In this episode Phylicia Masonheimer discusses the concept of legalism in Christianity and how it differs from living a spirit-led life. She emphasizes that salvation is by grace through faith, not by works, and that the Christian life should be one of freedom, not drudgery.
Referenced in this episode: ⦿ Freedom From Legalism: https://phyliciamasonheimer.com/product/freedom-from-legalism/
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Transcription
Many of us are willing to trust God’s grace for our eternal destiny. And we say, yes, absolutely. My eternal destiny can’t be earned by my works. I can’t do anything to keep my soul saved eternally. But when it comes to daily life, becoming more like Jesus in daily life, we kind of become works based. And we begin to think that I have to do certain things, certain behaviors to keep God’s favor on my life, to keep God loving me. Hi, friends. And welcome back to Verity podcast.
I’m Phylicia Masonheimer, your host and the founder of Every Woman A Theologian who owns and runs Verity podcast. I’m so excited to continue our beginner believer series. And this week, we’re talking about legalism. What is it? Why does it matter? And how do we avoid it as Christians who are trying to become more and more like Jesus? Now when you hear the word legalism, you might have something that pops into your head, an image, and usually it is conservative legalism. So strict rules around modesty and clothing choices and maybe head coverings or bible versions and things like that, media consumption. Oftentimes, when we think of legalism, we think of very specific conservative rules, oftentimes from experiences in legalistic Christianity that we had growing up. I grew up homeschooled. And while my parents were not legalistic, I definitely grew up in circles that were.
And so I experienced a lot of this secondhand and saw the fruits of it over many years. And many of the people that we minister to through every woman a theologian are actually coming out of legalism, even extreme versions like cults. And so as we talk about this today, I want you to know that I’m coming at this from an angle of deep compassion because my heart is for every Christian to be able to walk in complete freedom and in the abundant life that Jesus offers. Now maybe you’re watching this and you think, I don’t even know what legalism means. Like, what even is that? It’s not a word that translates easily into other languages. It’s an English word. And so what do we mean by legalism? Basically, legalism is trying to earn or keep god’s approval by adherence to law or rules. Basically, you are trying to adhere to God’s good law.
The things that he has said are beautiful, true for our righteousness, for our blessing. You’re trying to do that on your own willpower. And even though you believe that salvation is by grace and faith, you somehow fall back into this pattern of thinking that you have to keep your salvation or keep God’s approval of you by doing good things. We’re gonna look at some verses about that in just a second. But just know that if that’s you, if you can tell that that’s where your heart has been, God has so much more for you, and he has such an abundant, beautiful Christian life waiting for you on the other side of legalism. So let’s start in Ephesians 2. We’re going to read Ephesians 2:8-9. Some of these verses we have read before in previous episodes of the beginner believer series, but they’re still worth revisiting.
So Ephesians 2:8-9. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of god, not a result of works so that no one may boast. Many of us have no problem accepting that. We have no issue believing that our salvation is by faith and grace. That it’s not our own doing. It’s a gift of god and we can’t work to earn it. We absolutely believe that.
And we think that there’s no question. However, when it comes to our daily lives instead of eternity, we struggle a lot more to trust God’s grace. Here’s what I mean. Many of us are willing to trust God’s grace for our eternal destiny. And we say, yes, absolutely. My eternal destiny can’t be earned by my works. I can’t do anything to keep my soul saved eternally. But when it comes to daily life, becoming more like Jesus in daily life, we kind of become works based.
And we begin to think that I have to do certain things, certain behaviors to keep God’s favor in my life, to keep God loving me. And so we try to will power our way through these things. We try to follow the different moral teachings of the Bible by our own sheer will. And then we get exhausted, and then we get resentful. And we begin to think, you know what? I really don’t enjoy this Christian life, because it feels so heavy. And how could Jesus say my yoke is easy and my burden is light if the Christian life feels like one long drudgery? That’s the first sign that you may have a foot in legalistic Christianity even if you aren’t outwardly appearing like you are. So Ephesians 2 tells us that we are saved by grace through faith. This is not the result of works.
We can’t boast in our works for our eternal salvation. Neither can we boast in our works for our daily salvation from sin, our daily walking out of becoming like Christ walking by the spirit. That is the work of God, the grace of God in us. It’s not meant to be done on our own strength. Let’s look at John 6:28-29. It says, then they said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, this is the work of God that you believe in Him who He has sent. You believe in Him who He has sent. So the work of God is not adding on more behaviors.
It’s not modification of behavior. It is to believe in Jesus Christ. It is to put your faith a shift of allegiance to Jesus Christ. So you’re shifting from allegiance to self and selfish desires to saying Jesus is my king, my Lord and my leader. I will do what he has asked me to do because I have received his love and I’m responding to that love for me. So these disciples asked him, we wanna do the works of God and Jesus could have given them a long list of the Mosaic Law. Instead, he says, believe in me, give your allegiance to me, and I will create these good works in you. And that should lead us over to John 15, which talks about the role of the Holy Spirit and then over to Galatians 5, which talks about the fruits of the Spirit.
The fruits of the spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, these things grow naturally on a Christian who is grounded in the word of God, and is walking by the Holy Spirit’s leading. That’s why they’re called fruits. Now I want to camp in Galatians 5 for a second. I love Galatians. I actually just finished a Bible study verse by verse through the book of Galatians called who the sun sets free. And so if you want to study more about freedom from legalism, that study comes out September 12, 2024, and I think you would love it. But as I was studying through Galatians 5, something really jumped out at me, and it’s this. Paul compares the works of the flesh with the fruit of the spirit.
He doesn’t say works of the flesh and works of the spirit. He says works of the flesh, your old person, your old personality, who you used to be before Christ, and the fruit of the spirit. What’s the difference? Well, fruit grows naturally, and works are done by effort. And so the fruits of the spirit, the things that we want to do for God, the things that please him grow naturally on a person who is grounded in the Holy Spirit’s voice, presence, and leading. As they walk with him, as they talk with him, they become more like him. Now, if you’re having trouble picturing this, I want to give you a visual. This is the visual I give in my in person theology classes when I’m teaching them. The difference between the spirit led life and the legalistic life is like 2 apple trees.
The spirit led tree is planted in good soil. All of the branches are attached to the trunk of the tree, which is Jesus Christ, John 15. And over the course of the season, the tree bears good fruit. And that fruit might, you know, come at times that are later than maybe the tree wanted, but the fruit is growing naturally because the tree is planted in what is good and is attached to the source of nourishment. But the tree that is legalistic, the legalistic life. This tree has an owner who comes out every week and hangs fruit manually on the tree. He takes a bushel of apples and he puts little hooks on them and he hangs them on the tree. And when you look at both trees from afar, they look exactly the same.
They both look like they are bearing holy fruit. They’re bearing good fruit. It’s bright. It’s red. It’s beautiful. But when you get up close, you see that only one tree is actually growing. Only one tree is thriving, and only one tree is seemingly growing the fruit without effort. The other tree, the legalistic tree, has fruit that looks good for a little while, but then it starts to rot and fall off.
All of it has to be replaced through the efforts of the person hanging it on the tree. So legalistic life and the spirit led life from afar, from first glance can look very similar. You can have 2 people, 2 Christians who are both pursuing modest humble dress, modest and humble behaviors in their life. And when you look at them, they look the same. But one of them is pursuing that out of love for God and knows that the affection of God is immovable and with them in Christ. And the other is doing it out of fear of what people will say, out of fear of judgment from God or others. Do you see the difference? One of those trees, one of those people is growing in holiness with seemingly little effort because the Holy Spirit is working in their life, and they listen to his voice and they obey. But the other is making all of this effort.
And it’s exhausting, and it’s tiring, and it’s burdensome. Jesus said that the Christian life is meant to be abundant. He came that we may have life and have it to the full, John 10:10 says. But if the Christian life doesn’t feel like that, you have to ask the question, am I actually letting God grow this fruit in my life? Or am I doing this all on my own strength? Matthew 23:1-4 says this, Jesus said to the crowds and his disciples, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat. So do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works that they do. For they preach but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. He goes on in the rest of this chapter to articulate 7 woes against the Pharisees.
Who were the Pharisees? They were the premier bible teachers of that day. They knew the Bible inside out, upside down, and backwards. They could tell everyone exactly what to do according to God’s word to please God. And yet they’d missed the forest for the trees. They were not adhering to the heart of God. They were just trying to please him through their own outward efforts. And ultimately, they only wanted to do these things so that people would applaud them and celebrate them for doing it. Whereas Jesus says, listen to the words they speak because it’s the words of God, and God can use it, but do not walk in their ways.
Now these days, it’s very common to assume that the person opposite you is a Pharisee. It’s never me. I’m never the Pharisee. It’s everybody else out there who’s the Pharisee, who’s the hypocrite. But we should always read these passages with an eye to our own hearts. Are we performing to earn God’s favor in some way? Or have we allowed the affection of God to absolutely inundate us with gratitude for how much he loved us and what it cost for him to go to the cross? When we have received God’s affection and we accept that it is applied to us, we are much more readily willing to listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice and to walk in His transformation. The Pharisees did not have affection for God and did not believe that God loved them. They believed that God was waiting to judge them and to judge every other person for how they behaved.
And so their whole goal was behavior modification. Jesus said, no. I offer a whole new identity, a whole new life. And when you’ve accepted that and given your allegiance to me as your king, the Messiah, the true God, you will fall in line with those behaviors because your heart is transformed first. The Pharisees wanted to transform from the outside in, but Jesus transforms from the inside out. And he does it slowly, patiently, and naturally by the work of his Holy Spirit. So when Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and telling us, look, listen to what they preach, but don’t follow what they practice. We should look at ourselves and ask, am I practicing my faith in a way that is based on will power and effort? And what example is that giving to the people around me? Another question we should ask is, am I pigeonholing this pharisaical attitude? Am I pigeonholing legalism into one specific denomination or one specific branch of Christianity and thinking that it’s experience, working across many different churches interdenominationally over the years, I have seen certain traditions that are kind of demonized for legalism.
And is there legalism in those denominations? Yes, there is. There’s a reason why they have been pinpointed for those behaviors. But there’s a much more insidious legalism, a much more insidious performative faith today. See, most often we look at legalism on what we would call the right or the conservative side, where there’s a lot of rules and pleasing people by how you dress and, what Bible version you read and things like that. But on the left, there’s another kind of legalism that’s just as performative. Who do you listen to? Who do you read? Is your reading list diverse enough? Have you made sure that you are tagging the right people or that you’re open minded enough? And if you don’t check those boxes, then you too are disqualified from being in the favor of God and bearing his fruits. Do you see what I mean? On the right, there is a legalism that looks at outward appearance. And on the left, there is a legalism that looks at outward appearance.
But God wants to refine our hearts, and he calls us to a faith that is authentically planted in the word of God and is walking by the spirit of God and adheres to the truth of God. That person can know that in this unchanging identity that’s been granted to them in Jesus Christ, they can move forward in a complete peace that God will grow the fruits of the spirit in them and upon them for the good of their world. And they don’t have to slave away to make it happen. If this episode was helpful to you and you want to learn more about how to find freedom from legalism, you can grab our little booklet in the Every Woman A Theologian shop called How to Find Freedom From Legalism. It’s $3 for an ebook, $6 for a print book and that’s at phyliciamasonheimer.com under books. As always I pray that this episode is helpful and thought provoking for you and that it moves you closer to the heart of God and an appreciation for his word. I’ll see you next time.