May/June 2003
The End of the Law
by Steve Reynolds
| Legalism is a detour along the pathway of the Christian life that sidetracks many of us. |
For Sale: One Ten Commandments plaque, beautifully-crafted, ornately inscribed on burnished brass and mounted on a hand-polished wooden base.
It isn't that I don't believe in the Commandments anymore, or even that I think they are a bad thing. It's more that the focus of my Christian life has been changed from Commandment-keeping to allowing Christ to keep and fulfill them for me and through me.
Legalism is a detour along the pathway of the Christian life that sidetracks many of us. For me it represents the time of my greatest struggles, my worst depression and a terrible feeling of condemnation. It shouldn't surprise me, that's exactly what the Bible says that the law is for (2 Corinthians 3:6-9)!
When I was steeped in legalism, I could never do enough for God. To me, (although I would never have said it and was even ashamed to have thought it), he was a cruel taskmaster ready to strike me with every failure and consume me when his patience wore thin. What a far cry from the loving, compassionate Father that Jesus embodied and presented in his ministry. I was wrong about God.
Little did I know that God's love was not like any love I had ever known, even from my own parents. Little did I know that he is quick to forgive those who admit their sins. Little did I know that he is the good shepherd who delights in his children and rejoices over them. Little did I know... him.
When I discovered God's grace, the scales fell from my eyes revealing a panorama of wonder -- indescribable vistas of God's love. No more was God my enemy making outrageous, unrealistic demands of me, but he was my friend, willing to fulfill his own stringent requirements for me. God's answer to my sin problem was to offer a gift infinitely better, infinitely more attractive than sin. That gift is Jesus. The birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus represents God's coup de grace -- the deathblow to sin, Satan and the cosmic rebellion that he initiated.
So, I think I will put up a picture of Jesus in place of the law in my study. That is a fair representation of what has transpired in my heart. Where the law used to dominate my affections, now it is Jesus. Where the law used to be the focus of my Christian life, now it is Jesus. "For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes (Romans 10:4, NRSV)"including me.
Steve Reynolds is a 34-year-old freelance writer who resides in Memphis, Tennessee and enjoys music, movies, laughter and life.