Legalism -- not!

Satan (that indefatigable worker whose desk is covered with overstuffed ashtrays and half drunk cups of coffee) has had a field day with the word "legalism." Give a person good advice, tell a friend what helps you in your walk with God, and somebody somewhere will call it "legalism."

Leave it to the Enemy to take our best theology and use it against us. Is his not a ministry of misinformation? Is he not the faux "angel of light"? For there is no doubt that legalism is a great enemy of the gospel. Real legalism, that is --- the failure to understand that "God saves the ungodly." Scandalous grace.

But what can I do when I want to shout from the rooftops that you must read the Bible a lot, and you must pray constantly throughout the day if you want to enjoy fuller intimacy with Christ? It sounds, even to myself (because of my inbred sensitivity to the charge) like the "L" word.

Never mind. I will cover myself with the authority, and the sanctified sarcasm, of a man of reputation:

Let the Christian live like the rest of the world…and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin….Let him not attempt to erect a new religion of the letter by endeavoring to live a life of obedience to the commandments of Jesus Christ! The world has been justified by grace. The Christian…must not strive against this indispensable grace. Therefore, let him live like the rest of the world!

Or more straightforwardly: "The outcome of the Reformation was the victory, not of Luther's perception of grace in all its purity and costliness, but of the vigilant religious instinct of man for the place where grace is to be obtained at the cheapest price" (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship).