legalism is our rulebook for living. It is our formula for
success—if I just follow these rules then everything is supposed to be ok. If
you struggle with an eating disorder, your rules become your life. A way that you can measure how you did that
day. To determine whether or not something is good or bad or if YOU are good or
bad. Legalism causes us to live in the black and white. But is that how life
really works? NO. Life is messy. It doesn’t fit into the black box or the white
box because other people don’t follow our rules and that becomes the source of
great anxiety for many of us.
You could argue, what about God’s rules, like the Ten
commandments, surely those are black and white and must be followed. Yes, we
must heed God’s commands but if we stay stuck in the rules we run the risk of
becoming like the Pharisees where the rule following is only for outward
display, not an inward gesture of the heart. God doesn’t say “Follow these rules and you’ll
get into heaven”. NO. Salvation is a FREE gift. Undeserved. So why are we so
caught up in our rules?
I think many of us can agree that salvation is a free gift,
but maybe we feel we don’t deserve it. If
we view God as legalistic, then it is logical that we would view ourselves in
the same way—defining our self worth by means of our adherence to the law. Maybe we think we’ve fallen too far for God to
save us? Or that we are continuous failures, that its all or nothing, and that we never measure up? So we
cling to legalism, rigid rules, to somehow purify us or to try fill the
emptiness of our hearts.
Colossians 2:20-23
20 Since you died with Christ to the
elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to
the world, do you submit to its rules: 21 “Do
not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These
rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use,
are based on merely human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with
their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of
the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
But God isn’t a God of legalism. He is a God of grace.
Grace is God’s free and unmerited favor for sinful humanity.
Grace is God’s free and unmerited favor for sinful humanity.
Romans 3:23-24 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus."
God
loves you regardless of what you’ve done in the past or what you did
today. Legalism gives the illusion of control, order,
symmetry, something by which to evaluate your performance. But grace doesn’t give a measure, just
love. It forces you to accept your
imperfections and it takes changing them out of your hands and puts it back
into God’s hands. That is SCARY isn’t
it? You have to trust that what God has
in store for you is better than what you can come up with on your own.
Romans 8:35, 38-39
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, [b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So who is in control
when you let grace reign? NOT YOU! God!
We can’t turn to external things to cope with our struggles like controlling
our eating or not eating. We need to turn to God. We need to give Him our
brokenness, our fears, our shame, our grief, our relationships. Only God can set us free from the inside out.
Other coping mechanisms get us stuck in a cycle of destruction and
despair.
Are you ready to leave legalism behind and start living by grace?
