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%DISAVOWING LEGALISM 770307
Christianity has often been a mixture of the gospel
of love with unconditional acceptance on the one hand, and
the threat of guilt and conditional acceptance on the
other. In extreme instances Christianity has adopted
legalistic acceptance. This usually takes the form of
moral and ethical injunctions which are garbed in language
which makes morality of a legalistic sort masquerade as an
expression of Love.
Often the corrective measure taken by those who
perceive the heresy of Christian legalism --- is to preach
the importance of love. Unfortunately, such preaching
often sounds much like preaching about being highly moral
as a way to express love. As a consequence, the heresy of
Christian morality is not dealt with. To deal effectively
with the heresy of Christian morality the issue must be
dealt with more clearly. There must be an appropriate
disavowal of legalism. This is difficult to do in an
unambiguous manner. Words mean different things to
different people. The issues are not clear cut issues. In
some instances, what is important cannot be communicated
verbally, much less in purely logical terms. Yet a helpful
resolution of the problem of Christian morality is not
likely to occur without a resolute effort to reveal that
Christianity is not about to living according to a
legalistic moral code --- no matter how perfect that code
may be. Ways must be found to distinguish between
legalistic morality and gracious morality---morality
motivated directly by grace, love. The two kinds of
morality are often confused. Some people probably are
unaware that their respective moralities are quite
different from each other.
A disavowal of legalistic morality will in many
instances cause consternation on the part of supporters of
legalistic morality. If they have sufficient power, the
legalists will excommunicate themselves from those who
disavow legalistic morality---for they as legalists cannot
comprehend or tolerate gracious morality which makes no
attempt to guarantee proper behavior. They fear love
which casts out fear of guilt.
(c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in
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