Sinclair Ferguson opened the fourth session of his teaching series on The Whole Christ, with a question: “When you’re so free in offering the gospel to people, aren’t you in danger of teaching them that the gospel is so free that they can go on and live any way they please?” In the New Testament, both Jesus and Paul were accused of this kind of thinking. The argument of some believers was in order to prevent this from happening, you should emphasize how people need to repent, and how important the law and obedience are in their lives. But a problem occurs when that obedience gets into a place where it doesn’t really belong, and begins to obscure Christ.
Advocates of the initial importance of repentance for salvation say, “There needs to be something that you need to do to qualify, to get yourself ready to trust in Christ. Unless you’ve done that, you’re not really fitted to hear the gospel.” Some ministers even say they could not preach the gospel to a particular crowd, because they weren’t sorry enough for their sins. One of the things the Marrow Men wanted to emphasize is how in Romans, the apostle Paul says that it is the kindness of God that leads you to repentance. When you see repentance as a necessary step to salvation, you turn the gospel on its head; you wander into legalism.
Ferguson thought the following definition and discussion of legalism by Geerhardus Vos was the best that he had found. Vos defined legalism as “a peculiar kind of submission to God’s law, something that no longer feels the personal divine touch in the rule it submits to.” Legalism creeps in when we separate the law of God from the person of God. “When we begin to interpret the law of God without taking account of the person whose law it is.” When that happens, Ferguson said we always fall into legalism.
Keep the Ten Commandments, but divorce the Ten Commandments from who God actually is, and you’ve done something to the Ten Commandments, haven’t you? You’ve destroyed them of the atmosphere, the character, the personalness of the One who gave them.
This can be traced back to the Garden of Eden, where the commandment of God was divorced from the character of God, from the love and generosity of God. We see where the serpent denied the authority of God’s Word. Yet there was more to it than simply denying the authority of God’s Word. His intent was to destroy the character of God’s person. It’s as though the serpent was saying,
Look, God doesn’t really love you unless you take the medicine that tastes pretty vile. Unless you be subservient to Him, He doesn’t really love you, but if you keep His commandments you can maybe work your way up into His good graces.
Eve responded, saying God said we weren’t to eat of the fruit of the tree, or touch it. By this statement, she added to God’s command, just as the Pharisees did. “Whereas God had given them a simple loving commandment, now it’s becoming complicated, and you’ve not only not to eat the fruit of the tree, you’ve not to touch the tree, and everything about it is very atmospheric.” This is significant point, for legalism is not just an intellectual matter, it’s an atmospheric matter in the lives of Christian people. The serpent is bringing Eve to think of God as a restricting God, who is only pleased and satisfied with you if you meet all the restrictions.
It’s almost as though the serpent is breathing out into the atmosphere this spirit: that God is a God who will only be pleased once you have met these enormous restrictions. Instead of being a God who has given you everything, but who wants you to grow in love for Him and obedience to Him, and show that you love Him as your God just by doing what He says because He says it.A spirit of legalism is injected into the relationship. “God’s law, His commandment, has been severed from God’s character, and it’s lost its sense of His goodness, His generosity, His grace.” It implies a God for whom we need to meet all kinds of restrictions before He loves us. “And that’s the root of legalism.” But the evil one is not finished.
Now Eve perceives her relationship with God to be restrictive and she reacts by becoming an antinomian. The serpent says to her, in effect, the only way you will be free and enjoy what you were created to be, is if you reach out and take the fruit of that tree, freeing yourself from the restrictions of God’s command not to eat it. God is restricting you. “He doesn’t want you to be like Him.” Ferguson said she’s now thinking through her eyes, she’s thinking about what she sees. The fruit of the tree is beautiful to look at, and it will be delicious when she eats it. “She’s lost touch with what God has said about it.”
And so she breaks out of her sense of the restrictiveness of God. “I’ll only be free if I can take the fruit of the tree,” and so she breaches God’s law. “My happiness, my joy, my fulfillment is going to be found only if I can break free.”
Ferguson then states this study of the first chapters of Genesis teaches something us something about legalism. “It teaches us that every antinomian is a legalist at heart. And legalism is not only a distortion of the law; it’s a distortion of the heavenly Father.” We can even say antinomianism is always the fruit of legalism. “Antinomianism is actually what they thought was the medicine for their legalism. He quoted Thomas Boston, who said:
The antinomian principle that it is needless for a man, perfectly justified by faith, to endeavor to keep the law and do good works, is a glaring evidence that legality is so ingrained in man’s corrupt nature, that until a man truly come to Christ by faith, the legal disposition will still be reining in him. Let him turn himself into what shape of be what principles he will in religion. Though he run into antinomianism, he will carry along with him his legal spirit which will always be a slavish and unholy spirit.
According to Ferguson, this was a key insight of the Marrow Men: every Christian is by nature a legalist; and every antinomian is actually a legalist, trying to escape from their legalism.
This article has been based on “Danger! Legalism,” the fourth video in Sinclair Ferguson’s teaching series, The Whole Christ, from Ligonier Connect. Here is a link to Ligonier Connect. The video series is itself based upon his book of the same name. You can review summaries of the Marrow Controversy here and here. If the topic interests you, look for more of my ruminations under the link, The Whole Christ.