Legalism, a Word Scripture Never Uses

Some words work like a stop sign. No one argues with them; everyone simply stops. “Legalism” is one of those words. Say that believers should keep God’s commandments, and someone will answer, kindly but firmly, “Be careful. That’s legalism.” With that the conversation is over.

The concern behind the word is real, and it deserves respect. No one wants to be a Pharisee in the worst sense of that word, proud and hard and keeping score. The Bible does warn against something here.

Yet the word itself appears nowhere in Scripture, neither in the Hebrew nor in the Greek. That does not make the concern wrong, but it does mean we should learn what the Bible itself calls the thing it warns against, and then make sure we are aiming at the same target.

What Scripture Rebukes

The Bible does have a name for it, and Paul uses it:

Galatians 5:4 You have been severed from Messiah, you who are seeking to be justified by nomos νόμος nom'-os(law); you have fallen from charis χάρις khar'-ece(grace).

“You who are seeking to be justified by nomos(law).” The word is dikaioo δικαιόω dik-ah-yo'-o, to declare righteous, to justify. The danger is not in keeping the law. It lies in trying to be declared righteous by it, in treating obedience as the price of acceptance with God.

Paul does not treat that danger lightly. Look at the two verbs on either side of it: “severed from Messiah” and “fallen from charis(grace).” A person who tries to purchase his standing with God by his own record has stepped off the ground on which he stood. The issue is not what he does with his hands on the Sabbath or at the dinner table. The issue is where he has placed his trust.

Paul says the same of Israel in Romans:

Romans 9:30-32 What then shall we say? That the nations, who were not pursuing dikaiosyne δικαιοσύνη dik-ah-yos-oo'-nay(righteousness), attained dikaiosyne(righteousness) — the dikaiosyne(righteousness) that is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a nomos(law) of dikaiosyne(righteousness), did not reach the nomos(law) of dikaiosyne(righteousness). Why? Because it was not by faith but as by works of the nomos(law) — they stumbled against the stone of stumbling,

“Why? Because it was not by faith but as by works of the nomos(law).” Israel pursued a good thing, “a nomos(law) of dikaiosyne(righteousness),” in the wrong way. The fault lay not in the law but in seeking righteousness by works instead of by faith.

It is the same issue Peter named at the council in Acts 15. The yoke was not the Torah. The yoke was the Torah made into a condition of salvation. That is what Scripture rebukes, and so do we.

A Ring on the Hand

Think of a wedding ring. A wife who keeps her vows is not trying to become married. She is married already, and she keeps her vows because she is. Now picture a woman who believed that wearing the ring faithfully would one day make her a wife. She would have everything backward, for the ring cannot create the marriage. Yet no one would warn a married woman that keeping her vows is a danger to her marriage.

To seek justification by the law is to think, like that woman, that the ring makes the marriage. Keeping the commandments because one has been justified by grace is faithfulness. The Bible has a great deal to say about the second, and none of it is negative.

What Scripture Calls Commandment-Keepers

Listen to how the Bible describes people who love and keep God’s commandments:

Psalm 119:97 How I love your Torah! All the day it is my meditation.

“How I love your Torah!” This is not a man counting points. It is a man in love.

Luke introduces the parents of John the Baptist in this way:

Luke 1:6 They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and dikaioma δικαίωμα dik-ah'-yo-mah(ordinances) of the Lord.

“Righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and dikaioma(ordinances) of the Lord.” Luke means it as praise. These are the people God chose to raise the forerunner of the Messiah. If a church today described a couple in these words, someone might worry that they were legalists. Luke calls them righteous.

John, the apostle of love, ties love and commandments together in a single sentence:

1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God — that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

“This is the love of God — that we keep His commandments.” The last words matter as well: “His commandments are not burdensome.” John never imagined that keeping them would crush anyone. They are what love looks like when it rises in the morning and goes about its work.

Mint, Dill, and Cummin

What, then, of the Pharisees? Did Yeshua not rebuke them for keeping too many rules?

Matthew records His rebuke, and it is worth reading to the end:

Matthew 23:23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier provisions of the nomos(law) — krisis κρίσις kree'-sis(judgment) and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

The weightier things He names, judgment and mercy and faithfulness, are themselves part of the Torah. Then comes the sentence that is easy to pass over: “these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”

The others are the tithes on mint and dill and cummin, small garden herbs, the smallest commandments one could imagine. Yeshua does not tell them to stop tithing their herbs because that is legalism. He tells them to do the great things without leaving the small things undone. They were to do both.

The Pharisees’ problem was not that they kept the commandments. It was that they kept the small ones and abandoned the great ones. Yeshua corrected their neglect, not their obedience.

Who Is Great in the Kingdom?

Yeshua also told us plainly how He ranks the keeping of commandments:

Matthew 5:19 Whoever then breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of the heavens; but whoever keeps and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of the heavens.

“Whoever keeps and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of the heavens.”

Something strange has happened over time. The label “legalism” has slowly come to rest on the very person Scripture calls “righteous” and “great in the kingdom.” The word that is not in the Bible has been pinned on the person the Bible praises.

Scripture’s own vocabulary settles the matter. What we must guard against is “seeking to be justified by nomos(law).” What we must keep is “His commandments.” When those two are kept apart, the stop sign comes down.

Yet there is one letter that seems to say outright that the feasts and the Sabbath are over. Paul wrote to the Colossians that “no one is to krino κρίνω kree'-no(judge) you … in respect to heortes(festival) or new moon or sabbatons.” To many readers that settles the matter. But one question is easy to pass over: who was doing the judging?