Obedience Is Not Legalism

Many Christians are afraid of legalism and rightfully so. They are afraid of it because it might put them in a place they question their salvation and even their love for Christ. They have heard some bad teaching over the years that has left them wondering if they are still a Christian.

Some preachers have said that if you want to be a good Christian you must this. What is the "this" the preacher is referring to? It could be a number of things such as:

Not watch R-rated movies

Not listening to secular music

Wear Christian t-shirts only

Women must wear dresses

Use the King James only

You must tithe your 10% or else

The list goes on and it seems to keep growing. Christians do not want to be legalistic to the point that when obedience is mentioned, fear overtakes them. We know in the Bible that God expects obedience. Jesus said, "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him" (John 14:21). If we are obedient to Christ, it is a demonstration of our love for Him. C.S. Lewis once wrote, "I cannot grow in my love for God until I obey God." We show our love for God as we obey Him not to get saved, but because we are saved.

James 2:14-21 shows us that those who have faith yet not have works, that faith is useless. What James is saying if we profess Christ as Lord, our lives back up what we believe. Ephesians 2:8-9 says we are saved by grace through faith not by works. A lot of Christians I know love those verses and so do I yet we do not take time to look at the verse following it: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). We are not saved by works, we are saved for works.

Our lives are to be obedient to Christ not because we will lose our salvation if we do not. We are obedient because we love Christ. We are devoted to God by our obedience because of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.