Legalism breeds sinners

Sinners are angry with God. They've lost their child-like heart. Not childish, child-like. Most of the time, the anger stems from God not fitting into their theology. Somewhere along the journey of understanding God's unconditional love, they've missed some signs. They're lost in the woods somewhere, so they become angry with God. It's this anger that's leading to consistent wilful sins. Let's look closer at this.

God's love isn't tied to our performance. It's unconditional. That is, God doesn’t love us because of some virtue we possess. God loves us because “God is love” (1 John 4:8), not because we are lovely. Jesus had paid for the sins of the human race before we knew who he was. He died for us to taste God's unconditional love and acceptance. But that's not how we are taught about it. Most organized religion teaches that God's love is earned and tied to something that you do.

When we truly commit our lives into God's hands, he has to correct this. Otherwise, we'll live miserable lives trying to do the Bible. Think of it like a nut that has shell and fruit. The nuts are delicious, but the shell tastes awful. We will also be easily susceptible to manipulation and deception, constantly trying to earn our salvation. The Holy Spirit tries to correct this, and he does it in different ways for each of us. He does this by showing us His superiority over the Bible. Why? Because he authored it.

2TIM3:16 (NLT) "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right."

2PET1:20-21(NLT) "Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God."

An author knows what he's trying to say. Sometimes, the reader gets it, and other times, she does not. Many authors realize that those who read their material don't usually get the message in full. That's because we mix our own thoughts with it, our perceptions, prejudices, and thinking patterns. It's the same with the Bible. God has to lead us away from legalism, or we will get stuck. He leads us to lay aside the Bible in a certain sense, realize his superiority to it, so we can then let Him show us the marvelous things inside it. He wants us to quit the shell so we can get the fruit.

When this process isn't completely understood or taught properly, a child of God becomes trapped in legalism. Legalism always ends in sin because we can't keep the law. Jesus consistently tried to show us this by operating (doing good works) outside the law. Sin then hardens the heart, creating sinners out of God's children. Sinners have known that 'the law kills', but they missed the second part that, 'the Spirit gives life' (through the same law). When this happens, the believer becomes a sinner, and sinners are angry people because sin doesn't work.

#Grace

#Faith

#Love

#Gospel

#Goodworks