Quote 3342
there are three Biblical forms of legalism: Trying to earn justification before God through one's own efforts at law-keeping rather than through faith in the perfect law keeping and atonement of Christ (Gal. 2:16; 5:4), seeking to be sanctified in one's own strength apart from grace (Gal. 3:1-5), and adding new rules to the Bible. It is the third definition of legalism that I have in mind when I speak of the "New Legalism." Any time one accuses another of sin, he is in danger of legalism if he cannot back up his claim from the Word of God. Legalism is a sin. Therefore, to accuse me of legalism when I can back up my practice with the word of God is ironically engaging in legalism. It is giving a new standard of behavior ("Avoid this legalism.") without the warrant of Scripture. And it is a most insidious form of legalism, because it masquerades as grace.
Phillip Kayser
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Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
only shock therapy recalibrates the mind, will, and affections rooted in a legal frame.The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters (p. 129). Crossway
When a man is driven to acts of obedience by the dread of God's wrath revealed in the law, and not drawn to them, by the belief in His love revealed in the gospel; when he fears God because of His power and justice, and not because of His goodness; when he regards God more as an avenging Judge, than as a compassionate Friend and Father; and when he contemplates God rather as terrible in majesty than as infinite in grace and mercy, he shows that he is under the dominion, or at least under the prevalence of a legal spirit. He shows that he is under the influence of this hateful temper. When his hope of divine mercy is raised by the liveliness of his frame in duties, and not by discoveries of the freeness and riches of redeeming grace, offered to him in the gospel; or when he expects eternal life not as the gift of God through Jesus Christ, but as a recompense from God for his own obedience and suffering, he plainly shows, that he is under the power of a legal spirit.Treatise on the Law and Gospel, ed. D. Kistler (1859; repr. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1999), 143-144
Legalism is simply separating the law of God from the person of God. Eve sees God's law, but she has lost sight of the true God himself. Thus, abstracting his law from his loving and generous person, she was deceived into "hearing" law only as negative deprivation and not as the wisdom of a heavenly Father.The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters (p. 83). Crossway
Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness, or more hopeful than contrition.
Legalism is a more dangerous disease than alcoholism because it doesn't look like one. Alcoholism makes men fail; legalism helps them succeed in the world. Alcoholism makes men depend on the bottle; legalism makes them self-sufficient, depending on no one. Alcoholism destroys moral resolve; legalism gives it strength. Alcoholics don't feel welcome in the church; legalists love to hear their morality extolled in the church. Brothers, We are Not Professionals (155)
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