The Death of Legalism
Romans 10
May 17, 2009
Legalism is an attitude, a mentality based on pride. It is an obsessive conformity to an artificial standard for the purpose of exalting oneself. A legalist assumes the place of authority and pushes it to unwarranted extremes. In so many words, legalism says, “I do this or I don’t do that, and therefore I am pleasing God.” Or, “If only I could do this or not do that, I would be pleasing to God.” Or perhaps, “These things that I’m doing or not doing are the things I perform to win God’s favor.” They aren’t spelled out in Scripture, you understand. They’ve been passed down or they have been dictated to the legalist and have become an obsession to him or her. Legalism is rigid, grim, exacting, and lawlike in nature. Pride, which is at the heart of legalism, works in sync with other motivating factors. Like guilt. And fear. And shame. It leads to an emphasis on what one should not be and what one should not do. It flourishes in a drab context of negativism. Chuck Swindoll
Romans 9 dealt with salvation from the perspective of God’s work in mercifully saving people who do not deserve salvation; in chapter 10 we see salvation from the other angle, that of people believing as the gospel is proclaimed, the necessity of the human response of faith.
I. Israel’s Futile Attempt: Legalism – :1-4
Paul commends his people, the Jews, for their zeal, because rightly directed, zeal is a good thing. Jesus had a zeal for the things of God as evidenced by His vigorous cleansing of the temple, throwing out those who viewed the worship of God as a way to make a quick and prosperous buck. We value sincerity, and rightly so. We value passion, effort, and genuine commitment, as over against mediocrity, hypocrisy, and half-heartedness. That said, we must acknowledge that a person can be sincere, yet sincerely wrong; passionate, yet passionate about worthless pursuits, committed, yet committed to a futile cause. Paul tells us that mere zeal isn’t sufficient. Zeal without knowledge isn’t good (Proverbs 19:2).
Israel’s lack of knowledge involved their refusal to submit to God’s way of righteousness, instead attempting to establish their own goodness as the basis for God’s approval. This is a classic case of legalism, the doing of stuff—or the refraining from the doing of stuff—in order to attempt to prove oneself worthy of God. It’s an insidious thing, and it can creep so easily into our thinking and living. Some questions to root it out in our own lives:
• Deep down, do you ever think, “I’m a pretty good person be
• cause I…and God will be pleased with me because I…”?
• Do you ever slip into thinking, “God’s going to ‘get me’ for that one”?
• Do you engage in “Christian practices” out of a sense of obligation, so you can check off some mental list that you believe will keep God happy with you?
• Do you view living as a Christian as an exercise in simply “trying harder” to work on your deficiencies?
These are signs that legalism has taken root in your life, and may I gently urge you to consider Jesus, to remember Jesus, His life—and death—for you!
Paul could understand exactly what his fellow Jews were trying to do, because he’d attempted to do the same. In Philippians 3, he describes his former life as an observant Jew, and claims that he possessed a “righteousness of (his) own that comes from the law”. He thought that the scrupulous obeying of the law of God would stand him in good stead…but the fact is that the best of men are men at best, that the most faithful of Jews to keep the law nonetheless fell short of God’s perfect standard—as do legalists today.
And so I urge, remember Jesus! Remember that it’s all about Him! Remember that He died for you so that you can live, and that you have no reason to try harder or work more or prove anything to yourself or anybody else or especially to God. Remember that you are free to live!
Christ is the “end of the law”, Paul says, which isn’t to suggest that God no longer cares about how we live, but rather that Christ’s coming marks a decisive shift in God’s dealings with man; Christ opens a new phase in salvation history wherein God offers to Gentiles alike a right relationship to Himself through faith in Christ. Faith, without respect to ethnicity or heritage, is the deciding factor.
II. God’s Final Answer: Jesus – :5-13
Moses – “The man who does these things will live by them” (Leviticus 18:5). “Righteousness” based upon the law is by definition a “righteousness” that is based upon doing, because “doing” is what the law is all about. Paul answers that no one has ever succeeded in obeying the law. All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, he says in Romans 3. Because we disobey the law, the law doesn’t bring us life, but rather a curse. Christ met the standard and secured the Father’s approval. As we identify with Christ through faith, we are placed into God’s family, and secure eternal life with the Father.
:9-10 – The “word of faith” (the message which requires the response of faith) which Paul and his contemporaries are proclaiming is near, as simple, if you will, as heart belief and outward confession. These two go together, for outward profession alone is mere nominalism, applying the term “Christian” to oneself without having any real interest in submitting to the Lordship of Jesus. Conversely, heart belief might well be spurious if not accompanied by an outward confession. In the New Testament, such an outward “profession of faith” was always accompanied by baptism; this was the normative step for new believers, and if you’ve never undergone baptism as a follower of Christ, I’d certainly and strongly encourage that.
In all of these things, we see that Paul’s emphasis here is upon the ready accessibility of the gospel of grace in Christ. And this is the emphasis of :11-13.
• :11 – “Anyone”
• :12 – “No difference between Jew and Gentile”
• :13 – “Everyone”
What is necessary for salvation?
• The body of truth centering on the historic work of Jesus Christ
• The gospel message
• Simple trust on the part of the hearers
Next, Paul tackles what is necessary for the gospel to go forward:
III. The Gospel’s Forward Advance: Evangelism – :14-17
Paul gives a logical sequence of events that must take place for the advancement of the gospel:
• Christ sends heralds
• Heralds proclaim
• People hear
• Hearers believe
• Believers call
• Those who call are saved
How will “they”…? “They” has been identified by some as pertaining to Israel, and of course there is much truth to this: this is Paul’s emphasis here, and Israel has largely rejected Christ. But the truth extends farther than a mere reference to the nation of Israel, for what is written goes to mankind’s lot as a whole. Every reader of this text ought to wrestle with these questions, regarding every person on the planet.
And note: to hear and reject the herald is ultimately to reject God in Christ. When we witness the truth of Christ to people, if they reject the Word, they aren’t rejecting us, but rather rejecting Jesus.
IV. Israel’s Foolish Action: Disobedience – :18-21
Preachers must be sent—but preachers have been sent! Using Old Testament quotations, Paul explains that Israel has heard and understood God’s witness to them, but attributes their unbelief to their hard hearts. On the other hand, Gentiles who were not seeking after God found Him once He allowed the gospel message to be heard through His heralds of salvation.
And those Gentiles came to God as the Jews ought to have, not on the basis of their good deeds or innate goodness—not via legalistic means, in other words—but simply on the basis of faith in Jesus. The good news—no, the great news—of the gospel is that God is working in this world to create a family of people who call Him “Father” on the basis of their faith in Christ, who died on the cross and rose again to purchase their pardon, and that this family, reflected in this and hundreds of thousands of other churches this Sunday morning, is God’s forever people, extending His kingdom in this sinful world, and reigning together as part of His kingdom eternally. Are you part of that kingdom by faith, and if so, what role are you playing, right now, in the building up of that kingdom?
