10 ways to spot a legalist in your church

1) They cheapen grace by focusing on what we must do rather than on what Christ has done.

2) They'll say non-sensical things like, "Salvation is free but it will cost you everything you have."

3) They are "fruit inspectors" and hypothesize how much spiritual fruit a person must produce in order to truly be saved.

4) They focus on things like turning, trying and crying instead of faith alone in Christ alone for salvation.

5) Their "gospel" could never be falsely accused of being a license to sin (like Paul's was in Romans 3:8!)

6) They scare others with assertions that, if you preach too much grace, people will run amok.

7) They conveniently avoid or over exegete large portions of gospel-centric New Testament books like Galatians, Romans and John.

8) They blend justification passages with sanctification passages and then try to get us to drink a heresy smoothie.

9) They bake the same works-based righteousness cake that Mormons and Muslims do but cover it with evangelical frosting.

10) They use the phrase, "You mean to tell me…" a lot. Then they create worst case salvation scenarios of those who claim to be Christians but abuse the grace of God. "You mean to tell me that someone can be saved and still….?"

But grace that cannot be abused is no grace at all. 

Grace that is not free is no grace at all. 

Grace that is not received by simple faith is no grace at all.

I like the way Paul put it in Romans 11:6, "And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace."

 It's either by grace or by works. It can't be by both.

But here's the crazy thing about grace, once you receive it through faith it begins to transform you. 

Jesus changes your "wanter" and you become a new creation. Sure we can abuse it and, if we're honest, often do. But when we let grace do its work it "teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age" (Titus 2:12.) 

God's grace is not a license to sin but a reason to serve Jesus with a lack of inhibition …not because we have to, but because we get to.


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