Faith.In.Life

Evangelicalism is not Legalism

In one of the many podcasts I was listening to, one person who was talking about their faith deconstruction deconversion from Christianity said:  “I realized that I was trying so hard to be Christian and found that I was only pretending.  When I accepted my unbelief, I realized I didn’t have to try or pretend anymore.”  In hearing this, my heart broke.  I thought to myself “This person never truly encountered the Gospel.”  Timothy Keller and Philip Yancey have both reminded us that:

Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more... And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less... Grace means that God already loves us as much as an infinite God can possibly love.

Yet the debate between faith and works continues forever on.  We are told two things in Scripture where first we might read something from Ephesians that says:

 “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

Oddly, though, a few years ago I saw a video of a teenager acting like a stand up comic and acting like a Christian.  In the video the teenager says things like “look at me I am Christian,” and “look at how I am holier than thou..” And many other messages in that same vein.  

Such a perspective may put an emphasis on works based righteousness, for the next Christian might quote James 2:14-17 saying:

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. 

Many then will say, “Well, better get busy with good works then.”  Here is the problem with purely works oriented religions though: I grew up in that type of ideology.  I valued myself as a good person, but I was a good person not because I wanted to be, but because I knew there would be consequences if I was not.  The problem with legalism is the law cannot change our heart.  The law only measures how we fall short, for as Paul says, none are righteous, not even one.  Christianity becomes legalism when we see the law has a marker of performance in which not only do we try to live up to it as individuals, but we then turn around and expect everyone else to live up to it as well.  There is a very strange expectation from Evangelicals who think people who do not believe what we believe should still act the way we expect them to.  Or, to put it another way:  Why would we be surprised that unbelievers act like unbelievers?  But equally, when the world measures Christians by the way we fall short or do terrible things in Jesus’ name there is a strange sense of legalism projected back on Evangelicals.  We would do well to truly understand that none are righteous, not even one.  This means that the Evangelical should know through both Jesus’ and Paul’s warnings that in this world there will be troubles, and even that God might give people over to wicked desires.  As the world looks back on Evangelicals, please understand (to quote a song by the Christian hard rock band Demon Hunter):  “I will fail you, of that I am sure.”  We will fail you, and we have proved this time and time again.  

To do so would be hypocritical and a false projection of who Jesus prayed the church would be if the church never repents of past sins, even weeping and gnashing our teeth over the ways that the earthly expression of the church has fallen short.  So often times we not only emulate the sins of culture, but we do so in a way that we may even try to hide it.  Thus, over the years there has been some very public sins that we should repent of:  No one should agree that the Crusades were ever a Gospel oriented mission, but we know it was brutal warfare.  To which we ought to repent.  Equally, over the years there have been movies based on true stories like Spotlight, which was based on the true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.  Such a horrific scandal was a horrific sin that was trying to be hid behind closed doors that a spotlight revealed.  In recent years, we have seen similar horrific sin exposed through protestant churches like Willowcreek in relation to Bill Hybels, Mars Hill in relation to Mark Driscol, and Hillsong in relation to Carl Lentz.  News and media rightfully may be on the edge of their seat for the next church to fall and have used their platforms to publicly dissect the private sins that lead to so much public damage in these churches.  And honestly, good for them.  

When the church fathers like Martin Luther or John Calvin were talking about the main pillars of the church that we should build everything we do on, they all agreed on at least two pillars:  The Church is built on the Word, or the Bible; and Sacrament, or in Protestantism the Lord’s Supper and Baptism.  John Calvin, though, added a third pillar to the first two:  Accountability and Discipline.  Every pastor and leader within the church needs to be the first in line to confess our sins and ask forgiveness.  But, before we get to that point, we need to be in regular accountability groups willing to discuss the ways in which we are even tempted let alone the ways we actually sin.  In the denomination I currently serve we expect our pastors to be a part of a pastoral covenant group to live into mutual encouragement and accountability.  We have found that nearly every pastor that has a moral failing has not been a regular part of a pastoral covenant group. So, why would we be surprised at moral failings when we have a tendency to put leaders on a pedestal of one level or another to which they are both worshipped and isolated?  Even Satan’s tactic was to tempt Jesus himself when He was alone.  Satan’s mistake was that he waited just too long.  Jesus was not alone, for just before his temptation in the wilderness He was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove to be Jesus’ partner in ministry.