LIBERTY AND LEGALISM
There is always a raging controversy in the churches between the saved and the unsaved over the definitions of "Christian liberty" and "legalism". I have found, in my experience, that legalism is the term thrown around by people who want to derive every aspect of their Christian worldview and theology from a completely individualistic standpoint. In short, these people are willing to deny the historical tenets of the Reformation, the sound and altogether Biblical teaching that has maintained the integrity of the pulpit ministry and evangelistic efforts for centuries. They are willing to dispose of any sense of debt to those Christians of times past who have been instruments of God used to formulate our right understanding of God's truth. All this they are eager to undertake in order that their compromised lifestyles of conformity to secular, unregenerate, humanistic culture might be seen as normative rather than as aberrant and abhorrent. The term "legalism" gets used by these people as a perjorative in identifying those within the churches who strive daily to maintain a proper attitude towards the world and its ways. "Liberty" is their battle cry; a liberty to indulge in whatsoever they feel is "not a conviction" of their hearts. Never mind that our hearts are "desperately wicked" according to the Word of God.
Liberty, understood in its proper Biblical context, is NOT a license to commit sin. Liberty is first a setting free FROM something, namely, the condition of being damnably lost in sin and under the wrath of a holy God. Paul asks us this: "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" He is making the case that if we have truly been born again from above by the good pleasure of God's sovereign will, we should see sinful compromise with the world, the flesh and the devil as the bondage we were once under. It should cause us to tremble that we might ever be tempted to return to that bondage. The FRUIT of a tree says to the world what the tree is; if we are found still playing with sin as though it were not so totally abominable in God's holy sight that death and hell are its recompense, what does the fruit of our lives say to us, to the world and to God about what kind of tree we are? May God in His mercy grant us the grace to see sin as hateful and disgusting and to flee any notion of "liberty" that would act as some permission to return to mud or vomit as our delight.
God, all-holy and righteous King, we petition Thy throne who have received Thy gracious clemency. Help us, Father, by Thy Spirit's enabling power, to hide ourselves in the shadow of the Almighty and never to run after the corruption that is satisfaction of our flesh. Unworthy as we are, Thou hast granted unto us repentance unto life; may we always be humbled at the thought that Thou hast not left us to die in sin and sure damnation. These things we ask for the sake of Christ and for Thy glory alone. Amen.
There is always a raging controversy in the churches between the saved and the unsaved over the definitions of "Christian liberty" and "legalism". I have found, in my experience, that legalism is the term thrown around by people who want to derive every aspect of their Christian worldview and theology from a completely individualistic standpoint. In short, these people are willing to deny the historical tenets of the Reformation, the sound and altogether Biblical teaching that has maintained the integrity of the pulpit ministry and evangelistic efforts for centuries. They are willing to dispose of any sense of debt to those Christians of times past who have been instruments of God used to formulate our right understanding of God's truth. All this they are eager to undertake in order that their compromised lifestyles of conformity to secular, unregenerate, humanistic culture might be seen as normative rather than as aberrant and abhorrent. The term "legalism" gets used by these people as a perjorative in identifying those within the churches who strive daily to maintain a proper attitude towards the world and its ways. "Liberty" is their battle cry; a liberty to indulge in whatsoever they feel is "not a conviction" of their hearts. Never mind that our hearts are "desperately wicked" according to the Word of God.
Liberty, understood in its proper Biblical context, is NOT a license to commit sin. Liberty is first a setting free FROM something, namely, the condition of being damnably lost in sin and under the wrath of a holy God. Paul asks us this: "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" He is making the case that if we have truly been born again from above by the good pleasure of God's sovereign will, we should see sinful compromise with the world, the flesh and the devil as the bondage we were once under. It should cause us to tremble that we might ever be tempted to return to that bondage. The FRUIT of a tree says to the world what the tree is; if we are found still playing with sin as though it were not so totally abominable in God's holy sight that death and hell are its recompense, what does the fruit of our lives say to us, to the world and to God about what kind of tree we are? May God in His mercy grant us the grace to see sin as hateful and disgusting and to flee any notion of "liberty" that would act as some permission to return to mud or vomit as our delight.
God, all-holy and righteous King, we petition Thy throne who have received Thy gracious clemency. Help us, Father, by Thy Spirit's enabling power, to hide ourselves in the shadow of the Almighty and never to run after the corruption that is satisfaction of our flesh. Unworthy as we are, Thou hast granted unto us repentance unto life; may we always be humbled at the thought that Thou hast not left us to die in sin and sure damnation. These things we ask for the sake of Christ and for Thy glory alone. Amen.
posted by SFB at 9:58 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home