Am I A Legalist?

Like bad breath, legalism has a way of being obvious to everyone but the person guilty of it. Self-deception blinds us to its presence in our lives. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in Jesus’ dealings with the Pharisees in the twelfth chapter of Matthew. As a reader, we observe so clearly the ugliness and absurdity of self-righteousness and legalism. It astounds and offends us, yet the Pharisees were so oblivious to it.

We, too, can be blind to this tendency in our own hearts towards legalism. We can trick ourselves into thinking our slavish rule-following makes us more spiritual. We can convince ourselves that our condescension towards those who live differently than us is right, good, and even godly.

Legalism is not about “rules” per se. It is much deeper than that. It is about our orientation towards God and how we relate to Him. Legalism is relating to God as though our forgiveness from Him and acceptance by Him is dependent on our obedience to Him (adapted from The Cross-Centered Life by C. J. Mahaney, p. 25). It is the lie that says God’s pleasure and joy in me is dependent on my behavior or external conformity to some code of conduct.

There is nothing wrong with discipline or rules for yourself and your family. Because someone lives life according to strict standards, even extra-biblical ones, does not mean they are a legalist. Making decisions to abstain from alcohol, television, or work on Sundays does not make someone a “Pharisee.” Legalism has to do with our attitude towards God and others. Are we obeying man-made rules or abstaining from certain things because we think that we are earning God’s approval by doing so? Or do we expect others to share our convictions and live accordingly? If they don’t, they must not be godly.

Because self-righteousness and true righteousness often look similar on the outside, it is important to ask God to expose ways in which we internally manifest legalistic tendencies. Use this list of questions as a tool to help you see where the “little Pharisee inside you” is making himself comfortable. This is a self-test I shared last Sunday night to see what ways self-righteousness manifests itself in our lives.

1. Do I have theological, ethical, or moral positions that I adamantly defend based on my personal definition of godliness, but cannot justify from the Scriptures? Have I attempted to turn a family tradition, schooling option, diet choice, or lifestyle decision into the 11th commandment?
2. Am I more than happy to fill in the gaps for people when the Scriptures do not provide enough detail regarding certain Christian behaviors? I reason, "If you’re not sure about the correctness of some non-biblical issue, just ask me. I can tell you the mind of God on that.”
3. Do I find myself, because of my commitment to my preferences, separating from other believers who have committed no sin before God, but have violated my own conscience or convictions? Have I formed a clique of people who share my commitment to some personal standard? Do I only spend time with people who are like me?
4. Do I have a vast knowledge of Scripture (even memorization) and yet don’t give much serious thought to what the text actually MEANS? Am I an expert on the Bible who is not changed by the Bible (much like the Pharisees)?
5. Am I more concerned about what people think than what God thinks? Do I fear man more than God? Is my standard of righteousness horizontal rather than vertical?
6. Am I known by people for what I am against rather than for what I am for or Who I serve? Is what sets me apart and makes me distinct the rules that I live by? Or is it my love for and devotion to Christ?
7. Do I continue to do things which have long-since lost their meaning in my life simply because I am afraid that to do otherwise would be wrong? For example, do I think that the ONLY acceptable time to have your daily devotions is early in the morning?
8. Do I struggle with assurance of salvation because I think that salvation depends on how good I am at any given time? Does my poor spiritual performance cause me to question how God thinks about me? Do I feel that God is angry with me when I fail? Or does my “good” performance make me feel good about God’s estimation of me?
9. Do I live a secret life? Am I really quite different from the shell of piety everyone else sees? Inside I struggle with sin and am unable to gain victory over it because I am unwilling to admit to people that I’m not as good as people think I am.
10. Do I find that people don’t ever come to me for help or advice? Does my pursuit to appear to “have my act together” repel those who are struggling with real sin issues? When people do come to me for counsel, is my standard answer for every problem that they simply need to work harder?
11. Do I find it difficult to fellowship with other Christians? Is it hard for me to hang around people who are “rough around the edges”? Or will people not come around me for fear of condemnation or at least condescension?
12. Am I unable to worship in certain contexts because things don’t happen as I prefer them to happen? Can I “not worship” because of a certain music style, volume level, or preaching style?
13. If a person’s expression of reverence and worship looks different than mine or doesn’t match up to my standard, do I immediately react by questioning their devotion to God? “That person raising their hands and swaying is trying to draw attention to herself.” Or, “That man can’t be truly worshipping God. He’s just sitting there mouthing the words to the songs.”
14. Am I excellent at pointing out the errors in others but clueless about my own faults? If I was asked to name my top 3 weaknesses in 10 seconds, I couldn’t do it. But if you asked me to name someone else’s top 3 sins in 5 seconds, I could do.

If you answered “yes” to every one of these questions, then there is a serious problem. But if you answered “no” to every question, there is an even bigger problem. You are more self-deceived than you could ever imagine. Most of us probably fall in the middle somewhere. As you are exposed to areas in your life where self-righteousness and legalism have taken root, attack them violently with the gospel. Study, memorize, rehearse, and sing the good news of God’s salvation through faith in Christ’s finished work to damage and destroy those legalistic tendencies in your heart. Indeed, “We all have a little Pharisee inside each one of us.” But let’s starve and work to kill that “little Pharisee” with the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ!

Justin Culbertson
Berachah Bible Church

Spiritual Disciplines for the Overwhelmed

“A book is an axe that breaks the frozen seas within.” One of those axes that has profited me immensely in recent days is Simplify Your Spiritual Life by Don Whitney. As you may remember, Dr. Whitney was our “One Conference” speaker this past April. This “little-big” book (200 pages, 91 chapters) will stir your thinking in more ways than you can shake a stick at. I took a chapter a day the first thing in the morning. In this way it served to give me some fresh ideas that could immediately be implemented in my Bible reading and prayer time. For example, in the chapter, “Meditate and Apply,” a useful series of questions are presented in response to the admonition, “When you encounter Scripture, search for at least one application of it.” Great profit was also gained from the chapter, “Ask the Joseph Hall Questions.” Use its advice and become more meaningfully engaged in your daily Bible reading.

Don’t be confused by the word “Simplify” in the book’s title. This is not a book about shortcuts to maturity in Christ. The explanation of four misconceptions will keep your spiritual tires from running off the road (pp. 39-40). In a day when spirituality has been stripped of its biblical meaning, the chapter, “Embracing a Trinitarian Spirituality,” makes the necessary correction and reminder that, “True spirituality, in contrast to the popular, self-defined spirituality of today, is above all a God-centered spirituality. Any spirituality without God is just self-worship by another name.”

If you are intimidated by the thought of journaling, Whitney offers some excellent suggestions in his collection of chapters, “Simplifying and Your Journal.” A modest amount of journaling can, in the author’s words, assist “in creating and preserving a spiritual heritage, in clarifying and articulating insights and impressions, in monitoring goals and priorities, and in maintaining the other spiritual disciplines” (p. 95).

Other life altering bits of wisdom are in such chapters as “Read One Page Per Day,” “Pray Through Today’s Plans,” “Avoid Spiritual Anesthesia,” “Learn to be Content with Christ,” “Remove One, Organize One Thing.” If you think you have stagnated in your service for God, follow the counsel that says, “Even if you aren’t sure which spiritual gift you have, concentrate the bulk of your ministry time in areas where you think your heart and abilities best belong.”Simplifying Your Spiritual Life lends itself not only to private devotional reading, but would also serve well in a group discussion. No matter how it is incorporated into your life it offers “spiritual disciplines for the overwhelmed.”

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

An Open Letter to My Nieces and Nephews

The following paragraph is an excerpt from a recent weekly update that my wife’s sister and her husband sent as missionaries serving in South Asia. Their children (ages 9, 7, 5, 4, and 1) are already learning of the offense of the gospel (1 Cor. 1:23) and that those “who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12).

“While playing the other day, one of our kids accidently stepped on one of the local kids’ chalk drawing of one of their religions’ gods. The kids apparently tried to tell them that Jesus Christ was the one true God - and that didn’t help! And then their friends got offended, and all of a sudden it seemed to turn into a small free-for-all against the little light-skinned foreigners and their ‘religion.’ Some strong words were hurled. One of our kids got slapped. Another one’s arm twisted. After they came in from playing and told Mommy about it, one thing they kept saying was, ‘We were only trying to tell them the truth!’ It was a dose of reality, but still hard for the younger ones to understand why others don’t care about Jesus Christ.”

I did not want to waste this wonderful opportunity to encourage these precious children and plant the seed in their hearts of the unmatched worth of Jesus Christ. I know they won’t fully understand what I have written, but I pray that their little minds will latch on to one or two promises and that their parents will find comfort and joy in their service to the Lord. Below is my encouragement to them:

To my much-loved nieces and nephews,

I read this week’s update with a heavy heart but also with great delight. To hear about bruises, scratches, and ouches on those I love naturally concerns me. But your stand for the truth fills my soul with joy to know that you are confessing Jesus before the kids (friends and foes) in your neighborhood. Jesus said, “Everyone who confesses Me before men (or women or children), I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven” (Mat. 10:32).

I have been studying and preaching through the gospel of Matthew at our church in Georgia. In Matthew 10, before He sends the apostles out as missionaries, Jesus explains to them what it means to be a disciple of His. He tells them that following Him will not be easy. It will even be very painful at times. Some of those difficulties and costs include: (1) being attacked by people (v. 16-18); (2) being betrayed by family members (v. 21)—I thank God that your mommy and daddy love Jesus too, but as you are no doubt learning, there are some children who are rejected by their parents for following Jesus; (3) being hated because of Jesus’ name (v. 22); (4) being forced to move because of persecution (v. 23); (5) being called names and mocked (v. 25); (6) being hurt and even killed (v. 28).

But Jesus also gives comforting words of encouragement to these missionaries. Every Christian can know and experience these blessings in some measure, but frontier missionaries realize these promises in deeper and fuller ways. These pleasures include: (1) Knowing that you are sent by Jesus (v. 16); being able to give testimony of Christ through your sufferings (v. 17-18); (3) being given the right words by the Holy Spirit when you don’t know what to say (v. 19-20); (4) experiencing God’s fatherly care (v. 20); (5) enjoying heaven at the end of it all (v. 22); (6) seeing firsthand, the gospel spread like wildfire (v. 23a); (7) knowing that you are part of Jesus’ family (v. 25); (8) being assured that the truth will win in the end—that truth that you were so bold to proclaim - “Jesus is the one true God” (v. 26-27); (9) knowing that all people can do is hurt your body—they can’t touch your soul (v. 28); and (10) having confidence that you are valued by God (v. 31).

Even numerically, the pleasures of following Jesus as missionaries beat out the pains (10-6). But this is not a mathematical formula. The blessings don’t just slightly edge out the costs. The joys of following Jesus are immeasurably greater and will last for eternity. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great” (Mat. 5:11-12).

I know this recent incident is rather small in the grand scheme of the gospel’s advance and the persecution of the church, but I pray that God will use it (and others that may come) to make deep impressions on your hearts—that Jesus is more valuable than anything. More than popularity, more than money, more than safety, even more than family; Jesus is worth more than anything. I pray for you kids often. I certainly pray for your safety and protection, but much more than that, I pray that you will be faithful, compassionate, bold, humble, passionate, and Truth-filled lovers, followers, and proclaimers of Jesus. I know there will be times when you are afraid, but when those fears come, cling to Jesus and say, “When I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?” (Ps. 56:3-4).

There may be people who think your mommy and daddy are crazy or even cruel for taking you kids out of America and into an “unsafe” place. But I thank God for your parents’ willingness to “go” and their desire to see Jesus’ proclaimed where He is not yet named. They have counted the cost and are faithfully following their Lord and Savior. Their work (and yours) is an honorable one for the sake of the Kingdom.

I hold each of you very close to my heart and I hold you up in prayer to the Father who cares deeply for you. Thank you for encouraging me by standing up for Jesus in your neighborhood. May God use each one of you to “shake the gates of hell” through the progress of the gospel in South Asia!

With much love,

Your Proud Uncle Justin

“Give me one hundred men (or, ‘5 nieces and nephews’) who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God . . . and they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon the earth.” (John Wesley)

Justin Culbertson
Berachah Bible Church

A Refuge in Deception

Imagine taking refuge in a cardboard box for protection from a category five hurricane. That would be beyond the pale of good sense. The drama of human history is an unending lesson in the folly of self-deception. Human beings have a seemingly incurable penchant to believe their own lies. Ancient Israel is one sad example of this. God had given to His covenant people the promise that He would protect them from predator nations. The one stipulation was that Israel was to obey His commandments. It was not that complicated. Trust God. Don’t put confidence in the power of other nations to do what only God can do. Did Israel listen? No. Instead she formed an alliance with Egypt to protect her from a powerful and dangerous Assyria to her north. This was a futile exercise in seeking refuge in a deception. Israel became intoxicated with the prospects of Egypt’s military might. It was an exercise in seeking refuge in a cardboard box of self-deception. This is folly of the highest order for several reasons.

The prophet Isaiah exposed Israel’s political diplomacy for what it was, namely, unbelieving self-confidence. In the first place it was an attempt to create policies contrary to reality. Secondly, it was a doomed effort to build a security system out of human values. And, thirdly, this support system was a house of cards. Edward J. Young describes it this way; “They (Israel) were skillful in deceit and treachery of all sorts, the art of dissimulation and secret intrigue and anything else that belonged to the methods of false diplomacy and common politics.” For it was Isaiah who said, “we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter” (Isa. 28:15). The witness nation was living in a cardboard box of a false sense of security. How easily we can do this.

One of those cardboard boxes of self-deception is the popular lie that a God of love would not send anyone to hell. Fallen human beings distain the idea of divine judgment and will believe anything that provides avoidance of it. The doctrine of hell is offensive to modern minds and is not allowed into any thoughts about life after death. As a result gods are constructed who will accommodate truth-dodgers. But one truth unrelentingly towers above the little thoughts of self-deceived sinners. Jesus will not let us off the hook. He said, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (Jn. 3:18). The cardboard box of a God of love without wrath is incinerated in the presence of the blazing holiness of an all-powerful God. The only safe place is in Jesus Christ, who because of God’s matchless love was delivered up to death for us all. He is the only place of refuge when the howling winds of God’s wrath blow at the last judgment.

God is not a malleable being who can be shaped to suit our own desires and interests. In his book, Ten Lies About God, Erwin Lutzer, pastor of the Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, has identified a variety of ways in which people make God whatever they want Him to be. One of these card-board box gods is “the God of my health and wealth.” Some Christians find this god to be quite attractive. He bears a striking resemblance to the consumerism and entitlement mentality of Western civilization. Lutzer appropriately says, “How can we believe in such a God when Jesus said, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matt. 8:20)?

Another god in this pantheon of idols is the “God of my emotional need.” This god has a large following in our therapeutic culture. One of these self-constructed deities makes much of us, is there for us, and views sin as simply a lack of self-esteem. How convenient, a god who “exists to give me the unconditional acceptance I deserve.” There is much talk in our day about “unconditional love.” There is certainly a sense in which God sets His love upon His elect in a way that He does not upon others (Eph. 5:25). But in the words of Don Carson (The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God), “God’s discipline of his children means that he may turn upon us with the divine equivalent of the ‘wrath’ of a parent on a wayward teenager. Indeed, to cite the cliché ‘God’s love is unconditional’ to a Christian who is drifting toward sin may convey the wrong impression and do a lot of damage.”

God is love. But we must not attempt to refashion this precious truth into an image that suits our interests and imagination, as seems to have been done in William Young’s best seller, The Shack. A lesser god is one who is the creation of a finite mind. The God of the Bible is revealed in all His perfections. He is the one who is of infinite worth. When the storms of life come at us in all their ferocity, will your confidence be in a cardboard box or in the “God who is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psa. 46:1)?

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church