Legalism or Libertinism or The Truth

[Christsfreeservant]

(Jesus Christ) “He went on from there and entered their synagogue. And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’—so that they might accuse him. He said to them, ‘Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.’ Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.” (Matthew 12:9-14 ESV)​

The Pharisees are the “they” in this passage of Scripture who asked Jesus this question about the Sabbath, and so that they might accuse him of wrongdoing. They were all the time hounding him and setting traps for him so that they might accuse him of something. So they were Jesus’ enemies, his opponents, his opposition against himself and against the truth of the gospel of our salvation. And they were legalists who did not practice what they preached but who were full of evil and wickedness, Jesus said.

But Jesus called them on their hypocrisy and showed how they would rescue a sheep on the Sabbath, but that they rebuked Jesus because he healed human beings on the Sabbath. And many people who are legalists today are also hypocrites who do not practice what they preach. And they are those who focus on minor things of little consequence, that have nothing to do with our salvation from sin and eternal life with God, while they, like the Pharisees, are filled up with all sorts of evil and wickedness.

But first I want to deal with the subject of the keeping of the Sabbath. Biblically speaking we Christians are not under the Jewish Sabbath laws. When Jesus died on that cross, he removed all those Old Covenant liturgical, ceremonial, sacrificial, purification, and dietary laws and restrictions, which included circumcision and the keeping of the Sabbath. For now Jesus Christ and our salvation from sin are our “Sabbath Rest,” and we worship him 24/7 in spirit and in truth regardless of day, time, and location.

[Colossians 2:16-17; Romans 14:5; Galatians 5:1,13-15; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Hebrews 3:1-19; and Hebrews 4:1-16]

So, today we have legalists, but they seem to be in the minority. For what is permeating the church today is not legalism, but the opposite of that, which is libertinism, which is a “free for all,” i.e. permission to keep on in your deliberate and habitual and premeditated sins against the Lord and against other humans while you claim Jesus as your Lord and Savior and heaven as your eternal destiny. This is what is really killing the church today and is destroy people’s lives and their marriages and their family life.

But legalism still exists. But let me say here that the teaching of the truth of the gospel of our salvation is not to be equated with legalism. For Jesus and his NT apostles were not legalists, but they taught that we are required to die with Christ to sin, not just once but daily, and to walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands in holy living, in moral purity, honesty, integrity, faithfulness, uprightness, and godliness. For if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to God, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

True legalism has nothing to do with God’s moral laws and requirements. Legalism is centered in what is in the physical realm, and it is usually based loosely off of Scriptures taken out of context and added on to them what the Scriptures do not teach. For example, the Scriptures do not teach that we cannot drink anything containing alcohol. They do teach that we are not to get drunk, that we are not to be addicted to strong drink, and that we are to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for Jesus to return.

Legalists will take it further and say that we cannot drink wine or anything that might be intoxicating. Now I agree that strong drink containing anything that can be inebriating should be avoided because it is too easy to get addicted to it and it can cause us to lose self-control. But the Scriptures do not forbid it entirely, and Jesus drank wine which had the ability to make people drunk, because that is obvious by what is written about it. So just saying that we should not take the Scriptures beyond what they teach.

But even those who are teaching libertinism can be those who are legalists in some areas, for they insist on certain cultural traditions be followed even by people who did not grow up in those cultures. And they insist on followers of Jesus following after their religious traditions and practices, too, which may not have any biblical backing to them, and which may be carry overs either from the Old Covenant or from the Roman Catholic church. For not everything called “church” is the true church, the body of Christ.

So the important thing here is to not add on to what the Scriptures actually teach, and to not take away from what they actually teach, either, but to follow them in their complete text, i.e. in the context in which they are written. So we must make certain that we are listening to the Lord Jesus and that we are obeying his commandments to us under the New Covenant and that we are following him in his ways and in his truth, not in the ways and in the “truth” of human beings who are not following the Scriptures in truth.

Video Talk

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Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

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