Sunday, October 01, 2006

Grace and Legalism

The life lived with grace as the primary driving force represents a marked change in world view to that of the legalist. I think human nature lends itself to the legalistic/perfomance based life. What is my "spiritual resume?" so to speak. If we are performing well and following the spiritual disciplines, then we must really love Jesus. At least this is the legalist's mindset. Society seems very oriented towards what have you done, what have you accomplished. It can be easy to slide into this frame of thinking in the spiritual realm as well.

The grace mindset is more focused on the love relationship between us and the Father. I don't do things to prove I love Him but rather I love Him and because I love Him I do things that reflect this love. It is a subtle but important difference. It helps move away from beating up oneself because of failure to perform in a spiritual sense. We will never be perfect in our lives on earth. The more we can learn to love Christ and build that relationship with Him, the more the effects of that come naturally out of our lives. This can be tough to put into practice but is a nice change in thought. Reference "Grace Walk" by Steve McVey http://www.gracewalk.org/ for more on this topic.

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