Law and Gospel

Part I

Legalism and the Truth of Justification by Faith

Are you a legalist? "Absolutely not!" most of us may fiercely reply. For anyone even casually acquainted with the Christian message knows the Bible teaching that salvation is by grace, through faith, rather than by human efforts to keep the law (see Eph. 2:8, 10; Rom. 3:28). How could anyone who takes the Bible seriously be a legalist?

Yet we are legalists all of us. Ever since Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness, we have all been legalists by nature through and through. We might just as well confess, "I have no sin," as to confess, "I am not a legalist." Luther vehemently fought against the heresy of legalism; yet he frankly confessed that it was like an oil in his bones.

The heresy of legalism derives its strength from human nature. As long as human beings comprise the church here on earth, there must be constant war against legalism. The gospel of God's saving grace in Christ cannot be learned too well. The disposition to contribute to our salvation is like a desert fox—if it is chased from one hole, it hides in another. The heart of man, being deceitful and desperately wicked, can dress up salvation by human works in the most evangelical garb.

Types of Legalism in Church History

1. Medieval. Classical medieval theology had plenty to say about justification by grace. Yet it worked out to be the most frightful system of legalism in the history of the church. Why? It was a theology skillfully devised by human nature. The prophet Daniel depicts the system as having "the eyes of man" (Dan. 7:8). St. Paul calls it the "man of sin" (2 Thess. 2:3). St. John says it has "the number of a man" (Rev. 13:18). Which is to say, the church was corrupted by man's perverse understanding. Grace ceased to mean the mercy and favor of God to poor, undeserving sinners, and came to primarily mean a quality which God infused or poured into the hearts of men. Instead of grace being in reality a quality in God's heart, it came to primarily signify a quality in the repentant believer's heart. Whereas Paul taught that sinners are justified on the basis of God's work for us in Christ, the medieval church came to teach that saints are justified on the basis of God's work in them by the Holy Spirit. Worshipers were thus led to look to the condition of their own hearts and to the state of their religious experience as the basis for their acceptance with God, instead of always trusting alone in the sinless life and atoning death of Christ on the cross imputed and reckoned to them as the basis of their acceptance before God.

The essence of Rome's error was to confuse the "imparted" regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in the heart with justification by the "imputed" spotless righteousness of Christ. Or, to put it another way, to propose that the new birth is the basis of acceptance with God. (The same confusion is widespread within certain groups in the Protestant movement today.) In striking contrast, the gospel sets forth the sinless life and atoning death of Jesus as the believer's only perfect sinless righteousness before God (Jer. 23:6) reckoned to them for their assurance of acceptance and eternal life. The repentant sinner is accepted because Jesus is accepted in his stead. He is declared righteous solely because his Substitute is righteous. Nothing, absolutely nothing within him, makes him worthy and acceptable to God. He is "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6) because Christ's imputed righteousness reckons him as acceptable. .

The philosophy of medieval legalism is not dead by any means. In recent years it has found its rebirth in popular revivalism and the mad pursuit after exciting religious experiences. Whenever the internal experience of the believer becomes the emphasis and main focus in religious teaching, the subjective medieval philosophy triumphs. No matter how the charismatics dress up their preoccupation with their religious emotions, it is the essence of medieval legalism. The remarkable similarity between the Pentecostal experience and medieval mysticism is well documented.¹

2. Confusing Justification with Sanctification "Do your best to serve God, Christ will make up for the deficiency, and by this you will be justified." This is how many think they should combine law and grace. John Bunyan had to meet this error in his day, so he personified this type of legalism as Ignorance in his Pilgrim's Progress:

Christian: "How doest thou believe?

Ignorance: "I believe that Christ died for sinners, and that I shall be justified before God from the curse, through his gracious acceptance of my obedience to his Law. Or thus, Christ makes my Duties that are Religious acceptable to his Father by the addition of his Merits; and so shall I be justified."

Ignorance's formula for salvation may be expressed as follows:

My obedience + Christ's merit = Justification

In theology, this is called synergism. It reminds us of the story of the man who was condemned to death for embezzlement. But there was pity in the heart of the royal family. The king gave $2,000 from the treasury to make good the debt, the queen gave $1,000, and the crown prince gave $980. Then the people in the public gallery passed around the hat and gathered in $19.90. But it was of no avail, for the poor man owed $4,000. "It is no use," said the judge. "The man must be executed." In desperation the fellow searched his pockets and, to the applause of the spectators, produced the last vital dime from his own trouser pocket. Admittedly the last dime was not a great amount compared with the gifts of the royal family, but it was that dime which secured his reprieve. Even if we think that the contribution which we must make toward our justification is as small as that dime, it is inevitable that it will seem more important and precious to us than the merit of Jesus Christ.

3. Semi-Pelagianism. In certain systems of thought, justification by faith is regarded merely as the initiating step in the Christian life rather than throughout the whole Christian life (see Rom. 1:17). This leads to two legalistic propositions:

(a) It is said that justification is initially received by faith in the blood of Christ, but is then sustained by human efforts to keep the law. This is Semi-Pelagianism — it begins in the Spirit and then seeks to be made perfect by the flesh. But the apostle Paul declares that the Christian life is maintained by the same grace and in the same way as it was initiated (Col. 2:6). It begins in faith and ends in faith, and all along the way the just live by faith (Rom. 1:17). God would have His people commit their souls to Him as unto a faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:19). He is able to keep them from falling (Jude 24). "Yea, he shall be held up: for God is able to make him stand." Rom. 14:4. The Lord declares, " . . . they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." John 10:28. They "are kept by the power of God through faith" (1 Peter 1:5).

(b) It is also said that final salvation rests on works. Those who make this claim will point to the Bible teaching that every man will finally be judged by his works (Rom. 2:6-8; Gal. 6:7-9; 2 Cor. 5:10; Col. 3:23-25; 1 Cor. 3:13; Eccl. 12:14; etc.). Of course, the Scriptures are full of the call to action and a life of good works. As G.C. Berkouwer points out, "Christian activity is certainly not to be excluded, or belittled, or condemned; but if this activity is to be sound it must never be severed from its relation to the mercy of God." G.C. Berkouwer, Faith and Sanctification (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1952), p.27. In the judgment, God's people will be judged with mercy (2 Tim. 1:18); otherwise none of their works could endure the severity of judgment. In this life (as John Calvin would say), "the best work that can be brought forward from them [the saints] is still always spotted and corrupted with some impurity of the flesh"² (see Eccl. 7:20; Isa. 64:6; Rom. 3:23). In the judgment, the saints are not worthy but are "counted worthy of the kingdom of God" and "accounted worthy to obtain that world" (2 Thess. 1:5; Luke 20:35). The Christian stands in need of as much forgiving grace at the end of his life as at the beginning—only he is more conscious of his need at the end than at the beginning.  

4. Some distorted types of Arminianism Human nature persists in making some contribution toward salvation. As a last resort, it tries to "innocently" smuggle in faith as the meritorious basis of acceptance with God. Does not Paul say that faith is counted for righteousness (Rom. 4:5)? Therefore some have claimed that God counts men righteous on account of their faith, or "evangelical obedience."³

The expression "justification by faith" can be misunderstood. It does not mean that we can be justified on account of our faith any more than we can be justified on account of repentance, regeneration, sanctification, good works, love or any other subjective quality. There is no merit in faith and repentance. But when faith lays hold on Christ, His perfect obedience is credited to the repentant believing sinner (Rom. 4:4, 6; 5:18, 19). The saving virtue is not in the the repentance or the faith of the sinner, but in the Object of faith, the sinless spotless life and atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ. The faith of the repentant sinner is merely the instrumental means of salvation.

Some distorted forms of Calvinism As a final thrust against the tendency to glory in human achievement, the apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, directs us to begin salvation by faith and trusting in Christ's blood and then proceeds to the subject of predestination (see Rom. 9). He shows that we sinners may believe and trust in Christ, because "whosoever" believes and calls upon the name of Jesus has been "predestined" and called by God's unmerited grace to trust in Christ's doing and dying on the cross. To turn this around and begin with predestination and say that God gives grace and salvation because we have been predestined to believe, or that we are predestined because we have faith and believe, is to base our salvation on a meritorious imparted quality of certain pre-chosen individuals — and hence on internal moral grounds rather than on the external legal grounds of Christ's perfect life and death reckoned to any repentant sinner who trusts in the blood of Christ. The repentant believer is justified and then becomes a part of the predestined elect of God. It is in unbiblical to believe that the predestined or pre-elected will repent and believe because they were irresistibly predestined chosen as individuals to believe. Whosoever will call upon the name of Jesus will become part of the elect and predestined to eternal life.

5. Orthodoxy. We cannot close our discussion on legalism without a comment on the most subtle type of legalism—the legalism of trusting in our sound orthodoxy. We need to remember that we are saved by trusting God's mercy and not by our theology. The truth about justification by grace alone, through faith, calls everything that we do and everything that we are into question. It calls our sanctification into question, and it calls even our understanding of the truth into question. In everything, including our statements about justification, we fall short; so where can we find refuge save in divine mercy?

The disposition to denounce those who err from correct doctrine as cut off from salvation, is contrary to the spirit of the gospel. Like the proud Pharisees of old, we are so prone to pass judgment upon the ignorant—"This people who knoweth not the law are cursed." John 7:49. The cold, cruel and intolerant spirit which has often accompanied orthodoxy, reveals a very legalistic heart. We need to look no further for the reason why orthodoxy has generally produced a dead church. History is stained with the crimes of the Lutheran and Reformed churches against pious Anabaptists, American Puritans against Quakers, and established churches against the sects. Jesus' parable about the unforgiving servant is re-enacted again and again. Our relationship with God is always mirrored by the way we treat our fellow men. After all, we may yet be surprised at how many saints in heaven had queer ideas on earth; but somehow, somewhere, God taught them to submit to His mercy in spite of their erroneous traditions.

It would be better if every Christian took stock of his own poor heart and confessed (if we may borrow the words of St. Paul and the dialectic thought of Karl Barth): "O wretched legalist that I am, who shall deliver me . . . I thank God through Jesus Christ I am not the wretched legalist that I know I am."

Legalism Springs from Sinful Ignorance

Legalism has its roots in sinful ignorance — ignorance of the exalted holiness of God's law on the one hand, and ignorance of the defiled and radical corruption of human nature on the other hand. Only the obedience of Him who was filled with all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9) could satisfy the demands of God's holy law. The sinless life of Jesus was the embodiment of divine perfection, infinite purity and inexhaustible love. All this was required, and nothing less than this, to fulfill all righteousness. In the person of His Son, the eternal God endured infinite suffering and humiliation to pay the human debt to divine justice. This was the price paid for our salvation. Nothing satisfies the law but the doing and dying of Christ. In the light of this inestimable price, the best we could ever offer the law would be "rotten stubble and straw" (Luther).

I did not know the stain of sin was so deep Until I saw Him shed His blood.
I did not know my pride was so high
Until I saw His infinite humiliation. I had no idea how deep my pit of sin
Until I beheld the length of the chain let down to save me.

 
Part II  
 
¹ See Present Truth Magazine, special issue, "Justification by Faith and the Charismatic Movement."
² John Calvin, Institutes of the christian Religion (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), Bk. Ill, Sec. ix.
³ This was the position taken by the immediate followers and apologists for Arminius, a Dutch theologian who tried to find an alternative for calvin's unsatisfactory synthesis of predestination and human responsibility. It would be unfair to classify all Arminians as subscribing to the legalistic view of faith described here.