There’s not a lot for me to add to the plagiarized (well, it’s not plagiarized if I give credit to whom credit is due, right?) posting from Jay Guin except “Amen!”
I especially appreciate his definition of legalism; I think it pretty much hammers that nail down.
In Christ,
Mark
Falling from Grace: Why Legalism Can Damn
Posted: 20 Aug 2009 05:02 AM PDT by Jay Guin
While we have to accept Paul’s teaching of justification by faith on the strength of the inspiration and authority of scripture, we should pause to consider why the rule would be that adding works — any works — to faith/faithfulness as justifying the Christian creates a different gospel and causes the Christian to fall away. It’s a truly terrifying prospect that we need to reflect on in a bit more depth.
“Legalism”
When we speak of “legalism,” we don’t mean someone who insists on obedience to God’s commands. We insist on obedience to God’s commands. Rather, by “legalist” we mean someone guilty of the Galatian heresy — that is, insisting that we should add certain works to faith in Jesus as conditions for a Christian to remain saved.
Insisting on baptism is not legalism. Insisting on repentance is not legalism. Damning someone because they disagree with you over instrumental music or whether an elder may have only one child is the Galatian heresy and therefore is legalism.
The dangers of legalism
There are basically two ways that we might respond to being taught a works-based salvation. First, we can be as Martin Luther was before he discovered grace. We can very honestly examine ourselves and conclude we plainly do not merit salvation. If so, we’d live ourselves in constant fear of hellfire — a truly miserable condition. And we’ve known countless good people in the Churches of Christ in this wretched state — unable to believe that their doctrine can possibly be pure enough to be saved and so despondent at their hopelessly damned condition.
But most of us, unable to bear the thought of damnation, respond to works-based salvation by rationalizing that we aren’t as bad as the lost people who surround us, and we are actually better than most. Worse yet, we go looking for concrete evidence that we are indeed better than others. As we often can’t prove our superiority by our morality (are we really morally better than Mother Teresa? A better evangelist than Billy Graham?), we turn to doctrine and claim we in fact have an absolutely pure and perfect understanding of Scripture — at least the parts that really matter — and so we surely merit salvation (though very few would ever say it that way).
Thus, legalism leads to an arrogance that not only damns but is extraordinarily unattractive to the world around us.
Worse yet, legalism inevitably leads to the sin of division. After all, if I have to be right on every point of doctrine that could lead to sin, and if I can’t treat those who disagree with me as saved, then I soon find the church an awfully lonely place, as there will be few, if any, who completely agree with me on every single doctrine.
The divisions have often been hidden by the use of a common name, but every congregation knows the unofficial list of local Churches of Christ that don’t recognize their congregation’s salvation, that refuse cooperation, and that bitterly attack the others in their bulletins and from their pulpits. If we can’t see this as evil, then we really haven’t been reading our Bibles.
This is all in marked contrast to Jesus’ teachings on the unity of believers. In fact, just before his crucifixion, Jesus prayed for the unity of all believers –
(John 17:20-23) “My prayer is not for [my apostles]alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
One of Jesus’ reasons for desiring unity among his followers was so the world would recognize us as his followers. He knew that division and discord would only make us look foolish to those we seek to convert.
And even a slight knowledge of the history of the Churches of Christ (and many other denominations) shows that drawing salvation lines contrary to the Biblical lines of faith and penitence leads to division. The result has been an embarrassment to the body of Christ and a major impediment to evangelism.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the solution we propose is the same solution that Alexander Campbell proposed nearly 100 years ago. As he states in The Christian System,
The principle which was inscribed upon our banners when we withdrew from the ranks of the sects was, “Faith in Jesus as the true Messiah, and obedience to him as our Lawgiver and King, the ONLY TEST of Christian character, and the ONLY BOND of Christian union, communion, and co-operation, irrespective of all creeds, opinions, commandments, and traditions of men.“
Preface to First Edition (1839)(emphasis in original).
Campbell later notes the problems that arise when we try to create unity based on agreement on a system of doctrines —
To establish what is called a system of orthodox opinions as the bond of union was, in fact, offering a premium for new diversities in opinion, and for increasing, ad infinitum, opinions, sects, and divisions. And, what is worse than all, it was establishing self-love and pride as religious principles, as fundamental to salvation; for a love regulated by similarity of opinion is only a love to one’s own opinion; and all the zeal exhibited in the defense of it is but the workings of the pride of opinion.
Pride, Campbell argued, arises when we define salvation as based upon an elaborate doctrinal system.
But the grandeur, sublimity, and beauty of the foundation of hope, and of ecclesiastical or social union, established by the author and founder of Christianity consisted in this, — that THE BELIEF OF ONE FACT, and that upon the best evidence in the world, is all that is requisite, as far as faith goes, to salvation. The belief of this ONE FACT, and submission to ONE INSTITUTION expressive of it, is all that is required of Heaven to admission into the church. A Christian … is one that believes this one fact, and has submitted to one institution, and whose deportment accords with the morality and virtue of the great Prophet. The one fact is expressed in a single proposition – that Jesus the Nazarene is the Messiah.
The Christian System, pages 125-126 (emphasis in original).
Falling from Grace: Seeking to be Justified Other Than by Faith
Posted: 20 Aug 2009 05:00 AM PDT by Jay Guin
We’ve gone halfway around the world to make a point.
You see, being penitent and being led by the Spirit all lead to the same place — a devout life of love and fruits of the Spirit. It all ties together in a perfect, beautiful unity.
But there is a very real concern here. Paul says that if you add any law to the gospel as a condition to salvation, then you’ve made yourself accountable for every law as a condition to salvation, and thereby you’ve fallen from grace. Thus, there’s no apostasy in insisting on worshipping a cappella or insisting that instrumental music is acceptable. But declaring that all who worship with an instrument are outside the church and therefore damned may well cause one to fall away. That’s not to say that there is no error possible on the instrumental music issue; only that the error does not cause one to lose his soul — provided he continues in his faith and faithfulness/penitence.
Understand that being wrong and being lost are two very different things, and we sometimes get them confused. If being wrong damns, then there is no grace and Christ died for nothing.
You see, in teaching that certain doctrines other than the gospel are essential to salvation, we’re effectively saying that to be saved, you not only must hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized, you must also join a congregation with a scriptural name, with a scriptural organization, and with a scriptural pattern of worship. Thus, if your home church has an elder who might not be properly qualified, or your church does something in worship that might lack authorization, you must change congregations or else lose your soul! I know Christians who have left their local congregation and take communion weekly at home rather than risk damnation by joining an unscriptural Church of Christ.
I fail to see how insisting on these rules as conditions to salvation is any different from insisting on circumcision as a condition to salvation. Either way, you’re insisting on obedience to a law in addition to the gospel. The gospel is meant to take us away from legalism, and the imposition of any rule as a requirement for salvation—even a single morally neutral rule—beyond the gospel is a return to legalism and damnation.
As the Churches of Christ have more than amply proven, legalism breeds division and bitterness. Which of all the divisions we’ve suffered has ever been fully healed? Which fight proved to be worth the cost? What verse in Scripture more pointedly speaks to the Churches of Christ than Galatians 5:15?
If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
Does this mean that most members of the Churches of Christ are lost? It’s a fair question. And it’s not inconsistent for me to question the salvation of those who’ve added to the gospel while I simultaneously urge us not to condemn one another over the many issues that divide us. After all, Paul is quite plain in declaring that adding to the gospel makes the gospel “no gospel at all” and that his readers have “fallen from grace” and have been “alienated from Christ.”
But nowhere does Scripture deny salvation to those who worship with an instrument, or speak in tongues, or create a missionary society. Even if such actions are unauthorized, it’s an impermissible leap to go from “unauthorized” to “damned.” We should be silent where the Scriptures are silent.
Fortunately, Galatians does admit of a different interpretation. For example, in Galatians 3:26-27, Paul declares that his readers are “all sons of God.” In several verses, he calls his readers “brothers.”
Paul does not consider his readers lost—yet—but urges them with the strongest words and greatest passion possible to turn from an extraordinarily dangerous path.
But Paul squarely condemns the false teachers. Perhaps the key verses are —
(Gal. 1:8) But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
(Gal 5:10) I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be.
And Paul declares that his readers are in real jeopardy of hellfire if they don’t turn away from this error—
(Gal. 5:2) Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.
(Gal. 5:15) If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
Nowhere else does Paul write with such fervor, with such urgency, with such fear for his readers’ souls.
I am not qualified to judge the fate of those among us who teach modern equivalents of circumcision, and less so to judge those who’ve been deceived by such teachers. I only know that having become aware of the problem, I must speak out and call for repentance—urgently—desperately, out of love, not condemnation—out of concern for souls.
It is not enough to be less legalistic than the church down the road. It’s not enough to be less legalistic than you used to be. There is only one gospel, and it won’t admit of any additions at all. Nothing is required to be saved or to stay saved other than the gospel. Those who teach otherwise have been cursed by Paul in the most unambiguous terms. I pray daily for the souls of my brothers and sisters in the Churches of Christ.
Please, let’s stop biting and devouring each other and learn to accept one another just as Jesus accepted us.