The Legalism of Grace

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. —Galatians 5:1, NIV

At times I think we misunderstand what exactly this freedom is. This freedom is freedom from sin. It can’t touch us anymore, we will no longer be seen as sinners, we will no longer fall under its clutches because God refuses to let us be separated from Him anymore. You can still screw up, you can still make mistakes, but things that are lawful to you can no longer be construed as sin and be used as shackles to bind you.

That is the reality, but if we imagine that a thing is sinful, Paul says, that to us, it remains a sin and it will continue to corrupt the way we view ourselves and others, apart from the true reality of who we really are that has been given to us in Jesus Christ. And this is the danger of the legality of “Grace”, when the failure to say the right things or when we do things that have been redefined as “legalistic”, becomes sin to us.

No, grace was never meant to merely recreate another mindset on what is and isn’t sin, grace was meant to take the focus off of sin and place the focus on Jesus and God. God says, “Forget all that pretending that you’re better than you really are and come spend time with me because I AM going to make you better than you are!”