How is the Gospel different than both Legalism and Liberalism?
32They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. 1You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.
21So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 1Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?
Romans 1:32-2:1; 5:21-6:1 (NLT)
This is a good place to review so I used the NLT translation to make it easier to understand. In Romans 1:32 Paul concludes his indictment against the immoral pagans, then in Romans 2:1 he also turns against the moral religious Jews. Today we also have Liberalism and Legalism. As you remember from the last discussion on the word “might” in most other more literal translations of Romans 5:21 last week, Paul doesn’t want the church to go from Legalism to Liberalism in Romans 6:1
The early church leader Tertullian once said that the important idea of being made right with God is often misunderstood in two opposite ways, just like Jesus being crucified between two thieves. The good news of the gospel holds two truths together:
- God is holy, so our sins must be punished. The gospel tells us we are more sinful than we thought. Forgetting this can lead to living however we want without consequences.
- God is love, so Jesus took care of our sins. The gospel tells us we are more accepted by God because of Jesus than we ever hoped. Forgetting this can lead to trying to earn God’s love by following rules.
If we forget one of these truths, we miss out on the joy and freedom the gospel brings. If we don’t realize how sinful we are, Jesus’ sacrifice doesn’t seem very important. But if we don’t understand that Jesus fully paid for our sins, we would be crushed by guilt or pretend we’re not sinful.
The gospel helps us accept both how sinful we are and how much God loves us because of Jesus. That’s what changes our hearts and lives. Here is the summary of how the Gospel is different than both Legalism and Liberalism:
| Legalism | Gospel | Liberalism |
| God is holy | God is holy and love | God is love |
| Earn your own righteousness | Receive God’s perfect righteousness | You don’t need perfect righteousness |
| Matter is bad and we are fallen—be suspicious of or reject physical pleasure (asceticism) | Matter is good yet we are fallen—physical enjoyment is good, but live wisely | Matter is good and we aren’t fallen—satisfy your physical appetites |
| Sin only affects individuals—just do evangelism | Sin affects both individuals and social systems—do both evangelism and social action | Naive about depth of human sin—just do social action |
| People can’t change (or) change is easy | People can change, but there are no quick fixes | People don’t need to change |
| Go into guilt—work it off | Go through guilt—rest in Christ | Go away from guilt—convince yourself you’re OK |
| Repent of sins | Repent of sins and self-righteousness | Repent of neither |
What do you think about the chart above? Which tendencies are you prone to fall into? Do you find yourself flip-flopping between the two extremes?
[The ideas for this week’s materials on Romans 5:12-21 were drawn from Tim Keller’s book “Romans 1-7 for You“]
I found the chart in today’s devotional to be quite helpful in determining where my tendencies lie between the two extremes of legalism and liberalism. I wouldn’t say that I find myself flip-flopping between the two extremes, but I certainly need to constantly reorient and adjust my thinking back to the gospel as I begin leaning too far to one side or the other. One of the items on the chart that resonated with me in regards to a situation I’m going through right now is the gospel truth that people can change, but there are no quick fixes. This resonates with me in regards to the way I think about myself as well as in dealing with others. I am often torn between feeling hopeless about the possibility of overcoming deep-seated sin, and, on the flip-side, being naive to the fact that sin does not die easy and having a premature, false hope that leads to a lack of vigilance. The gospel claims that people can (and do) change, but there are no quick fixes. I would even add that many times, there are periods in which we will falter, and fall back into sin even harder and worse than ever before, but this doesn’t mean that God is not working in us. In regards to obtaining sobriety, the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous says, “there is a long period of reconstruction ahead.” I would say that this applies to our dealings with any life-dominating sin, and this has helped me to remain hopeful, on the one side, that people can and do change, and realistic, on the other, that heart transformation takes time and work, and is not always so easily seen.
I don’t think I flip-flop between the two tendencies. Rather I started out legalistic and slowly come to an understanding of the Gospel but am guilt ridden and tend to fall back to legalism if I’m not careful to check myself.
I realized that no matter how hard I try I cannot succeed even to uphold my own standard not to mention God’s standard. Without God’s grace I have no hope! So at this point, accepting God’s mercy and grace is my only option – selfish desperation still 🙁 just so sad that my heart isn’t so pure, so I’m forced into the only option available to me and I wonder if there was any other path would I still lean toward self reliant? This is just the lack of faith in me. I still do not have a strong enough faith and a good enough opinion of myself. I still wonder how God could possibly love me as bad as I am. You see? I still lean toward “self” not God. I know that’s not right thinking – intellectually I know this – but if I reflect on my own heart and I am being honest with myself, I still have a hard time believing that His infinitely love would indeed cover all of us.
This is what I need to work on but I am getting better in that I KNOW that God hasn’t given up on me and He is still working to reveal His nature to me so that I would come to have this level of faith – without doubt and ultimately that I could see that God could indeed love a wretch like me – even if I can’t even love and forgive my own base nature!