Legalism, one of our best dressed but most dangerous sins. It is one of the two paths to hell, one is antinomianism/law breaking; the other is legalism. Our relationship with law is a very uneasy one. As human beings we are born in Adam, we are born into a covenant of works. Adam was put under probation and under law, by obeying the law of God He could have won for Himself and the human race the right of access to the tree of life and God’s Sabbath Rest. Instead He condemned instead of saving us, and we were cast out of the garden and into sin. As human beings we all still have the law of God written on our hearts, this means we know what the right thing is to do; but because of Adam’s failure there is this this drive in all of us to work for our salvation woven into the desire to pursue the good. The law of God which represents God’s righteousness is on the one hand the proper path that defines the good and we know we ought to pursue it, this unfortunately is undermined by our sinful hearts who seek to throw off God’s authority and live by our own authority; and yet on the other hand law becomes a terrible yolk that we afflict ourselves and others with. The law is something like nuclear fusion, something that we can use for great good and great evil. Legalism is our misuse of this law. Legalism is especially a pet sin for the religious. Legalism is able to dress up and look like false religion. It always wins when the contest is between sin and a man-made set of rules seeking to honor God and find salvation. It is the wrong way of...

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