Why is God faithful?

While involved in my pursuit of godliness I just wanted to share with other people why God's glory is so important in my life.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

More Legalism

I listened to a sermon by C.J. Mahaney last week and he was talking about legalism. He was in Galatians and talking about how we nullify what Christ accomplished on the cross, either through legalism as we’d know it or other means, of which I hadn’t thought about. I would normally look at legalism and see someone that would say that you have to do this or that in order to be saved. Or they would also say, “Because I do this I’m godlier than you.” In his sermon he talked about how we condemn ourselves of our sins and completely negate grace. As a testament of God’s faithfulness and my stupidity he had to drive this point home all week. Saturday night I was with a friend for our fellowship group, she was talking about her trip home over the 4th of July weekend and her pastor’s sermon while she was there. He was speaking on John 8 and the adulteress that the Pharisees brought to Jesus seeking to trick him. Verses 10 and 11 say, “Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, From now on sin no more." Isn’t it just plain retarded how we condemn ourselves of sin and Christ, being the only person who is able to condemn does not condemn us either, pretty crazy huh. In fact not only did He not cast a stone but His Father didn’t put His stone down, He threw the stone that I deserved at Him. Saturday morning at a Bible study I attend anothe friend showed me how we often do this, condemn ourselves of sin, because in some way we think that we can cause ourselves to hate sin more, or instill some kind of repentance in our hearts. All of this was accomplished by Christ, He suffered our condemnation so we wouldn’t have to, His death gives us the strength for repentance, and if when I sin I would be convicted of it and look immediately to the Cross then my sin would deepen my love for Christ’s atoning work and that would cause me to hate my sin. Galatians 2:21 “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” So basically I was adding to the Gospel by creating some way in order for me to stop sinning, instead of looking to the Grace of Calvary and relying on the Cross of Christ.