Legalism

I believe that legalism is the greatest single problem in the Church. Not whose doing this or that. It is not sin or the lack of faith or the fact that we don’t have the right doctrines. No and a thousand times no! Legalism is the greatest single problem in the Church.Legalism, is first of all, the attempt to achieve righteousness with God by keeping a set of rules. Paul in his letter to the Romans very clearly states; “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:17)Grace and the gift of righteousness are received not “achieved.” The difference between those two words is immense. If you are attempting to be righteous with God by any set of rules, you are under legalism. Now let me state very quickly there is nothing wrong with rules. We need them. It is wrong however, to believe that keeping those rules will make us righteous with God.“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.”  (Rom. 10:4.) For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. ( Rom. 6:14.)Why? Because..... Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Gal. 3:13-14)“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” (Eph. 2:8)Legalism is the cause of much of the sin in the church. Many sincere and honest Christians have embraced a set of “do not” rules such as: Don’t look, don’t drink, don’t wear, don’t go, don’t associate.... the list goes on and on. They think that observing these prohibitions will make them righteous. When our attention is focused on such regulations, however, be become enslaved by them.Obviously there is a completely different way of becoming righteous. It is a righteousness from God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ.  The only way to live in God’s Grace, His unmerited favor is through Christ. Paul goes on to say:“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”(Rom. 3:21-24).Please notice, first of all, that righteousness comes “through faith.” True righteousness is given us “by His grace.” There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, between Catholic and Protestant, or between any one nationality and another. Paul is very clear that we are all alike in one point - we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.Since we cannot be justified by the works of the Law therefore, we must accept the only alternative, which is God’s Grace. We cannot earn it. We must receive it by believing in Christ Jesus.How? Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38Repent..... Everyone knows what it means to repent right? Well lets see what the word means in the Greek; 3340. metanoe÷w metanoeo, met-an-o-eh´-o; from 3326 and 3539; to think differently or afterwards, i.e. reconsider (morally, feel compunction): — repent.In writing to the Philippians Paul says: Phil. 4:8 ¶ Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. MSGAt any given moment, you can choose to pay attention to what's present or what's missing, what's working or what's broken, what you achieve or what you messed up, what's available or what's unavailable, what's possible or what's impossible, and what excites you or what frightens you. And, in so doing, you will win or lose the battle for you mind. In a nutshell, whatever you dwell upon becomes increasingly imprinted in and on your mind. What you focus on will determine how you feel, and preform today! It is all about the power of "attention". If you pay attention (Consider) how you can become righteous by keeping the law you will always be aware of your sins. If however you pay attention to the work of God in Christ, you will become aware of His Grace, His righteousness. What you think about, what you pay attention determines your life. Here's how it works: the more you emphasize your good health with both your silent thoughts and your public speech, the healthier you feel. The more you stay mindful of the positive qualities in your spouse, the closer and stronger your relationship will become. The more attention you give your kids, the more influence you will have in their lives. The more you mull over God's promises, the greater your spiritual convictions will become. The opposite is true the more you mentally replay a particular injustice, the more frustrated you will become. If you constantly replay mental movies of what is broken, you will notice more of what is broken. If your emotional life today is not where you ultimately want it to be, then your top priority should be shifting your attention to your blessings, to your strengths, and to the aspects of your life that are working. Although most people are not automatically positive, neither are we hopelessly negative. Our lives tend to imitate the thoughts that we entertain most consistently. The very clear corollary of this is that we feel what we dwell upon. Our focus determines our feelings. This is the power of the principle that is found in Phil. 4:8.MY FOCUS DETERMINES MY FEELING! MY FEELING IMPACTS MY DAY! Even medical research is finding that attention changes brain function. Let me quote, “What you choose to focus your attention on increases activity of those brain cells (neurons) concerned with that stimulus.They are finding that there isn’t one single attention center in the brain.”“When you pay attention to something, the part of your brain that processes “that something” becomes more active. The willful act of focusing increases the activity of that particular area of the brain concerned with processing that stimulus.”“The bottom Line is this what you choose to pay attention to can change brain activity and physically rewire the brain. Therefore negative thoughts and behaviors can entrench themselves having long term negative consequences. The, “Good news,” this is reversible by changing what one thinks and focuses on.”“New imaging can now show how brain function changes with changing thoughts. Thoughts create physical changes in the brain. Thoughts are associated with patterns of activity of cells (neurons) in the brain. Thoughts produce biochemical changes in brain cells. Thoughts creates one’s physical reality. When you look at something/someone, nerve impulses are created in the retina of your eye and sent to your brain. Your brain in turn recreates that image internally.”I started this paper off by saying “legalism is the single greatest problem in the Church.” Why? Because it cause people to think and pay attention to themselves or other people. Grace always causes us to think or pay attention to Christ and His finished work.The law is “man” centered and grace is “Christ” centered!