A fairly broad definition of legalism would be: laws without love, scripture without God’s presence, and obedience without relationship. A legalist is attempting to follow God without being filled with the Holy Spirit. He stands at a distance from the Father and strives to do what only a person in relationship with Him can do: live holy. This dry religion is just a ritual to him, he is keeping the “rules” without actually entering into a supernatural relationship with the Holy Spirit. This produces boredom and burnout, because we cannot live like Christ unless we are filled with Christ.

Legalism in essence is attempting to earn a gift. A legalistic person will obey God’s laws, which is good, but for the wrong reason. Their motivation for obedience is to earn God’s free gift of salvation and righteousness which is impossible. They feel they must climb the ladder to reach God, unfortunately no amount of climbing will ever be enough because,

“For we maintain that man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” (Romans 3:28)

“Therefore by the works of the law will no man be justified.” (Romans 3:20)

A legalist is lacking three primary revelations, one of relationship with the Holy Spirit, one of identity in Christ, and one of grace. The lack of understanding of these truths cause many to fall away from Christ or live with failure upon failure because they are operating in their own strength to obey. They live in anxiety and fear because they can never work up enough willpower and self-control to follow God’s laws.

1. The Holy Spirit

Unless we are continually immersed in the reality of God’s presence we have no power to obey the commands of Christ. Therefore a legalist is limited in operation to his or her own ability and willpower to fulfill the laws of God. It’s impossible. Christianity without the Holy Spirit is the heart beat of legalism. It’s the arm of the flesh attempting to please God in its own strength, rather than tapping into the supernatural fountain of Holy Ghost energy to do what is asked of us.

2. Identity in Christ

When we understand who we are in Christ we are empowered to behave like Him. As I have explained before, we do what we believe we are, our behavior is the manifestation of our inner-beliefs. Therefore as we recognize who Christ made us in Him through His work on the cross, we are therefore aligning ourselves with the truth and are enabled to walk out our true identity in Him. A legalist obeys God from an “I am not” mentality, meaning that he sees his own sin and corruption and believes himself to be a sinner, and therefore is striving to obey God through the distorted lens of, “I am not holy,” “I am not pure,” “I am just a wretched sinner saved by grace.” They lack an understanding of who they really are in Christ. This makes obedience such a striving war with sin because we do what we think. If we believe we are sinful and bound to it, we will live accordingly. We will sin by faith!

3. Grace

Most people see grace from a one-sided forgiveness aspect, but its whole meaning encompasses the power of God. Therefore if one lacks the revelation of the power of grace to overcome sin, they again are limited to rely upon their own crooked flimsy will-power. But even though there is a large amount of attention given to the free gift aspect of grace, there are still many people who do not understand this concept either and are trying to earn salvation and righteousness by their own efforts. Salvation both freely forgives our crimes and kills the sinful nature that we are enslaved by. But again we cannot have one without the other, they come as one package and one cannot be enjoyed without the other.

We must understand both aspects of grace to walk in the freedom that the gospel offers. Forgiveness and righteous standing before God can never be bought it was purchased with the precious blood of Jesus, and this precious gift comes combined with the crucifying power of the Holy Spirit that drives the nail through the hardened heart of that old man and resurrects him into a new creation.

A legalist may lack one or more of these revelations and is ever frustrated in his always failing willpower. But we as true spirit-filled believers should live an even more squeaky clean and upright life before God than the legalists, because we actually have the supernatural power to obey the commandments of Christ. Whereas the legalist is attempting to please God in the flesh, we are possessed by the Spirit of God and are swept along by the currents of His divine grace that enable fruitful and righteous living.