“The abundant life is a life that is constantly being beheaded by the truth.”

Legalism and Leadership

“For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)

You may have had some experience with a “legalistic” church or Christian. We all know that a domineering leadership is a curse to the work of God, but so many people who make the decision to leave such ministries, or individuals, behind become “lawless” in their liberty. What’s really going on there, and what is the Bible’s solution for legalism?

[This post has been refined and included in Sweet Counsel: Essays to Brighten the Eyes.]

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Gregory the Theologian said, “What is not assumed cannot be healed,” and this is true.  For exactly that reason, Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Triune God, assumed full humanity at His incarnation. In Jesus, we have a spectacular demonstration that man, the image of God, is an accurate image, and can partake in the divine nature.  Nothing human is foreign to Him; there is no part of you that you can point to and say, “Jesus didn’t have to deal with this.”

The Incarnation strips us of our excuses, but in exchange it gives us hope, hope that we can be holy as He is holy.  God designed every part of you to partake of the divine nature.   God in Christ redeemed every part of you in order to cause you to fulfill God’s design.  In the coming week, you will face the temptation to keep parts of yourself, or parts of your life, to yourself, and to keep the divine nature away from them.  The charge I leave you with is simple: Don’t give in to that temptation.  Hand that area to Christ, so that you may say with Paul, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

…This leads us to the second objection, to the erroneous theory of the progressive sanctification of our nature, namely, the objection drawn from the truthful experience of all believers. Is the reader a true believer? If so, has he found any improvement in his old nature? Is it a single whit better now than it was when he first started on his Christian course? He may, and should through grace, be able to subdue it more thoroughly; but it is nothing better. If it be not mortified, it is just as ready to spring up and show itself in all its vileness as ever. “The flesh” in a believer is in no wise better than “the flesh” in an unbeliever. And if the Christian does not bear in mind that self must be judged, he will soon learn by bitter experience that his old nature is as bad as ever; and, moreover, that it will be the very same to the end.

It is difficult to conceive how anyone who is led to expect a gradual improvement of his nature, can enjoy an hour’s peace, inasmuch as he cannot but see, if he only looks at himself in the light of God’s Holy Word, his old self — the flesh — is the very same as when he walked in the moral darkness of his unconverted state. His own condition and character are, indeed, greatly changed by the possession of a new, yea, a “divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4), and by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, to give effect to its desires; but the moment the old nature is at work, he finds it as opposed to God as ever.

We doubt not but that very much of the gloom and despondency, of which so many complain, may be justly traced to their misapprehension of this important point of sanctification. They are looking for what they can never find. They are seeking for a ground of peace in a sanctified nature instead of in a perfect sacrifice — in a progressive work of holiness instead of in a finished work of atonement. They deem it presumptuous to believe that their sins are forgiven until their evil nature is completely sanctified; and, seeing that this end is not reached, they have no settled assurance of pardon, and are therefore miserable. In a word, they are seeking for a “foundation” totally different from that which Jehovah says He has laid, and, therefore, they have no certainty whatever.

The only thing that ever seems to give them a ray of comfort is some apparently successful effort in the struggle for personal sanctity. If they have had a good day — if they are favored with a season of comfortable communion — if they happen to enjoy a peaceful, devotional frame, they are ready to cry out, “Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong; I shall never be moved” (Psalm 30).

But, ah! These things furnish a sorry foundation for the soul’s peace. They are not Christ; and until we see that our standing before God is in Christ, there cannot be settled peace. The soul that has really got hold of Christ is desirous indeed of holiness; but if intelligent of what Christ is to him, he has done with all thoughts about sanctified nature. He has found his all in Christ, and the paramount desire of his heart is to grow into His likeness. This is true, practical sanctification.

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Charles Henry Mackintosh, known world wide as “C.H.M.,” was born in 1820 in Country Wicklow, Ireland. He was spiritually stirred when he was eighteen by letters from his sister after her conversion. But is own peace was resolved by the sentence, “It is Christ’s work for us, not His work in us, that gives us peace,” in J.N. Darby’s Operations of the Spirit.

“Certain Protestants say, it is a true sign of a very gracious state when a man feels and deplores his inbred corruptions. How near do these come to the Papists, whose doctrine they profess to detest and abhor! The truth is, it is no sign of grace whatever; it only argues, as they use it, that the man has got light to show him his corruptions; but he has not yet got grace to destroy them. He is convinced that he should have the mind of Christ, but he feels that he has the mind of Satan; he deplores it, and, if his bad doctrine do not prevent him, he will not rest till he feels the blood of Christ cleansing him from all sin.

True humility arises from a sense of the fullness of God in the soul; abasement from a sense of corruption is a widely different thing; but this has been put in the place of humility, and even called grace.”

—Adam Clarke on 1 Cor. 13.

“Immediately, the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.” —Mark 1:12

NOTE: THIS POST HAS BEEN REMIXED AND INCLUDED IN GOD’S KITCHEN.

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[1] My Utmost For His Highest, March 14th.
[2] The Old Covenant Day of Atonement (covering) could only put the lid on the trash can and spray a fragrant deodorant around (incense). Jesus came to take out (ekballo) the trash.
[3] James B. Jordan, Obama As Fool. There is some talk now about Obama’s foreign policy being “cruciform.” We’ll see how this pans out.