When Does Obedience Become Legalism?
How do I distinguish obedience, as Jesus told us to be obedient, from legalism?
The difference between obedience and legalism is very important. Obedience is good. Legalism is bad. But sometimes they can look like each other. How do we denote the difference between legalism and obedience? First of all, let me say that the Bible and the Christian life are very much pro-obedience. We think obedience is a good thing. Jesus Christ is our Lord, our Savior, our Master. He’s the Rabbi, we’re the disciples. He’s the Shepherd, we’re the sheep. He’s the Master, we are the bondservants. All of those Scriptural analogies point back to the idea that He has authority over us.
Dear friend, whether you’re a believer in Jesus Christ or not, Jesus Christ has the authority. He has the right to tell you what to do and how to live. This is true for everybody; Jesus Christ has rights over every individual, because He is our Creator. For simply that fact alone, we have an obligation to Him. Beyond that, every believer is obligated to Jesus Christ, not only as our Creator, but also as our Redeemer. We are obligated to obey Him. So, we should obey Jesus Christ. We should do what He says is good.
There is a distinction between obedience and legalism. Not all obedience is legalism, not by a long shot. If you call people to obedience, it is not at all the same thing as calling them to legalism. Obedience becomes legalism when we think that our obedience makes us more loved by God, or that our obedience is the basis of our standing before Him. Friends, it’s very important to understand that the believer stands in right relationship with God because of God’s grace, because of who He is and what He has done to bring us into right relationship with Jesus. We receive that right relationship simply by faith, not by works, not even by good works of obedience. I am not saved by my obedience or my works. It’s not by anything I do, have done, or am doing right now. It’s not by anything I might promise to do in the future. To think that God loves me more when I’m obedient and less when I’m disobedient would mean that the basis of God’s love for me is based on how much I obey Him. That makes for a works-based relationship with God.
There is a sense in which we can please God with our obedience, but even giving pleasure to God is not the basis of our right standing with Him. It’s not the basis of our salvation. It’s certainly not the basis of our regeneration. Salvation, right standing with God, and regeneration are the free gifts of God given to us in Jesus Christ, and they’re received by faith. By faith, we have access into the grace by which we stand. The standing of the believer is by grace, through faith.
To challenge ourselves or others to obedience is not legalism. However, to think that I can earn something before God when I obey, or that God loves me more because I’ve merited His approval in some way, is completely wrong. That’s legalistic thinking. Legalism will often apply the same thinking to other people. In other words, it says, “Look at them, filthy sinners. They’re not in right relationship with God.” Such thinking puts the focus on the fact of their obedience or disobedience, not the fact that they have accepted or rejected God’s gracious provision to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Remember, that’s the basis of our standing before God.
So, how do I distinguish obedience from legalism? The key is to ask whether we think it affects our standing before God. It is good, proper, and right for us to have obedience towards God because He’s our Lord, Master, Savior, and more. Yet we don’t regard our obedience as the basis or the ground upon which we are in right relationship with God.
We need to apply that thinking to ourselves. We also need to apply that thinking towards other people, and especially inside the family of God. It’s true that people are prone to have a legalistic approach to people who are outside God’s family, but especially inside God’s family.
Another important aspect of legalism is taking man-made or non-biblical principles or traditions and elevating them to the level of the commandments of God. That also is legalism, and something that I think we need to be very careful of all the time. But it seems to be rising somewhat in our own day and age. There are more and more people who are willing to say that things are commanded by God when they’re not commanded in the Scriptures. They want to present those traditions of man as being the commandments of God.
Thanks for the question. I pray that the Lord will help you and all of us to be more obedient to God and less legalistic along the way.