{"id":755,"date":"2015-08-03T10:31:04","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T10:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=755"},"modified":"2015-08-03T13:45:33","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T13:45:33","slug":"755","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=755","title":{"rendered":"Turning Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"05-20-15<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Howdy Prodigal!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 You showed up at the right time, me and my friend were just wandering what to do next.\u00a0 We have not decided yet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Maybe I can share with you some encouragement?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 That would be great!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today I am going to share about legalism from the book Light for the Path by Edward Welch<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Turning Back<\/p>\n

“Tell me, you who want to be under the law,” wrote Paul to the church.\u00a0 The gospel becomes a new self-imposed law when we add anything to what Christ has done, and Paul says that we actually prefer this arrangement.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leaving entrenched legalism is a straightforward process, but you should expect to leave many times.\u00a0 It won’t happened all at once.\u00a0 In Paul’s book to the churches in Galatia, he marshals a number of arguments to persuade people of the truth of Christ and the error of legalism.<\/strong><\/p>\n

–He expresses his personal astonishment that people would turn from the grace of Christ (Gal 1:6).<\/strong><\/p>\n

–He establishes his own credentials to speak with authority (Gal 1-11-2:14).<\/strong><\/p>\n

–He cites Abraham as an example of how we are first given promises we receive by faith, and only then are we given rules for living.\u00a0 These are responses to his grace (Gal. 3-1-25)<\/strong><\/p>\n

–He cites how God chose Isaac, Abraham’s son by God’s promise, rather than Ishmael, Abraham’s son by a man-made plan (Gal. 4:21-31).<\/strong><\/p>\n

–He reminds us that it is only grace that keeps us from racism and other forms of pride.\u00a0 Otherwise, we judge by laws we think we have kept and others have not.\u00a0 If we add our works to the grace of God, we will no longer be one people unified by Christ, but one small clique that thinks it is better than the others (Gal 3:26-29).<\/strong><\/p>\n

–He keeps emphasizing that he wants us to be free, and freedom can only be found when we acknowledge that Christ has done it all (Gal. 5:1-5).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul summarizes his teaching against legalism with this familiar exhortation:\u00a0 “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love”(Gal. 5:6).\u00a0 If this is true (and it is) we as legalists should respond by saying, “Lord, forgive me.”\u00a0 We had been counting on something we could accomplish ourselves rather than relying on the grace of God.\u00a0 We were actually proud enough to think we could please God on our own merits.\u00a0 To think so, we must have had a very superficial understanding of sin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

First we need to look for \u00a0legalism in our walk with God, our relationships, our church and\u00a0then fight against this daily and weekly. \u00a0 We then turn to grace and God’s love for us. \u00a0Only then are we able to \u00a0recover our joy and return to the heart of the gospel.<\/p>\n

Philippians 3:4<\/p>\n

Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.\u00a0 If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jennifer Van Allen<\/p>\n

www.faithincounseling.org<\/p>\n

www.theprodigalpig.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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