When the Bible calls someone a legalist, it does not mean that the person is meticulous in obeying the law properly, but that the person is distorting the law, adding new requirements to the law, and applying the law in a way that escapes its original purpose. And when it comes to eternal redemption or damnation, this question of legalism takes on a much larger scale. The Bible refutes both the legalism of the Pharisees and the legalism of the Judaizers. During His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus condemned the Pharisees` legalism by revealing that they were placing heavy burdens on people that they were not even willing to carry (Matthew 23:4). This is typical loyalist behaviour: judging people for not doing what they do. In the sequence, Jesus emphasized that the Pharisees were not concerned with the glory of God with his legalism, but only with human recognition. At this point, it is easy to see that Jesus showed that legalism and hypocrisy are intimately linked. Moreover, Jesus always accused the Pharisee loyalists of closing the kingdom of God to men with their human traditions, who, instead of bringing freedom, brought slavery (Matthew 23:5-13). These are people who look more at legalism than at the righteousness of God, which is His love. Legalism is not a good New Testament attitude. We learn from Jesus that we live faith by grace and by works of faith. If we were followers of the Pharisees, that`s fine, we would be loyalists and that would be normal, but they became willing opponents of Jesus precisely because of their legalism.

Jesus did not leave empty-handed, on the contrary, he recorded their attitude: we must know what legality is, so as not to fall and not even accept the legislators who try to impose their opinion on the Church, which must obey Christ. If we want to know Jesus` will for us, we already have the law of freedom in the words of Christ and the apostles. In practice, legalism means putting water over Jesus and the apostles under the pretext of order. Before knowing what religious legalism according to the Bible is, it is first important to understand what it means to be a legalistic person. Legalism is fundamentally a fidelity to the law, in the sense that one adheres strictly to a law. But the true obedience required by God`s Word is based on love and gratitude to the Lord and also on concern for divine glory. Christian obedience should never be seen as a mechanism for gaining divine favor through meritorious works. Therefore, legalism is a hostile behavior of God`s grace. Although the word legalism does not appear in biblical vocabulary, it does appear in the attitude of many who claim to believe in Christ. This is the domain of the law of grace and it goes beyond that.

It is the attitude of creating rules that are supposed to be supported or not in biblical texts, based on opinions or even studies of Greek. Legalism means making a law or rule for everything and becoming inflexible with others. Legalism leaves no room for mercy and creates feelings of arrogance and superiority by inferiorating and condemning others. It is the attitude of prohibition by prohibiting, rather than being condescending towards the weak, provided that one is master in speech. Doctrinal legalism in sanctification is sometimes fueled by ardent preachers who emphasize Jesus` teaching on the demands of Christian discipleship while divorcing or downplaying apostolic teaching about the nature of Christ`s saving work by sinners. The famous retired theologian Geerhardus Vos explained the nature of this subtle form of legalism when he wrote: The Soviet government was trying to follow a tradition of legalism and needed a « casus belli » to start the war. When we talk about religious legalism in the Bible, two main examples soon appear: the Pharisees and the Judaizers. The Pharisees were a religious group among the Jews who were known to obey the Mosaic law in every detail.

But the severity of the Pharisees caused them to deviate from the true meaning and purpose of God`s law. The absolutory argument is impressive in its legalism, as if life were exclusively or even largely based on. I was a member of the cast. Let me explain. I was part of a church that was more like a public office than a church that was supposed to be a safe and reliable place to grow in Christ. Grace had lost her grace (sorry for the pun). We lived walking on eggshells and being afraid to say something because someone might be offended. If someone had the goodwill to do something, they had to present a written project and always have a meeting to decide and become a Sabbath.

Because of this bureaucracy, nothing has been done in the name of order. There were rules for everything and joy was undermined. Therefore, a church with enormous potential was not a place of freedom and joy in Christ, but of rules.