Legalism and Grace
Because the warning
book! Book supports the concept of
God’s Sabbath rest on the
seventh day of the week, people often
use the argument that the book
promotes legalism and they choose to
dismiss the entire book.
Unfortunately, most Christians do not
observe Saturday as a holy day and
further, they misunderstand the
differences between legalism and
grace. If Sabbath observance is
so important, why don’t more
Christians know about it? Many
people get excited that Revelation
will soon be fulfilled, but their
excitement quickly ends when they
learn about God’s seventh day
Sabbath will be an issue that
separates the sheep from the goats
during the Great Tribulation. Before
we address the reasons why people
call Sabbath worship legalism, we
need to consider some basic
information regarding legalism and
grace.
As far as God is
concerned, there are only two types
of human beings: Those who
submit to the ministry of the Holy
Spirit and those who rebel against
it. “The man without
the Spirit does not accept the things
that come from the Spirit of God, for
they are foolishness to him, and he
cannot understand them, because they
are spiritually discerned.” (1
Corinthians 2:14) A person does
not become a born again person on his
own. A rebellious person
becomes a born again person when the
Holy Spirit finally manages to bring
a person to the point he will
“surrender all” to Jesus.
No person can serve two masters;
therefore giving up self-mastery and
allowing Jesus to be Lord and Master
is a very difficult thing to do.
When a person “surrenders
all,” he becomes a different
person. The Holy Spirit enables
him to love God with all his heart,
mind, and soul, and his neighbor as
himself, because without the Holy
Spirit within, loving God is contrary
to his sinful nature.
When a born again
person walks with the Lord, he soon
discovers that what he thought was
100% surrender is more like 5%
surrender because no one can know the
depth of his surrender until he is
challenged. The Holy Spirit is
like a dentist who uses a bright
light to look into our mouths for
sensitive spots and hidden cavities.
The Holy Spirit searches our hearts
for sensitive spots with the light of
truth, to find hidden places where
selfishness resides. When the
Spirit finds a defect in our
character, He reveals this deficiency
so that we can overcome it through
Christ’s power.
The Holy Spirit
endeavors to transform us into a
perfect reflection of Christ’s
character of love. Many
Christians “think” they
have surrendered to the Lord, but
they lack experience surrendering to
the Holy Spirit. Remember,
Peter said (with 100% conviction)
that he was prepared to go to his
death for the Lord (Luke 22:33) and
then, a few hours later, he denied
that he even knew Jesus. (Luke
22: 57-61) Peter did not know his
heart and was unaware of the defects
lurking in his character. When
Peter denied knowing Jesus, the Holy
Spirit finally got through and Peter
saw, for the first time, a huge
defect in his character. Conversely,
Judas refused to acknowledge the
defect in his character. Instead of
overcoming his defect, it overcame
him and he took his own life.
The story of
Saul/Paul’s conversion is
profound. As a Pharisee, he was
zealous for his religious beliefs. He
believed that God required rigorous
obedience to obtain salvation and
Saul was absolutely rigorous in
“measuring up” to
God’s requirements. His
zeal explains why he persecuted
Christians. Paul was concerned
that certain Jews who followed the
teachings of Jesus did not obey
God’s laws. Therefore, on
the basis of Deuteronomy 13, Saul
went about eliminating heresy from
Israel. Then one day, while on
the way to persecute more Christians,
Saul met Jesus on the road to
Damascus. This event was a life
changing experience. Saul
learned that God’s commandments
are spiritual instead of external.
(Romans 7:14) As a Pharisee,
Saul kept the law because he thought
obeying the law pleased God, but
later he learned the god he was
zealous to please was not the God of
Heaven; it was a god called
“religion.” As a
Pharisee, Saul had been faultless in
terms of legalistic righteousness
(Philippians 3: 5, 6), but when Paul
became a Christian, he discovered
that he could never measure up to the
demands of the law on his own!
(Romans 7: 15-18)
As Paul began to
understand the spiritual nature of
the Ten Commandments, he discovered
that he had ten passions (which
each of the Ten Commandments define)
that are offensive to God. Saul
thought he was in perfect compliance
with the tenth commandment (which
defines the passion of covetousness
and jealousy) until he met Jesus.
Then, Paul discovered that he had
never complied with it. (Romans 7: 7,
8) When Paul discovered that he
could not remove covetousness and
jealousy from his heart, the law
brought Paul to the realization that
he needed a Savior, full of grace and
truth. (Romans 7: 22-25) Paul
also discovered that victory over
every passion is only possible
through Christ.
Saul/Paul’s
insight and experience with
God’s laws is a profound lesson
for all of us. Saul
changed from being perfectly
legalistic to Paul, “the chief
of sinners,” spiritually
speaking. (1 Timothy 1:15)
When Paul finally saw his own
defects, he realized that he could
not measure up spiritually to the
purity which the law requires and it
made him realize the critical
importance of God’s grace.
Many people distort Paul’s
writing (2 Peter 3:16), but Paul is
clear. Grace and faith does not
abolish the law, for where there is
no law, there is no need for grace.
(Romans 4:15, 3:31; 6: 1, 2)
I have mentioned Saul
becoming Paul to show that there is a
legalistic approach to the Ten
Commandments (including the Sabbath
commandment) and there is a spiritual
approach. The legalistic
approach is conceived in
self-righteousness and it is all
about measuring up externally. Merely
resting from work on the Sabbath as
the fourth commandment dictates
does not fulfill the law. The
spiritual approach is much more
intimate and difficult. It can
be a hard thing to give up a whole
day to the Lord each week. Not
using the Sabbath for our own
pleasure or personal advantage can be
difficult. The essential
difference between a holiday and a
holy day is ownership of the day.
Jesus owns His Sabbath. (Mark
2: 27, 28) We own whatever holidays
we may create. (For further
discussion on observing the Sabbath,
please download this article:
http://www.wake-up.org/daystar/ds2000/Mara.htm.)
Unlike the pagans,
every Christian has two minds –
a sinful mind (the natural mind) and
a spiritual mind (the mind that comes
through the ministry of the Holy
Spirit) - and there is a war
between them. (Romans 7: 23)
Paul wrote, “Those who live
according to the sinful nature have
their minds set on what that nature
desires; but those who live in
accordance with the Spirit have their
minds set on what the Spirit desires.
The mind of a sinful man is [leads
to] death, but the mind controlled
by the Spirit is [leads to] life
and peace; the sinful mind is [naturally]
hostile to God [God’s
authority]. It does not [voluntarily]
submit to God’s law, nor can
it do so.” (Romans 8: 5-7,
insertion mine)
With an understanding
of the legalistic and spiritual
approaches to God’s law, let us
consider the following statements
regarding Sabbath keeping:
First Statement
“It really
doesn’t matter which day a
person worships on. We should
worship the Lord seven days a
week.” Given what this
argument actually says (instead of
what it is attempting to say), there
is nothing wrong with this statement.
Conducting or attending worship
services seven days a week is fine.
There is no commandment requiring or
forbidding this in the Bible. However,
this argument has nothing to do with
the requirements given in the fourth
commandment. The fourth
commandment is not about worshiping
the Lord seven days a week. The
fourth commandment is about giving
the seventh day of the week to the
Lord:
“Remember the
Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all
your work, but the seventh day is a
Sabbath to the Lord your God.
On it you shall not do any work,
neither you, nor your son or
daughter, nor your manservant or
maidservant, nor your animals, nor
the alien within your gates. For
in six days the Lord made the heavens
and the earth, the sea, and all that
is in them, but rested on the seventh
day. Therefore the Lord blessed
the Sabbath day and made it
holy.” (Exodus 20: 11)
God has decreed that
six days are allotted for work and
the seventh day is not allotted for
work. He rested from His work
on the seventh day and made it holy
at Creation, not at Mt. Sinai. (See
Genesis 2: 1-3.) This is why
the first word in the fourth
commandment is
“Remember…” The
Sabbath stands as a memorial to His
creation (of which we are a part) and
mankind is commanded to cease from
our work each Sabbath day to honor His
creative work.
You would think that
the whole world would welcome
God’s Sabbath.
Unfortunately, the Sabbath is
generally loathed because human
nature rebels and does not want to
give up a whole day. Paul said
it well, “Those who live
according to the sinful nature have
their minds set on what that nature
desires… the sinful mind is [naturally]
hostile to God [God’s
authority]. It does not
[voluntarily] submit to God’s
law, nor can it do so.”
Thirty years after
Paul became a Christian, he had no
question about the importance of the
fourth commandment. He wrote, “There
remains [forever], then, a
Sabbath-rest for the people of God;
for anyone who enters God’s rest
also rests from his work [on the
seventh day], just as God did from
his. Let us, therefore, make
every effort to enter that rest [each
week], so that no one will fall [miss
out on entering the Promised Land] by
following their example of [defiance
and] disobedience.” (Hebrews
4: 9-11, insertion mine)
Second Statement
“The Ten
Commandments were nailed to the cross
(abolished). Since the Sabbath
commandment is not re-commanded in
the New Testament, there is no
further obligation to keep the
seventh day holy.” Think
about this: Why would God
immediately restore nine of the Ten
Commandments that He just abolished?
Even more, why will God show the Ark
of the Covenant from Heaven at the
seventh trumpet (Revelation 11:19) if
the Ten Commandments were abolished
at the cross? The Ten
Commandments were not abolished at
the cross and remember that Paul
specifically addressed the
continuation of the Sabbath
commandment in Hebrews 4:9 (see
previous paragraph).
The truth of the
matter is clear. If a person
does not want to give up a whole day
to the Lord, it does not really
matter whether the Ten Commandments
were abolished or whether they remain
obligatory. Rebellion against
God’s Sabbath confirms what Paul
said, “The sinful mind is
hostile to God. It does not
submit to God’s law, nor can it
do so.” (Romans 8:7)
Pressing a spiritual argument on the
carnal nature naturally causes
rebellion to spring up. This
happens to all of us. However,
when the truth is heard, the Holy
Spirit goes to work, leading us into
all truth. (John 16:13) There
is a right way and a wrong way of
entering into the Sabbath experience.
The wrong way is through legalism.
The right way is through the Holy
Spirit.
Third Statement
“Everyone
keeping the Sabbath commandment is
trying to work their way to Heaven.
Under the new covenant, we are saved
by grace, not by works.” The
challenge in responding to this
statement is to differentiate between
what is legalistic and what is
spiritual. Consider this:
The Pharisees claimed they kept the
seventh commandment because they had
not physically sinned. But
Jesus addressed this self-deception
when He said to them: “But
I tell you that anyone who looks at a
woman lustfully has already committed
adultery with her in his heart.”
(Matthew 5:28) Jesus
highlighted the spiritual nature of
the law. You do not have to
physically commit adultery to break
the law because the Ten Commandment
actually defines ten sinful passions.
Because the law is spiritual, Jesus
reprimanded the Pharisees (Israel
spiritual guides) for missing the
greater meaning of the law.
If a person does not
steal, is he a legalist? If a
person does not tell a lie, is he a
legalist? If a person obeys the
first three commandments, is he a
legalist? Are we legalistic if
we rest on the seventh day because
God commands it? It depends
on the nature of our relationship
with the law. If, like
Saul, we obey the law and think we
are righteous before God, we are a
legalist. On the other hand, if
we obey the law realizing it has been
given to expose our defects, we
become “chief of sinners”
and like Peter and Paul, we realize
our desperate need of a Savior who
freely offers grace and transforming
power!
The best argument you
can give to rebut the charge of
legalism is an understanding smile.
Accusations usually say more about
the accuser than about the one being
condemned. The carnal heart is
unwilling to give the Lord a whole
day. However, do not
underestimate the Holy Spirit. He
is at work and there will always be
people who discover what Paul
discovered. The Ten
Commandments are spiritual. Do
not worry about those who scorn the
Sabbath and slander those of us who
love it. Be courteous and move
on. Jesus said, “Blessed
are you when people insult you,
persecute you and falsely say all
kinds of evil against you because of
men. Rejoice and be glad,
because great is your reward in
Heaven, for in the same way they
persecuted the prophets who were
before you.” (Matthew
5: 11, 12)
I hope this helps!
Larry Wilson
