Legalism is a term wildly thrown around in many Christian circles today. Often Christians who desire to maintain holy standards and who are zealous for pure doctrine as set forth in the Word of God are accused of being legalists and Pharisees. Walking obediently before God and urging others to do the same often brings harassing accusations of being a grace killer, a Puritain, a legalist and a Pharisee.
The modern church shouts at the top of their lungs, “we are not under law, we are under GRACE!” But they have a very unbiblical view of what grace is. One high profile evangelical writer writes -- [Grace] “means I'm free to choose righteousness or disobedience… Christ's blood has cleansed us from our sin, we are gloriously free - free to please Him. But we don't have to.” He goes on to say, “Life is like a menu in the Grace Restaurant. In this new establishment you are free to choose whatever you want.” (Charles R. Swindoll, The Grace Awakening; Nashville: Word Publishing, 1990)
The promoters of this “choose whatever you want” grace “cherry pick” proof texts that seem to support their idea that the grace of God allows the believer to live like he or she wants to, which in truth is “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness….” (Jude 1:4).
For the believer, God’s grace is the enablement God gives Christians to say no to sin and to make them able to live for and serve Him. It is God giving the believer the desire and power to live the Christian life and serve Him (Philippians 2:12-13; 1 Corinthians 15:10).
One verse used to support the false grace being promoted in our day is a portion of Romans 6:14 which says “for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” This is one of the passages quoted to support the anti-law, anti-standard thinking that pervades the modern church. However, they have jerked this verse completely out of context! This passage is NOT supporting the “live like you please” mentality. Let’s examine the context - Romans 6:12-18 “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”
God’s Grace gives the believer NO license to choose to live as we please! This is very clearly stated in Titus 2:11-12 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”
SALT LIGHT and TRUTH - Blogging from a Conservative Biblical Perspective
Thanks, Parson Brown. That is sure very clear.
ReplyDeleteDear God, thank you for Parson Brown and his heart to fight the good fight of faith. I pray you would strengthen him, embolden him, and empower him to continue to bring forth your Word in your power! I thank you for this man of God.
ReplyDeleteI pray that this BLOG would be used to exhort the believer to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
In Christ name,
Val Wohner
Dear Brother Brown. Thank you so much for undertaking this important issue. It is a daring thing to do.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I am seeing is effort being made to justify changing things around in worship services and other daily life matters. Often we hear that "We want to reach our generation" or some such excuse for supposedly up-dating our practices and life styles. I am moved to want to stay with tried and true pious practices of old, and I mean the old ways held up in scripture. I even find that this practice is commended of God as a proper way to decide what kind of choices should be made. An example which could be duplicated from many other places is found in 1Pe 3:5 For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: This is of course speaking of a certain issue, but the choice in deciding what is proper practice is "the manner in old times". I certainly appreciate your addressing this matter of how grace should be impacting the life and behavior of someone who chooses Christ. Years ago as a young Christian I was asked what I did for fun. The idea was that as a Christian we couldn't have any fun because we couldn't choose any of the so called pleasures of sin. I remember that I was able to remember an answer that had been a real blessing to me. I told him that I did all of the rotten things that I wanted to do, and I named some of the things that he had been talking about. I then told him that since I had really gotten to know Jesus that serving Him was so much better than any of these other things that I didn't want to do them any more.
May God bless your work.
Bill Blount