One of Martin Luther’s many contributions has to do with the Latin word incurvitas. Sounds like something a dentist can tell you when you push and aim your molars, but that’s not all. In fact, the word means “look inwards. ” This means that we are naturally selfish, self-centered and selfish, and although all these adjectives are quite harmful, this condition of curves has an even more revealing effect. As we look inward, we believe that we can achieve justice completely in therefore we strive anxiously to get in order with God.
How many times have you heard someone say that as long as our good works prevail over our evils, God will welcome us to heaven with open arms?How many religious systems are based on works?How many people feel trapped by failed attempts to achieve perfection?? These are all curve cases. It’s an epidemic.
- Understanding this concept of curves very well.
- Luther said.
- “It is very difficult for a man to believe that God is good with him.
- The human heart cannot understand that.
- “If we do not look at grace.
- We look at ourselves and our own efforts.
- And that is where the roots of legalism lie.
The roots of legalism lie in the sinful and fallen human heart, which manifests its condition of sin in our distorted desire to rely on our own merits and abilities, in an attempt to somehow come out of the abyss of sin and attain fullness. from the road to heaven. One discovers grace as the bitter taste of a pill. She tells us we can never be good enough.
Interestingly, the opposite of legalism also lies in grace. The opposite of legalism is antinomism. This word includes the Greek prefix ‘anti-‘, ‘against, rather than’ and the Greek word ‘nomos’, ‘law’. Theologically speaking, antinomians eluded any legal obligation or divine commandment. Antinomians are like James Bond: they have the right to sin But this is the sad lie of antinomism. It’s not freedom, it’s license.
The solution to legalism is not antinomism, the solution to antinomism is not legalism, the solution for both is grace, which Luther told us was difficult to understand, exploring the roots of legalism will serve not only to unmask it, but also to show it. the bright and impressive contours of his solution, the grace of God.
The clearest expression of legalism in the scriptures comes from the stories of the gospel antagonists, the Pharisees. In fact, thanks to them, we have the term “Pharisee”, defined as “serious hypocritical self-justice”. None of these three cosas. es anything good. Together, we have something very bad. Another definition informs us that the term?Pharisee?Does this mean an extreme commitment to religious and ritual observance?Beyond belief. Both aspects of the definition are crucial, the first is the effort and anguish for heaven, the second part leads us back to Luther’s quote and our aversion to grace; it just can’t be as simple as believing.
Christ faced this tendency to justify himself throughout the pages of the Gospels. One of these places is the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18. “I thank you because I am not like the others, ” now the Pharisee. justice itself. The Pharisee always states that he fasts and pays tithing; it’s external obedience.
In this parable, the Pharisee contrasts with the tax collector, who simply prays, “O God, be conducive to me, sinner!”Here, there is a call to grace.
A few lines later, the rich leader comes to Christ; he also behaves like a Pharisee who affirms his own justice; it seems that wherever Christ goes, he meets the Pharisees.
Ironically, the Pharisees, although they thought otherwise, were not really concerned with God’s law; in fact, they created a whole system of regulations to allow them to circumvent God’s law. They were experts in creating lagoons, they had a system of artificial laws. to avoid divine law. And they took Israel the wrong way. Therefore, we see why Jesus so vehemently opposed them and called them false shepherds of Israel, as in the series of “woes” unleashed in Matthew 23.
Before his conversion, Paul was one of those false shepherds, and Paul was a consummate loyalist. In fact, it would be difficult to find another person so jealous of the law. He was aware of the case when he said, “For no one will be justified before him by works of the law” (Romans 3:20). ). He was aware of the cause when he lamented: “All who are works of the law are under a curse” (Galatians 3:10).
Paul also had a personal experience of grace, so he said cheerfully, “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to save those who were under the law” (Gal 4:4, 5). It is impossible to study Paul without coming into contact with grace. Thus we read in Romans 5 that all our efforts end in Christ. Can we achieve peace with God only by faith in Christ?The only one who has fully complied with the law.
As we move to the pages of Church history, we see that the Church’s attention to grace overshadowed by legalism, this happened on a large scale after the controversy between Augustine and Pelage. As a result of this controversy, the seeds were sown, which eventually lead to a complete system of works, such as the vision of salvation of the medieval church. A key here is the transition from biblical teaching on repentance to the church’s teaching on penance.
Repentance is illustrated by the tax collector in christ’s parable. Repentant simply prays to God: “Have mercy, am I a sinner?Penance is the list of things you can do that will allow you to recover with God. “As the list was long, Luther tried in vain to reach God as a good monk. Luther even entered the monastery as an extremely misguided attempt to please God.
Only one thing resulted from Luther’s fiery work: he was further from God and plunged into anguish. Later in life, he suffered physically because of his earlier attempt to obtain justice for these efforts. But in His grace, God has come to Lutero. no we can grasp grace naturally. That’s why grace catches us.
A branch of the Reformation initially celebrated this glorious truth of grace, but then turned away from it. In Zurich, the Anabaptists appeared. In addition to their other beliefs, they advocated the isolation of society and life in separate communities. They would soon develop a dress code and rules on how they would live and work. They were called Mennonites, following the teachings of Menno Simons (1496–1561). In 1693, Jakob Ammann separated from the Mennonites due to the practice of “banishment”, with the elimination of those who had broken the rules. His disciples would be known as the Amish. They also went beyond the gospel in terms of regulations. traditions.
The same dynamic occurred in the twentieth century in several pockets of fundamentalism. I remember entering a church in the 1970s and came across two large diagrams showing acceptable patterns about hair and clothing for men and women. Christianity has been reduced to lists, mainly of what not to do.
Just as Christ faced legalism in almost every page of the Gospels, he can find legalism on every page of Church history; However, you may also find otherwise. Antinomism flourished during the Reformation, it also flourished and continues to thrive amid pockets of fundamentalism. Unfortunately, we can tell the full story of humanity’s misguided search for God, tracking these ubiquitous threads of legalism and antinomism.
The opposite of legalism is not a license, it is freedom. Luther called the epistle the Galatians his “Katie,” “I’m committed to her,” he says. It’s a compliment that has two aspects. This reflects how much he loved his wife and how much he deeply loved the Galatians’ message. It’s the epistle of freedom.
In our attempt to discover the roots of legalism, we must ultimately look at our own lives. Curvitas prevent us from seeing our true need, they trick us into believing that we are basically good and that we just need to be better. Legalism is really damning and quite harmful. Legalism can even catapult us to its opposite, into a life of leave and a life, in short, of rebellion.
The reality is that we are not good, the irony of this part of the good news of the gospel is that we are not good at anything and, because we are not good, we can never look at each other, but we must look at each other. the one who was born a woman, born under the law, he’s the only one who’s right. He kept the law and endured his punishment for those who trusted him. God freely pours out his grace upon us for what Christ has done for us. Christ delivered us (Galatians 5. 1).