Legalist or Literalist? Pharisee or Proper Theology?

Luke 18:9-14


These terms are often misunderstood and misused in today's culture. Often even in the context of the church the terms are thrown at almost any ministry that is strong in its biblical headship, leadership and conviction. I think this is mainly due to the over feminization of today's church. We are finding that more and more men are folding under pressure to not warn people of judgment day, Gods wrath, sin or any other attribute of God or action of God that is to masculine. We then crank out over emotional, love-only preachers who stay away from any form of conventional terms "as to not offend anyone." When a text of scripture is accurately interpreted and applied with no wiggle room. Legalist or pharisee are terms usually not far behind. What I want to do is take a look at how those terms apply and see if they fit the modern day use of them.

Legalist is a term intended to be used in reference to a person who has used the law of God and twisted to bind people to a moral set of standards to appease God. All world religions are legalist. They say you must follow a set of standards laid out either in ancient writings or tradition in order to contribute to your salvation and or increase the likelihood of your reincarnated soul coming back as a human. In the realm of Christianity it is used when someone has misrepresented the mosaic law and declared a work based system back into true salvation. We see this rear up in the New Testament in the following verse.

Acts 15:1
And certain men came down from Judea and taught the bretheren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved."

We also see this in places such as Galatians 2:11-21 when Paul confronts Peter for his misrepresentation of the truth by preferring one crowd over the other. Other example's would be claiming that someone has to go to church to be saved. Or that someone must be reading there bible to be saved. Anytime the word legalist is used in reference to Christianity it is a direct assault on the work of salvation. So when using the term legalist toward someone there is really one area to look at to see if they are in fact being a legalist. There gospel message. Has it now included a work based righteousness or "infused" righteous opposed to "imputed". If one has not claimed any change in there gospel presentation and are still holding to Sola fide ("by faith alone"), Sola gratia ("by grace alone") Solo Christo ("through Christ alone") then by definition they are not a legalist.

On the other hand we have the first term in the five sola's of the reformation. Sola scriptura ("by Scripture alone"). Which simply means that scripture is the main authority for faith and practice. This is where we get into the meat of Gods truth. This is where men die, get excommunicated, imprisoned, persecuted or (so far the worse today)called a legalist. When one stands on the literal interpretation of Gods word they will face much opposition. Today's cultural is getting even less tolerant of men and women who say that anyone is wrong when they base there convictions on verses that directly address the situation in which they oppose. For instance the catholic church threatened Martin Luther with excommunication (and death) if he did not recant. Martin Luther's reply was,



So when using those terms one must determine what the person opposing them is basing there opposition on. If it is scripture then one may be in error to God's holy word and must search the scripture to see if these things are true. But it seems that many men seem to perch themselves upon pride and arrogance and see no need to search scripture. They disagree simply because they dont "feel" its effective which goes back to the over feminization of today's modern/western church. Theology and doctrine are viewed as boring and expositional preaching (verse by verse) is to "inside the box". Or even worse the gospel message itself is "always the same" the law of God, the holiness of God and the cross of Christ received by repentance and faith. Many today feel they need to liven it up or change it as to not sound the same. Pride nipps at the heals of those who think they can do better then God. Consequently they remove essential elements of the message and lead men to a wrong understanding of God and biblical salvation and therefor disqualify themselves (and there converts) from the faith (Galatians 1:6 would apply but I am doubtful if they ever knew the true gospel).

May God help us to remain humble in our love toward one another. But may God also give us strong convictions to stand for Gods truth. It was Martin Luther who said unity when possible but truth at all cost. May we raise the truth of Gods word and the purity of the church to its proper place and commit to studying Gods word and applying it to our life. May we as men in the church train our children to do as Paul warned Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16 to

"take heed to yourself and to the doctrine."


And keep the fifth sola in view...

Soli Deo gloria ("glory to God alone")