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Legalism of necessity must have something to do with "legal" which of course deals with law. If something is "legal" then it is allowable, if something is "illegal" than it is forbidden or prohibited. When God gave Moses the law, it set forth an administration of justice by establishing what is "legal" and what is "illegal". The purpose of the law was not to provide a means whereby a person could become righteous, but rather to lay out a code of justice whereby the children of Israel would be able to function as a Godly nation.
From the time Moses received the original Ten Commandments, the children of Israel proved themselves incapable of remaining faithful to even the first and great command, let alone all the minute dictates concerning seemingly every detail in life. No person could be expected to fulfill every jot and title of the law. It was not given for that purpose. The law entered to show what sin is and how to avoid it. The law is nothing but a standard for the administration of justice.
By the time Jesus was born, groups of people had arisen who deemed it their mission in life to define the fine points of the law and police the people and make them obey. These people known as the scribes and Pharisees had taken the original law as given to Moses and added so many things to it, that it had become as a huge rock tied around the necks of the people. Simple commandments of God had become legal mazes so complex the average person didn't know if he was transgressing the law by sneezing on the Sabbath.
The scribes and Pharisees had established a legal system so stifling and restrictive they had succeeded in their mission of totally oppressing the people and by so doing, promoting themselves as the high and holy guardians of the truth. A brilliant ploy indeed, for this gave them unrestricted power over the common people to prescribe and carry out whatever they desired with little or no opposition.
What the scribes and Pharisees developed was a perfect legalistic religion. They took something ordained by God, the law, and twisted it, added to it, subtracted from it and turned it around to suit their purposes. They took God's Word and by butchering it, made a religion that looked good on the outside but was corrupt and despicable on the inside. Religion many times oppresses people, for that is its aim. Truth never oppresses, but will instead always set people free.
When the administration for justice is turned into a legalistic religion that is held over people's heads as a giant hammer ready to flatten them; the ensuing fear and rigid lifestyle is perfectly suited for manipulation. Suppress the freedom and independence of the masses and the resulting oppression will keep them under the subjection of their masters.
The children of Israel were slaves to the Egyptians. They were oppressed day and night by their taskmasters. They were told what to do, when to do it and had little or no individual freedom to do anything without the ever watchful eyes of Egyptian guards looking over their shoulders. More than anything else, they were forced to do backbreaking work with no time off and little pay. They were truly slaves to their Egyptian masters.
Legalism is every bit as tough of taskmaster as the Egyptians were. Legalism ensnares, holds captive and otherwise ruins people's lives. Legalism demands obedience to every jot and title of the law, plus all the additional laws made to expand the limits of the law. True legalism and true liberty are bitter enemies and cannot be reconciled. True legalism is not Godly nor is it what God intended when giving His law. True legalism is man taking God's law and turning it into a religion which produces oppression and slavery.
Jesus Christ kept the law and fulfilled it. He had to in order to be our redeemer. Throughout the gospels, you do not see Jesus hammering away at people telling them all the things they were doing wrong or forcing his disciples to be slaves to him. Jesus did not come to start a new religion based on the slavery of legalism. He came to set people free from what man had done to corrupt the law of God and turn it into what the scribes and Pharisees promoted.
There are many wonderful and God fearing groups who are mistakenly labeled "legalistic". This is an error that has had grave consequences. True legalism takes something God ordained and turns it into a religion so suffocating that no one can live it. Many groups which are labeled as "legalistic" DO NOT DO THIS; they simply try to do what the Word of God says to do. Is it wrong to want to please God by doing what He says to do? IT IS NOT LEGALISM TO WANT TO OBEY GOD'S COMMANDS AND DO HIS WILL.
Liberal groups who teach grace as a license to sin will be the first ones to point fingers at conservative groups trying to obey God and call them "legalistic". It is very obvious why they do this, for it is to defend their "freedom" to sin. There is a form of "legalism" that is ordained by God, and there is pure "legalism" that is straight from the devil. Unless the two can be defined and clarified, then unnecessary conflicts arise and terrible divisions splinter the Body of Christ.
In Jesus Christ's time, the Pharisees and the scribes represented the evil and devilish side of legalism. Jesus spent much of his ministry confronting their hypocrisy. What the scribes and Pharisees did to the law is what religious legalism has done to true Christianity today. Christianity is not a religion. It never has been and never will be. What Jesus did in confronting and exposing the leaven of the Pharisees, so someone must do today with the "Christian" religion.
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