On Wed, 06-8-05 2:23 pm
Well, how would you define it? Strip away the jargon and imagine you’re explaining it to a new believer or to someone who’s asking you about Christianity and grace.
2 Cor 1:13
On Wed, 06-8-05 2:23 pm
Well, how would you define it? Strip away the jargon and imagine you’re explaining it to a new believer or to someone who’s asking you about Christianity and grace.
Mike, it’s good to see your posts again. However, there’s still something wrong. If I delete all of the URL for a post (which I get from Bloglines) except for the http://eternalperspectives.com/, instead of the main page of your blog, I get a page which says, to start with “There is no website configured at this address.” The same happens with clicking on the home link. As a result, I don’t see your blogroll, or your list of recent posts. If it matters, I’m using Firefox under Windows.
I’m going to speak like I’m talking to a newly converted kid.
Legalism is when someone takes many things in the Bible, things that there’s sometimes not even a commandment about, and makes you have to follow them or else God will punish you. God wants you to serve him in love…not out of law. So you read the Bible to find out what He enjoys, and you keep doing exactly what God enjoys not because I told you but because you love God.
Luke 11v46: Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
Of course, neither could they carry them themselves. Leaglism ’snatches death from the jaws of life’.
Rob
Legalism is thinking we’ll be saved for what we do right instead of what God has done for us.
Gothardisim.
{{{Candleman}}}
For a new believer, I’d say there are a couple variations of legalism.
One is when people try to get in good with God by what they do. (Justification by works.)
Another is when people focus on the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law. Basically, that’s when we focus on a list of do’s and don’ts rather than looking at the underlying reasons/issues.
Not with a new believer, but withsome more exposed to American Christianity, I might sarcastically comment that the third variation known as legalism goes like this:
If you don’t like a stance someone else takes regarding holy living, no matter how much they base it on spirit rather the letter and back it up with Scripture–if you don’t like it, you call them a legalist.