser one. God’s desire—and our desire when we are regenerated by His Spirit—is that we strive to not sin, out of gratitude for His grace and forgiveness. God has given us His infinitely gracious gift in salvation through Jesus (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). Our response is to consecrate our lives to Him out of love, worship, and gratitude for what He has done for us (Romans 12:1-2). Antinomianism is unbiblical in that it misapplies the meaning of God’s gracious favor.

A second reason that antinomianism is unbiblical is that there is a moral law God expects us to obey. 1 John 5:3 tells us, “This is love for God: to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome.” What is this law God expects us to obey? It is the law of Christ – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40). No, we are not under the Old Testament Law. Yes, we are under the law of Christ. The law of Christ is not an extensive list of legal codes. It is a law of love. If we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we will do nothing to displease Him. If we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will do nothing to harm them. Obeying the law of Christ is not a requirement to earn or maintain salvation. The law of Christ is what God expects of a Christian.

Antinomianism is contrary to everything the Bible teaches. God expects us to live a life of morality, integrity, and love. Jesus Christ freed us from the burdensome commands of the Old Testament Law, but that is not a license to sin, but rather a covenant of grace. We are to strive to overcome sin and cultivate righteousness, depending on the Holy Spirit to help us. The fact that we are graciously freed from the demands of the Old Testament Law should result in our living our lives in obedience to the law of Christ. 1 John 2:3-6 declares, “We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. The man who says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.”

The Christian authors in the Recommended Reading section of this site understand this basic truth as will your pastor at a healthy church. May God continue to bless your prayer for a closer walk with Him.

Remember: When you accepted Jesus as your Savior, grace was extended to you as God’s child and you were clean and pure because of what He did out of Love. The horror, the enormity, the agony, the suffering as a result of sin is real. And that helps us to appreciate His awesome sacrifice even more.

Christopher

Love Note # 2 A Message from Greg Albrecht, President of Plain Truth Ministries

I am honored to join my long time friend Christopher on this website and in his ministry, reaching out to those who are recovering from legalism. Christopher and I go “way back” to the olden days, when we were young men, both trapped by the same legalistic/religious paradigms and world views. We were so sincere – and as it turns out, so sincerely wrong. Several decades later it was a great joy of my life to discover that God was taking Christopher through a similar escape route from bad news religion (a shameless plug for the title of my first book!) as he was graciously revealing to me. Christopher and I also share the Houston area in common – I haven’t lived there for many years, but I well remember my first little league home run, hit in Sugarland, Texas! I’m sure there must be a plaque or marker in Sugarland somewhere – I’ll have to come back and look for it.

Enough about baseball! Let’s get back to getting out and staying out of the prison cells of legalistic religion. The divine escape route is simple, yet incredibly profound. It is all about Jesus. It is founded in and on God’s amazing grace. Sadly, while the antidote to the un-grace of Christ-less religion seems somewhat basic, it is rejected by many, in favor of cherished, traditional teachings they either can’t or don’t want to jettison. If you find what Christopher and his team of Jesus oriented brothers and sisters has to offer helpful, and are looking for other resources, please consider visiting us at www.ptm.org.

Greg Albrecht, President of Plain Truth Ministries