Overcoming the Legalism Inside All of Us

Matthew 12:1-4

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.Matthew 11:28-30 

Sabbath Design

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.Exodus 20:8-11 

Sabbath Sabotaged

To be sure, the Pharisees were legalists. Their legalism, however, was the result of trying to reduce the law down to something manageable in the lives of the people. This did not leave them too strict, but far too lax in comparison to the fulness of what God required. 

–Jacob Gerber  

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.Matthew 23:23-24

He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Matthew 12:11-12 

Sabbath Restored

Bible vs. Bible ...

Have you not read what David did when he was hungry… (vs.3)    

Or have you not read the Law… (vs. 5) 

And, if you had known what this means… (vs. 7) 

I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.

Matthew 12:6

If you had known what these words mean, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

Matthew 12:7-8

What is legalism?

A peculiar kind of submission to God’s law, something that no longer feels the personal divine touch in the rule it submits to.  

–Geerhardus Vos 

Legalism is simply separating the law of God from the person of God. 

–Sinclair Ferguson 

It’s commonplace to say that one can have a legalistic head and a legalistic heart. But it’s also all too possible to have an evangelical head and a legalistic heart.

–Sinclair Ferguson 

Legalism lacks the supreme sense of worship. It obeys but it does not adore.

–Geerhardus Vos