How Can I Handle the Religious Legalist?
A religious legalist is someone who emphasizes “rule–keeping” as the most important duty before God. Legalists give the outward apSpearance of being religious, without necessarily having a vital relationship with God. They follow a clearly defined path of holy obligations, which allows them to grade their religious performance. Inevitably, legalists who succeed in keeping their rules and regulations consistently will suffer from a spiritual superiority complex. Legalism, by its nature, is performance-focused and strong performers become prideful, boastful and obnoxious.
Theoretically, the legalist should not be found in Christianity. The teachings of Jesus against the legalistic Pharisees were so condemning of their religious charade, that one would think Christians would not fall prey to this counterfeit spirituality (Matthew 23). The apostle Paul also waged a polemic battle against the legalists of the day. His teachings on the grace of God and on justification by faith went against everything that legalists stood for (Galatians, Romans). From the Bible’s position, legalism and Christianity are incompatible (Colossians 2:20-23).
However, theory gives way to sinful reality and the truth is that legalism is commonly found in Christian circles today. The reason is simple: legalism is the human “worldly” attempt to meet God’s expectations. It provides a means, albeit counterfeit, for assessing one’s level of spirituality. It appeals to our “flesh” as a measuring stick for determining God’s approval (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8). Legalists prescribe their dogma, rules and rituals because they think that their observance gains access to God.
Handling the religious legalist is tough because they consider themselves superior to non-legalists. They are not looking for advice or spiritual counsel. They are seeking to convert others into their way of thinking (Matthew 23:15).
So it would seem that the best way of helping a legalist is to emphasize the biblical doctrine of grace: the concept of God’s undeserved and freely-given favor. Grace teaches us that God is not impressed with religious accomplishments. Grace emphasizes God’s provision for human inability. God knows that humans are by nature blind and deaf to the things of God. In this spiritually bankrupt state, it is ridiculous to think that we can come to God and impress Him with our ritualistic observances or moralistic rule keeping. It is even more audacious when we think we can earn God’s favor, making merit and putting God in our debt (Titus 3:4-7).
Grace helps us to keep the right perspective. In our rebellion and deception, God does not treat us as we deserve; rather, he accepts us even though we are unworthy; that is, he graces us. This grace undercuts the assumptions of the legalist and brings him under the “light burden” (Matthew 11:28) of the Gospel of Christ where there is no condemnation for our sins and no merits earned from our works (Romans 3:20; 8:1; Ephesians 2:9-10;Titus 2:11-14).
