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Wednesday: The Legalism Trap — 4 Comments

  1. Legalism comes in all flavors and types and some of it is very subtle. To me there are several things that a person can remember besides the texts that the Sabbath School lesson uses.

    First, there is the new covenant (Heb 8:10; Heb 10:16-17; Jer 31:31-34) where God takes all the responsibility. There is nothing in it that requires anything from man, however, we must believe in it and the God of grace which is what Jn 6:28-29 and Heb 11:6 is all about.

    Second, there is, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:5 NKJV). It says that God has to be in the middle of things for anything righteous to come out of it.

    Then there is a rather overlooked chapter in the Bible that as far as I am concerned points us to the one who is going to revive Israel (Eze 37) which is backed up by, "Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins (Act 5:31 NKJV). So repentance and revival are also gifts.

    All of these things God gives to His people very graciously and all we have to do is accept it. The problem is that we have been programmed by the devil to think that the responsibility rests on our shoulders to do righteousness. He further has convinced us that when we do wrong that God will never forgive us - that our sins are too great to be forgiven. The truth is that the only sin that can't be forgiven is our refusal to accept what God offers to us which is what the unpardonable sin is.

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  2. Galatians 2:16 says we are justified by faith in Christ. Period. I love how God's word makes salvation so plain for all of us who truly seek Him. Of course, God doesn't stop there; He fills us with His love so that we are fulfilling what the Holy Spirit beckons us to do. That gives us joy! and peace! and all the good things He keeps on bestowing, (Galatians 5:22,23) just because that's the awesome kind of God He is!

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  3. The problem with most of us Christians is that we think we have a part to contribute towards Salvation. The truth is if we truly accept God's free gift of Salvation, this automatically propels us to live by HIS standards. The Lord says in Heb. 10:16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”. My understanding here is that the Lord himself will give us the Holy Spirit to help us to live (if we accept HIM) according to his statutes.

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