Narrow is the Way...

Understanding What Legalism Is, and What It Is NOT

By Brother R Michel Lankford

Even the most passionate free grace teachers and advocates, if they are honest, must admit that the term legalism, and specific warnings against legalism in those actual terms, does NOT exist in Scripture at all. So, right off the bat, we need to realize that the concept of legalism has been invented by human beings to define what THEY have pieced together from various parts of Scripture, (mixed with their own traditions), and what THEY personally believe Scripture allegedly INTENDS to say. Why do I make this distinction upfront? I do so because most of the people who argue against legalism are from the very foundation of their argument speaking about human terminology, and rightly divided Scripture often times is not the foundation of their basis for debate. It’s often humanism disguised as Christianity.

Legalism in simple everyday English

At its core, legalism is the belief that one will somehow EARN or GAIN Eternal Salvation by keeping rules. This can be an effort to earn or gain salvation either by keeping man-made religious rules, or by keeping rules which were legitimately given by the Creator. That is the definition of legalism at its lowest common denominator. I keep a set of rules, and keeping those rules is what CAUSES me to EARN or to GAIN Eternal Salvation. There are a lot of other dynamics that we could take many pages to discuss, but obeying rules in order to earn or to gain Eternal Salvation is the common thread.

Two Main Types of Legalism

Institutionalized Legalism

Crucial examples of institutionalized legalism would have to include such a religious organization as Roman Catholic churches Episcopalian and Lutheran churches, (as well as some other lesser-known organizations. The reason that these qualify as institutionalized legalism is because each one of these churches has a strong hierarchy which all have long-established religious rules, and it is believed by many that obeying these man-made religious rules and traditions can actually cause an individual to be saved. For example, there are some people who believe that if their children are baptized in the Lutheran Church that eternal salvation is confirmed to that child because they were baptized as an infant in the particular church organization. This was a man-made rule which was carried over from the Roman Catholic Church, but it has NO basis in biblical fact whatsoever. 

Sometimes people are so convinced that the Almighty’s blessings rest upon the particular organization, that some will sincerely believe that even if these religious rules disobey Scripture, that the Heavenly Father will supposedly still accept a person who disobeys Scripture for the sake of obeying their institutions religious rules, because supposedly the Almighty’s blessings rest upon the institution and the authority of the clergy to confer the Creator’s blessings upon those who adhere to the institution. That’s one form of legalism; obeying institutionalized religious rules to gain or to earn salvation.

Another example of institutionalized legalism would be such denominational rules as, “If you have musical instruments in your churches, you are going to hell because, there is no example of musical instruments being used in the New Testament, so therefore there should be no musical instruments in church. That is utter NONSENSE. That is a man-made religious rule which is NOWHERE in Scripture whatsoever. That is another example of institutionalized legalism; trying to obey man-made religious rules, to earn or gain salvation. In reality, even the so-called New Testament clearly tells us that we are to use ALL Scripture in forming our doctrine, (2 Timothy 3:14-17); NOT just the New Testament, but ALL of Scripture. There is no telling how many heresies we would prevent if we just kept the biblical instruction. The largest book in all of Scripture, (the book of Psalms), is dedicated to giving instructions to the musicians on how to worship in the sanctuary.

Personal or Individualized Legalism

Personal or individualized legalism is a little bit trickier. That’s because the individualized rules that Christians can use to regulate their lives and behaviors might partially in fact be based upon a true and Biblical Commandment, (or some rule that someone sincerely believes to be in Scripture, but it’s not; or they may have misunderstood what that Scripture actually says. Nevertheless, this person believes that by obeying certain particular rules, (whether in Scripture or not), will cause them to be saved and to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Notice that in either case, when the person is involved in institutionalized legalism or individualized personal legalism, both sectors are dependent upon their obedience to particular sets of rules in an effort to earn or to gain their Eternal Salvation.

The Same Outfit in Different Colors

Whether one is walking in institutionalized legalism, (depending upon observing the rules and traditions of an institution), to cause one’s salvation, or whether one is depending upon keeping one’s personal understanding of a Biblical rule or Commandment or other traditions to CAUSE one’s salvation; at its core, BOTH forms of legalism, are exactly the SAME; the belief that HUMAN effort, and HUMAN obedience will ultimately CAUSE a person to be saved. In either form of legalism, the ultimate dependency is on human flesh, and not upon Yahweh Almighty, nor upon the life, the instructions, the debt or the resurrection of the Messiah to bring salvation. The ultimate question is; upon what are you depending to CAUSE your salvation? If we are depending on human flesh and human effort to save us, (whether institutional or personal), we are under a curse:

As it is written:

Thus says YHWH, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from YHWH. “For he will be like a bush in the desert And will Not see when prosperity comes, But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt without inhabitant. “Blessed is the man who trusts in YHWH And whose trust is YHWH.”  - (Jeremiah 17:5–7, NASB95; with the Biblical Name of the Creator re-inserted).

Trying to Prevent Legalism through Lawlessness

I was doing things around the apartment one day, and had the TV on in the background. I suddenly heard an advertisement that stopped me dead in my tracks. There was a commercial for a pharmaceutical product that would prevent yellowing toe fungus. What shocked me was at the end of the ad; it said, ‘In some cases this product causes liver cancer and DEATH.’ Are you kidding me; SERIOUSLY?! I’ll pay you a ton of money for this medicine. It can cause permanent liver damage, cancer, and I might even die from complications of this medicine, but I will look much better if I should happen to wear sandals at the beach. That’s insane!

Or please consider these riddles for a moment…

Let’s say that a patient should enter a hospital with a severe case of influenza. Would it be good and sound and ethical medical practice to kill the patient and to euthanize him so that he does not develop cancer? Could that hospital legitimately advertise that they help prevent cancer among their patients?!

Or, a driver is driving on a narrow steep and treacherous road with sheer cliffs on either side. Is it better for the car and driver to plunge to his death falling off of the LEFT side of the cliff, or would it be better for the car and driver to plunge to his death falling on the RIGHT side of the cliff?

Notice that in both our scenarios, every option presented caused the same result. The patient dies of influenza, or he is killed and euthanized in hopes he won't develop cancer, but he still dies. Whether our driver pledges to his death on the right side of the steep cliff, or on the left side of  the cliff, the end result is the same. The driver dies.

Modern Protestant evangelical Christianity has fallen into the same type of scenario. It’s a deadly trap. 

Modern Christianity has become so deathly afraid of, ‘Legalism’ that they have often promoted lawlessness as the alleged cure for legalism. According to many in modern Christianity the supposed cure for legalism, is to get rid of every biblical Commandment. According to many, Christians should not try to obey anything instructed in Scripture, because that leads to works righteousness and to legalism, and the way to avoid legalism is supposedly to actively and to purposely DISOBEY Biblical instructions, so that you do not try to become righteous by your works of obeying Scripture. That’s killing the influenza patient on purpose to prevent the possibility that he might develop cancer. That’s the driver intentionally driving off of the left side of the cliff on purpose, in order to ensure that he might not accidentally drive off of the cliff on the right side.

LAWLESSNESS IS NOT THE APPROPRIATE SOLUTION TO WORKS RIGHTEOUSNESS or LEGALISM

In an effort to avoid works righteousness legalism modern Christianity has opted to teach that Christians should actively DISOBEY the Creator’s instructions on purpose. 

In an effort to make sure that I am not trying to become righteous by my own human efforts of keeping the Creator’s Commandments; let’s BREAK YHWH’s Commandments on purpose, because I’m, “Under Grace.” If we think about it carefully, works righteousness legalism;(trying to EARN or to GAIN salvation by obeying the rules), is the RIGHT side of the sheer cliffs. Purposely DISOBEYING a Biblical instruction; that’s LAWLESSNESS, that is the LEFT side of the sheer deadly cliffs. Lawlessness, (walking outside of YHWH’s Laws Commandments and Instructions is GUARANTEED Eternally FATAL; (Matthew 7:21; Matthew 13:41-42). 

Driving off the cliff on either side is equally deadly. The solution is to learn to keep the car on the road and not drive off either the right side of the cliffs or the left.

Learning to Keep the Car on the Road

Messiah SAID: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it”; (Yeshua; the Messiah; Matthew 7:13-14; NKJV)

When Messiah said that the gate is narrow and that the way is strait; (literally tight or constricted) which leads to life; Messiah wasn’t kidding. He was serious. 

As a side note, Matthew 7:13-14 should be enough to convince anyone who uses the brains and common sense that YHWH gave them, that Lawless Grace; Works Free Grace; Obedience Free Grace; Obey Nothing but claim faith in Jesus type of Grace; this is NOT and this CANNOT POSSIBLY be the STRAIT and NARROW path that leads to Life. Way too many modern Christians get swept up into that. That is a very BROAD and popular way to travel through life, while you claim to believe Christ. It’s obviously NOT the narrow path.

• Obeying man-made religious rules believing that this will CAUSE your salvation; (THAT’S LEGALISM). 

• Trying to obey Yahweh’s Commandments without Messiah; believing that our obeying apart from Messiah will CAUSE your salvation; THAT’S LEGALISM.

•  Rejecting and refusing Yahweh’s Commandments; doing the OPPOSITE of what Yahweh’s Commandments requires you to do, because you think that’s what living in HIS Grace means; that’s LAWLESSNESS; that’s INSANE; that’s Eternal SUICIDE, (Matthew 7:21-23; Matthew 13:41-42; 1 John 3:4; Isaiah 5:20-24).

• Becoming born-again and getting saved by grace through faith in YHWH, and in Messiah which YHWH has sent FIRST, and THEN progressively learning, practicing and DOING the Commandments of Yahweh AFTER receiving the gift of salvation; that’s NOT LEGALISM. That is RIGHTEOUSNESS (Romans 6:19; Ezekiel 36:25-27). That’s DISCIPLESHIP (Matthew 28:19-20). That is LOVING Yahweh (1 John 5:3). That’s BIBLICAL Living. That is REQUIRED, (e.g. 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1).

We must learn the CRITICAL difference. It’s a life-and-death distinction.

So What Part Does the Law Rightly Play in the Life of Believers?

In simple terms, YHWH’s Law, CANNOT CAUSE,  and it does NOT CAUSE your salvation, but lawless grace, (which is counterfeit grace) will not save you either. The key is to understand the real and essential part which the Creator’s Laws, Commandments, and His Instructions accomplishes within the life of an individual AFTER they are saved by Grace through Faith in YHWH and in Messiah.

The Law CANNOT CAUSE your salvation, but Yahweh’s Torah DOES train and DISCIPLE you AFTER you are saved by Grace through Faith.

Natural children DO NOT first obey a Father in order to BECOME that Father's Child. Children are only required to learn to obey their Father AFTER they have already become His child, because He already IS THEIR Parent. That's what gives Him the authority to make the rules for that particular youngster. FIRST a child gets born or adopted and accepted into the family. AFTER he or she IS a family member, THEN the child is REQUIRED to progressively learn and obey the Father's Rulings and Instructions. First a Child of YHWH gets Born Again and saved by Grace through Messiah. THEN AFTER they are already accepted by Grace as YHWH’s Children THEN we must progressively learn and KEEP the Father's Laws, Rulings, Commandments and Instructions in His Torah; because He IS our Father. That's what gives Him the right to make the rules that we children of YHWH must learn to obey. It's a simple concept that Christians love to confuse in order to justify disobedience and rebellion, in the name of Grace.

I have been an active believer in YHWH and a follower of Messiah for more than a quarter of a century. I have been in active ministry for more than 20 years. The more I walk with YHWH in all that time, the more convinced I have become of the priceless value of the Creator's Commandments. Every Law, every Commandment, every Instruction that YHWH has given from Genesis chapter 1 to Revelation 22,  is intended to fulfill either one of two purposes in the life of a Covenant child of Elohim. Any given Commandment of YHWH will either train us HOW to love YHWH more perfectly, or a specific command will train us how to love our neighbor as ourselves more perfectly.

For example, when you choose to honor and to keep the biblical seventh day Sabbath, obeying that particular Commandment trains you to love YHWH with all of your being more perfectly, and purposely separates you from honoring the traditions of false gods, by purposely honoring what YHWH has decreed. So when ever you purposely obey YHWH's Sabbath decree, you are training your being to love YHWH with all your being, and you are building yourself in loving Yahweh.

At the same time, when you choose to honor YHWH's biblical Commandment to always use honest and true measures, and you choose never to use a dishonest weight or standard of measurement, you are pleasing your Heavenly Father, but you are also reinforcing and training yourself in the standards of how to love your neighbor as yourself, because you yourself would not enjoy being cheated or ripped off.

Whenever you practice obeying any Biblical Commandment; it is intended to train you into loving YHWH more perfectly, and or into loving your neighbor as yourself, more perfectly. When we neglect any instruction or Command that YHWH has given, we neglect the opportunity either to learn how to love YHWH with all our being more perfectly, or we neglect the opportunity to learn how to love our neighbor as ourselves more perfectly. 

Brother Michel Lankford

As It Is Written: 

Psalm 119:30-32 

I have chosen the way of truth;

Your judgments I have laid before me. I cling to Your testimonies;

O Lord, do not put me to shame! I will run the course of Your commandments, 

For You shall set my heart free.