Oak Hill Church of Christ 7-31-22 Message: "Legalism: The Search for Innocence"

Oak Hill Church of Christ preaching minister, Randy Sterling, delivers a message on the spiritual dangers of focusing too tightly on the letter of the law and disregarding the spirit.

Too often people find it comforting to create for themselves a formula of living which tends to fulfill two separate, but equally important goals. First, the formula includes things they want to do or are willing to do, and following those things results in salvation as an entitlement. Second, the formula allows them an easy test to use against others so that they can be subjugated or disregarded.

Legalism feeds the desire for prideful approval-seeking, as well as the desire for the power to hold others in contempt. Though this is not how legalism starts, the behavior of the Pharisees in Jesus' day tell us this is how it normally ends. Such a temptation is with us even today.

Jesus introduces a contrary way of looking at things. That we might look to God as the source of our behavior and in doing so, grow as His children, without the desire for power, authority, and the need to hold others in contempt. Jesus, in fact, suggests that God's followers should let that old version of themselves pass away, and be born anew.

If you find your faith life struggling because you feel the constant need to compare yourself to others, or if you have come from a background where you were made to feel less-than because of the prideful judgments of those who would call themselves your wiser, nobler brethren, consider this story from the Bible and the opportunity for a better faith journey with God making the rules.