I’ve Come Down With a Case of Legalism—How Can I Recover?

I like rules, lines and boundaries. I feel safer if I have clear parameters, which explains my love for graph paper.

I like it when everything is nice and tidy. The problem is, life isn’t always nice and tidy.

People around me don’t always play by my rules, and I’m the biggest boundary breaker of them all.

It would seem that the alternative to rules-based living would be no-rules living, rebellion and abandonment of moral restraint. But what if that isn’t the best alternative to legalistic living?

Jesus’ greatest confrontations happened with legalists who not only lived by rigid sets of rules, but quickly judged others by those rules as well.

The New Testament message—the gospel—is one of liberation from legalism, but it isn’t an encouragement to rebellion either.

It’s about being free to really live. But how? How can I really live a life free from legalism and still grow into the godly character that Jesus saved me to be?

Establish Some Foundational Principles

We can know certain things to be true, no matter what. They are unbreakable absolutes that cannot be compromised. We know at least this much:

1. God’s Word, the Bible (including the “Law”), is perfect, good, without any mixture of error, and therefore completely trustworthy as the basis for living life.
2. Holiness, complete maturity and Christlikeness is God’s goal for every believer in Christ.
3. Legalism never gets us to that goal. (So let’s move on…)

Get Honest About Legalism in Your Life

My name is Brandon Cox, and I’m a legalist. At least I still struggle with the remnants of legalism in my life.

I guess I’m a “recovering legalist” who still slips into the old frame of mind sometimes. In fact, I think we all tend toward legalism to varying degrees, and the longer we’ve been believers, the more susceptible we are.

How can you tell if you’re a legalist? Here’s a quick checklist…

1. I determine whether God likes me or not based on how well I’ve kept the rules.
2. I might acknowledge I was saved by grace alone, but I think my effort has something to do with staying saved.
3. I tend to pray less when I fear that God is probably mad at me about something.
4. I think I’m disqualified from the Christian faith because I’ve messed up, in spite of the fact that I’m still alive and breathing.
5. I tend to notice the “bad behavior” in others without giving thought to their past pain, poor upbringing or unknown circumstances.
6. When other sinners suffer for their choices, I hear a tiny voice saying “serves them right.”
7. I’m more passionate about the rules I find easy to keep, and minimize the ones I personally struggle with.
8. I’m all about being “in the Word” but sometimes fail to let the Word get into me.
9. I love going to Bible study more than serving or witnessing because it “feeds me” and makes me feel more spiritually mature.
10. I recognize that traditions are not necessarily biblical…unless they’re my traditions.

Thoroughly self-diagnosed yet? Let’s talk about the cure.

Go to the Cross for Healing

You need to know, up front, that you’ll never completely get over being a legalist.

Since the garden of Eden, God has been all about grace. It explains why God made coats of animal skins to cover the shame of Adam and Eve.

And since the garden of Eden, we’ve tried (with Satan’s help) to re-write the gospel to somehow include merit. As humans, we are rules addicts.

But we can break free. Jesus invites us to His freedom…

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.

—Matthew 11:28-30 NLT

Paul developed a distinctive theology of freedom.

So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

—Galatians 5:1 NLT

Here are some steps to take…

1. See your sin for what it is. It’s an offense to God to sin. No, you shouldn’t beat yourself up over past mistakes, but you also shouldn’t vindicate yourself on the basis that sin “isn’t a big deal.”
2. See Jesus for who He is. He’s your sacrifice. Nothing you’ve done could have prevented Him from going to the cross just for you. He’s the only perfect and righteous Savior.
3. See the cross for what it is. The cross was where He died for your sins. In other words, your sins are paid for. Stop trying to pay the debt yourself. Every time you do, you ignore the cross and insult His sacrifice.
4. Embrace grace. Revel in it. Bathe yourself in the idea of it. Roll around in the concept that you are free…free indeed!
5. Embrace grace…more. Don’t stop thinking about it. Read about it. Read about how Jesus showed it. Understand that you’ll never totally understand it, but don’t stop trying.
6. Show grace. In fact, mob people with it. Show it when you don’t feel like it, when it doesn’t make sense and especially when it would feel better to do otherwise.

Any other recovering legalists out there?

This article originally appeared here.