Legalism

God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. This statue of Moses sits on top of the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi.

The term legalism refers to a person seeking to establish his own righteousness before God based on strict conformity to the moral law of God.  The result of such an effort will be the person trying very hard to follow rules to meet a performance standard that God will accept as righteous.  The Bible offers no hope in this being successful.  God does not grade on a curve and has clearly set perfection as the performance standard (Matthew 5:48).  Paul is very clear that no one will be justified and receive eternal life based on his own righteousness... know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified (Galatians 2:16). The law leads us to Christ by making us aware of sin and our inability to be perfect in observing the law…. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin (Romans 3:20).  Once led to Christ, a sinner understands that he is justified by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.  Does this mean that we can disregard God’s moral law and live a sinful life as long as we have faith?  This would be antinomianism and the Apostle Paul says no…. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! (Romans 6:15).  See page 25 for antinomianism.