The Sin of Legalism

Romans 2:25-29

Romans 2:29 "But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God."

Yesterday we talked about hypocrisy, and how oftentimes we say one thing yet do another. Although hypocrisy is a great and evil sin, it has an even more evil brother named legalism. Let us look at him today, that we might be aware of his evil schemes.

Dictionary.com [by the way, what ever happened to Webster?] defines legalism as "strict adherence...to law or prescription, especially to the letter rather than the spirit." At a base level, this is what legalism is. Legalism is truly an inward hypocrisy. Wheras normal hypocrisy seeks to tell others what is right while not committing the same right action, legalism seeks to do what is right for all of the wrong reasons. Legalism does the law, not because it seeks to please the lawgiver, but because it seeks to please man (see the end of Romans 2:29). Legalism obeys the law outwardly, yet not inwardly.

What about us? How often do we seek to obey the law, not to impress God, but to impress man? Every time we do so, legalism starts within our hearts. Certainly this is what Paul was describing the Jews as in Romans 2. The Jews were doing what was right on the outside by getting circumsized, but they were doing it for all of the wrong reasons. They were doing it in order to proclaim to their fellow man how righteous they were, not to be obedient to the God who saved them. You see it now? Not only were the Jews hypocrites, but they were legalists. They obeyed the law in order to gain the favor of man. While they did the law on the outside, they did not do the law in the inside...

...so here's the question: did the Jews really obey the law at all? In otherwords, is legalism righteous? Certainly not. "But a Jew [or a true Christian, in other words] is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter." The one who obeys the law for the wrong motive is no better off than one who does not obey the law at all, as is easily seen here in Romans 2:25-29. From Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, God is concerned first and foremost about the intentions of the heart and secondly the actions of the hands. For "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45) and "man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).

So yesterday's realization is that we are all, at least in some part, hypocrites. Today, we have another realization: we are all, at least in some part, legalists. We all, in our own sin and pride, desire to obey the law for the wrong motives. We all, at least in some part and in some way, seek the praise of men over the praise of God; we thus are legalists. So, where is your legalism? Where do you obey the letter of the law for the praise of men, instead of for the glory of God?