Legalism vs Holiness
- Feb 25
- 3 min read
One of those missing themes I speak about that is noticeably missing in the Church is holiness. When I first came to Christ back in the 70s, the theme of holiness was one of the main ideas being preached by the pulpit. Back in those days, many people were coming to Christ from a life of drugs, free sex, and of petty crime. Learning to live a different life was always peppered in the Church with an understanding of what holiness meant. It was embraced by these new converts to Christianity because they knew their former lifestyles did not work. I wrote this Facebook post comparing holiness and legalism:
Legalism and holiness … They are different. They both stand against sinful behavior and call for holy living. However, legalism are rules without relationship, emphasizing standards more than the Savior and laws more than love. It is a system based on fear and characterized by joyless judgmentalism. On the other hand, Oswald Chambers defined holiness as, “Holiness, not happiness, is the chief end of man.” Jerry Bridges defined holiness as, “Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the character of God.” It is easy to become legalistic if you forget how God has forgiven you. One of the best illustrations of holiness is the humility of Teen Challenge graduates. They know forgiveness … it defines them. The Bible states, “Whoever has been forgiven of little, loves little.” I would say, holiness is a passion for God. ~Larry Kutzler, Facebook Post
Furthering This Thought
As illustrated, there are many ways to define what holiness is, and it often may be confused with legalism. A legalistic person can have some of the traits of holiness, but it is man-driven and not God-Centered. Holiness is the conformity of the human heart to love God at a level that puts Him first by surrendering our will to Him. Holiness sensitizes our lives to that which is right and wrong in a way that allows the Holy Spirit to correct motives, actions, and decisions that we are making or plan on making. The Bible talks about a seared conscience, which is just the opposite. It is a conscience that does not have any sensitivity to doing right or wrong, in fact a seared conscience is one that ignores any guidelines and adjusts a lifestyle to the desires of the human heart. One of the ways to keep a seared conscience from taking over your life, is to pray the prayer of the Psalmist:
Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting!
This kind of honesty before God indicates a willingness to review yourself in God’s eyes, asking Him to make you aware of things that He would like to see changed in your life. This prayer then is followed up by a diligent life of studying God’s Word to live according to fullness of Holy Spirit’s management. For me, Holiness is simply defined as, “A passion for God.”
Challenging the Culture with Truth … Larry Kutzler