Breaking Out of Life’s Spiritual Prisons

Galatians 5:2-6
The Bondage of Legalism
(The Wrong Use of Right Laws)

As mentioned previously - in ancient Rome - there were six million slaves (see the Galatians 3:26-4:11 section entitled: “Son or Servant: Which is Better?). Most of them toiled under masters in households, in businesses, or in “government-mandated” environments. Some became “under-rowers” on Roman trade ships or on military vessels.
When the authorities of Rome went looking for people to use as slaves on Roman sailing ships, they caught free-men in nets, trained them in the protocols of slavery, and (ultimately) chained them to wooden benches (designed to look like “yokes”) to bend their backs, as slaves, to the oars. While the ships advanced in whatever directions the captains demanded, the slaves remained chained to benches - getting nowhere - only to repeat the same work the next day, until the slaves would die or be replaced. Needless to say, there wasn’t a slave on any ship who did not desire his freedom. And, if a ship-slave ever escaped the taskmaster, that slave never desired to return to slavery again.
Works-oriented, performance-based religion is like the taskmaster on those first century Roman slave ships. Works-oriented, performance-based religion requires the same “labor” repeatedly - without a reduction in the work-load - for a person’s entire life. Once the “slave’s” death occurs, he/she is replaced with another person who lives under the same weight of ceaseless demands by the taskmaster named works-oriented, performance-based religion. Since slaves who escaped from Roman taskmasters never wanted to return again to slavery, why should people tasked with extra-biblical burdens by performance-based systems of religion want to return to that master again?
Just as the churches of Galatia mixed works with grace (see Paul’s comments in Galatians 1:6-9), “spiritual” taskmasters exist in modern churches today. Acting like New Testament Pharisees who added burdens to the lives of their religion’s followers (see Matthew 23:4 with Luke 11:46), church-based legalists create, in the name of God or Scripture, extra-biblical rules and regulations which they use to judge their adherents’ “level of spirituality.” “Do this! Say that! Go here! Stay away from there! Look like me! Act like me! Be like me, whether I am like Jesus or not!” These expressions form a common thread in religions that hold you captive to their extra-biblical mandates. In addition, legalists tend to quench the active involvement of God’s Holy Spirit in the individual believer’s life as the works of the flesh replace the work of God’s Spirit (see 1 Thessalonians 5:19 with Acts 7:51 and Ephesians 4:30). It creates a culture where people “go through the motions” of [sectarian] religion, control the narrative, seek to fit others into the “mold” of their “here is what you need to do to be righteous in my eyes” expectations (“molds” get moldy because “molds” tend to shift with the circumstances and change with the culture), and legalists tend to be “mechanical,” “regimented,” and “rote” in their approach to God. In contrast, Paul prayed that God’s Word would have “free course” (see 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2) so that God’s Holy Spirit can work unrestrained in the lives of God’s people.
Legalism is the wrong use of right laws. Since legalistic systems – even within a church – focus on the rules rather than relationships and credit faithfulness and obedience to a power source other than God’s Holy Spirit, can you be a Christian and still have an element of “legalism” present in your life? If so, if your focus is on “external evidences of spirituality” based on “works that impress,” are you including God’s Holy Spirit in your works or have you “pushed God’s Spirit to the side” as you live your life in the flesh/in pride and not in the Spirit (see Galatians 5:16-18)? If the “power source” for your spirituality is the flesh which is that coping mechanism that says, “I want my way. If I don’t get my way I will do anything I can to get an advantage to get my way. If I still don’t get my way, I will get out of the way anyone who is in my way so I can get my way,” in what areas – in your life - are you a modern-day legalist whose life revolves around works-centered, performance-based, pride-filled works that feed your ego yet fall far short of pleasing our holy and loving God? So, consider this question: In your opinion, since it is possible for any believer to replace the enablement and empowerment received from God’s Holy Spirit with the deeds of pride-filled flesh, in what areas may you or other believers be a legalist also?

Areas in which I am a legalist:

My attitudes:

My practices:

My thoughts:

My actions:

My responses:

My Spirit:

My “denominational beliefs and practices”:

My attempts to please God on my own – apart from dependence on the enablement and empowerment of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit:

My leadership style (authoritarian, non-relational, and based on current position only):

Other:

Areas in which I think that others may be legalistic:

Their attitudes:

Their practices:

Their thoughts:

Their actions:

Their responses:

Their Spirit:

Their “denominational beliefs and practices”:

My attempts to please God on my own – apart from dependence on the enablement and empowerment of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit:

My leadership style (authoritarian, non-relational, and based on current position only):

Other:
Read: Galatians 5:2-6

Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. 3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.