I'm temporarily stopping my series on my life journey cos there are far too many things on my mind right now. And writing helps me to digest my thoughts bit by bit. So here's part 1 of the series on Musings of a Christian.
I may write a book or create online sermons if the response is good!
Enjoy!
On Grace Vs Legalism
There's a lot of attack on cheap grace. How can grace be cheap since our Saviour used His blood to pay for your sins? I don't agree that grace teaches that because we have grace, we can continue to live in sin. But instead, because we have grace, we can through the grace of God live in holiness. We need not use our own works to justify ourselves or think that God is displeased with us because of the things we have done.
The other extreme is legalism- telling people that God is pleased if we do certain things. And if we don't, we are not-doing-well, backsliding or not a good enough Christian. For example, prayer is important. But in encouraging someone to pray, we can use two approaches. The first is to tell the person as a mature Christian, he should clock 45 min everyday, and to ask him why he has not. The second approach is to tell the person that God desires to fellowship with him, and that prayer is a joyful thing, furthermore, the quality of prayer is not determined by the length of time. As he matures in Christ, this person who has been approached using the second method would enjoy prayer more, as he discovers by himself the joys of prayer rather than mechanically try and clock 45 min of his time in order to "please" God.
Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Ps 37:4
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.
Ps 1:2
God is most glorified when we delight in Him, and not when we are ritualistically asked to perform certain tasks. Likewise, for other issues, like praying in tongues and attending prayer meetings. These are important. But it should be out of a position of delight that we do these things. And that is the encouragement that comes from grace, we do not please God by the amount of works we do, but we simply delight in Him. And that empowers us to live a godly, holy lifestyle.
The new believer cannot, and will not delight in prayer, and hence guidance is needed to help him to understand what it means to be a Christian. Hence we encourage them to attain a "higher" spiritual level by using measurable results e.g. whether they attend bible studies, their prayer time, ministry involvement and so forth. But herein lies the danger. The believer thinks that he is very righteous because of his level of involvement in these areas, and as he matures, this justification by works mentality continues. He/she is more mature than the rest because he/she has attained the standards of a mature Christian. And one day should a Christian fail/fall in these deeds; he/she feels condemned for not being good enough in being a mature Christian. He/she also risks judging others based on their works. But the bible says that we should not again attempt to justify ourselves by law, and in so doing we are saying that the work of the cross is of no effect.
1Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,* and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. 4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
Gal 5:1-4
Discipleship is very important. James would also say that we are justified by our works. But we cannot determine our righteousness based on our works, nor put bondages in people's minds that they must attain certain standards before they can truly stand righteous before God. In fact through grace, they can boldly stand before God based on Christ’s righteousness and from there bear the fruits of Spirit. First by faith then righteousness then acts, not the other way round of first acts and faith then righteousness. In fact, many Christians fall because they think that they are not good enough in the kingdom of God.
There must be balance then, in the way we go about encouraging new Christians, and not be legalistic in our approaches, or to reprimand someone for not attaining to certain standards. Sometimes, we create standards that are not commandments from the bible (though related) like someone has to "look sharp", "dress sharp", "be excited" etc. Sometimes we reprimand others for not attaining to the standard. That can be repressive and legalistic, and even risk becoming similar to the Pharisees who told the people what to do and what not to do. We must be careful to distinguish between man-made tradition/culture-commandments of men, versus what is really biblical.
2Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. 3 For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. 5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?"
6 He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 7 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' 8 "For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men*--the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do."
Mark 7:2-7
The way our churches function are heavily influenced by culture and traditions. Hence we must not be quick to judge people's level of spirituality or impose a man-made standard on them. For example, not every church raises hands while worshipping God or dances when praising God. In fact it is the culture in many traditional churches to not do so. It may also not be the culture to wear trendy clothes to church, but to wear conservatively. These are grey areas and allow for freedom of choice. (Though one may argue that lifting up of hands and dancing is biblical, and I think so too. But this is not a case of a moral right or wrong)
Even in cases where there is biblical basis for encouraging certain behaviour, one must not take the place of the Holy Spirit in instruction, but allow Him to change a person's heart. In the treatment of relationships for example, a Christian may be attached to a non-christian. He goes through heavy counseling from the leaders and is encouraged to stop this relationship. The leader should not go to the extreme of following the Christian and making sure that he/she really breaks up with his/her partner.
Church structures can then encourage or discourage legalism. It is understandable that in a large church, administration is important. Structures are needed to account for every single member in the church. Hence the cell group system is an effective way of filtering information down the church. The pastor sets the vision for the church and this vision is filtered down to the rest of the members. Unity of the church is important, and members need to stay together, follow the vision that God has placed among the leadership. However, leaders must be wise in sharing the vision to his/her sheep, to not impose a legalistic approach but allow for grace and freedom of choice. Christ-paid for our lives, but allowed us freedom in choosing Him. We don't swing to the other extreme of lawlessness for God is a holy God and we teach a life of purity and faith. But we must understand that many of us like delinquent children take time to know Him, likewise many young believers will stumble and fall before they can submit their lives to Him. But ultimately, genuine salvation/repentance is a personal and voluntary decision that they themselves must make.
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