In my opinion, legalism and those who excuse their sin in
trying to flee from legalism.
Matt Slick defines legalism as “the excessive and improper
use of the law (10 commandments, holiness laws, etc). This legalism can take different forms. The first is where a person attempts to keep
the Law in order to attain salvation.
The second is where a person keeps the law in order to maintain his
salvation. The third is when a Christian
judges other Christians for not keeping certain codes of conduct that he thinks
need to be observed.”
Now even though legalism is a really big problem in the
church. I’m not going to be addressing the issue itself. I’m going to address
the problem I see more in my generation—people saying I can go party, drink,
watch dirty movies, read filthy novels/magazines, have sex or close to it,
listen to whatever music, and fill my head with whatever I want BECAUSE it’s
legalistic for me to get rid of those things to work my way to God.
While YES it is legalistic to do those things just to work
our way to God and merit righteousness, WE ABUSE GOD’S GRACE WHEN WE LIVE BY
OUR FLESH.
Galatians 5:16-26 16 says, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit,
and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one
another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by
the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident,
which are: adultery,[a] fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery,
hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions,
heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell
you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice
such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23
gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are
Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in
the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited,
provoking one another, envying one another.”
This passage really says a lot
about living by the Spirit, so don’t just read it as a list of do’s and don’ts.
First off in verse 16 when it says “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh”, the word lust
has a different connotation in Greek then we have. We say it with an evil
connotation, but in Greek lust of the
flesh refers to the desires of the flesh (music, entertainment, works of
do-gooders, etc.) There are many things which themselves are not evil, but they
take the place of spriritual things. Secondly, after the list of the works of
the flesh it says “those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom
of God.” This implies continuous actions. Christians are not perfect and will
mess up, so don’t think that messing up one or two times is going to send you
to hell. Draw near to God and thank him for his grace when you mess up and flee
the sin you are struggling with by the power of HIS Spirit. Next, notice that
it says, “the FRUIT of the Spirit is..” Fruit in this passage is singular! That
means they are wholistic. We cannot say well im doing good with love, but
patience is a little iffy. They all run together under love. We cannot earn
them. The Lord must prune us and make the fruit grow in us. J. Vernon McGee
says, “The problem is that we offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, but
when the altar gets hot, we crawl off. We are to ABIDE in Christ if we are to
produce fruit.” Now let’s look at verse 25 when it says, “If we live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Walk in this passage is stoichomen in Greek. This word is the
basic, elementary meaning “to proceed or step in order”. It means to learn to
walk. Just as we learn to walk physically by the trial and error method, we are
to begin to walk by the Spirit—it is a learning process. Lastly, this passage
ends with “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one
another.” Don’t let the Christian walk be a competition. Don’t evaluate your
life by comparing yours to other peoples. It’s God’s place to judge, not ours.
J. Vernon McGee comments, “We are not to challenge and envy one another. We are
to get down from our high chairs and start walking in the Spirit. The Christian
Life is not a balloon ascension with some great overpowering experience of
soaring to the heights. Rather it is a daily walk; it is a matter of putting
one foot ahead of the other, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit.”
Now that we’ve broken down
Galatians 5:16-26 im going to kind of switch directions.
Because of the lack of Christians
living by the Spirit, I think many of us have become discontent with the Lord.
Our hearts have turned from Him to our flesh for satisfaction.
Sinclair Ferguson says,
“Contentment is the direct fruit of having no higher ambition than to belong to
the Lord at His disposal.”
If the main focus of our life is
to have fun, get a good job, find our soulmate, and live the American dream
then we will never find contentment. Our hearts must be fixated on Christ with furthering
the kingdom of God as our main objective. The battle for the placement of our
hearts is real and we are often oblivious to it. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.” Satan and his forces are working at all times to
steal our contentment. This is where living by the Spirit comes back in. Don’t
let Satan choke our your contentment by giving in to partying, drinking,
watching movies and listening to music that feeds your flesh, reading an erotic
novel.. It’s a cheap trade and those things WILL leave you empty. We don’t give
up these things to earn our own righteousness, for we know that Christ has
imputed us with His righteousness! BUT we stay clear of these things to guard
our hearts and starve our flesh. It is not legalistic to guard our heart.
Proverbs 4:23 commands us to do so. It is being wise.
1 Timothy 6:6 says, “But
godliness with contentment is great gain.”
So let our prayer be that we find
our contentment in Christ alone. Pray that God will open our eyes to any
judgemental and legalistic bone in our bodies. Pray that God will show us where
we are feeding our flesh. Pray that God will prune us and grow us in Him, and
spend time abiding in Him. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
