To hopefully find relief from their worthiness wound, experienced from being unloved by their earthly father, many Christians, subconsciously practice legalism, attempting to earn Abba Father’s unconditional love and acceptance through perfectionistic performance of obeying the law. Until they finally realize that God’s perfect love and acceptance are freely given through grace, and not earned through “perfectionistic obedience of the law”, their worthiness wound will remain unhealed.
Legalism
“Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from God and acceptance by God through my obedience to God” (Unknown).
Legalism is heretical for two reasons:
- ” Righteousness is wrongly thought to be earned through personal adherence to rules or religious rituals.”
- “Acceptance by God is mistakenly seen as being based on our own efforts to follow laws or perform good works, which leads to self-righteousness and therefore acceptance and favor from God.”
“Legalism is looking to something besides Jesus Christ in order to be acceptable and clean before God” (Timothy Keller).
“Know that it is not through obedience to Law that a man can be declared free from guilt, but only through faith in Jesus Christ. We have therefore believed in Christ Jesus, for the purpose of being declared free from guilt, through faith in Christ and not through obedience to Law. For through obedience to Law no human being shall be declared free from guilt”. (Galatians 2:16, Weymouth New Testament)
Because no one can perfectly obey the law, attempting to do so to be righteous and accepted by God is futile; only through faith in Christ can we become justified and accepted.
All Christians are forgiven by God and justified forever, as Christ’s sinless life and payment of the world’s sins completely satisfied the wrath of a holy God, to those who accepted God’s gift of grace through faith in Christ. Because we are justified forever, we are no longer required to obey the law to be considered righteous and be accepted by God, because Christ’s perfect righteousness standing has been imputed to our moral account, in which this newly accrued perfect standing of ours (which we received from Christ) lasts eternally, even though in reality, we daily still sin.
Because the Christian will always remain declared righteous by God, regardless of all the sins they may commit in their lifetime, God will always forgive our sins after we confess them. God will not impute our sins to our account, and because of our righteousness, God will always eternally love, totally accept, and completely forgive us despite all of our sins. God may not always approve what we do, but His love and acceptance toward us will always remain the same because we are justified forever.
Because Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to our account, God loves, cherishes, and accepts us like He does to Christ:
And there came a voice from heaven, saying, ‘Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’. (Mark 1:11).
In this verse, “thou art my beloved Son” represents our identity as being a loved child of God, and “in whom I am well pleased” means God’s validation of our worth and His approval of us as a child of God.
If you are a believer, despite any sin or any number of sins you might commit. God still sees Christ’s righteousness in you; therefore, how God felt about Christ in Mark 1:11, He will always feel the same about you: “You are His beloved child, in whom God is well pleased.”
Justification (and God’s perfect love and acceptance) can never be earned or obtained through works (performance) by trying to follow the law perfectly. Despite this truth, many Christians often act as if their hearts believe “sanctification comes first, and that justification depends on how well they are doing in the Christian life”, as they still try to “do right” (sanctification) to make them “accepted by God” (justification). This is backwards thinking.
We’ve replaced the proclamation of Christ with an easy-listening legalism of do more and try harder. (R. C. Sproul)
Still feeling the pain of their worthiness wound, many Christians learned from their “past bad earthly father experiences” that love must be earned through perfectionistic performance. Because of their father’s wound, many Christians who had a rejecting and punishing earthly father believe God is the same way, and thus also have a punishment-based relationship with God. Fearing punishment and the withdrawal of love and acceptance, they obsessively strive to live a perfectionistic life to please God through performance, leading them to live as slaves to God.
“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’” (Romans 8:15).
We have the “spirit of bondage again to fear” when our spirit is controlled by the fear of God’s punishment and condemnation of sin (imperfect performance). This “bondage to fear” often stems partially from having emotional pain of the worthiness wound. Because we don’t fully trust in the love and character of God, influenced by the father’s wound, many become fearful of Him, especially when they sin.
However, according to 1 John 4:17-19, as our faith in God’s perfect love becomes more perfected, we can be increasingly freed from the “spirit of bondage again to fear” as “perfect love casts out fear”:
“By living in God, love has been brought to its full expression in us so that we may fearlessly face the day of judgment, because all that Jesus now is, so are we in this world. Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment has not reached love’s perfection”. (1 John 4:17-19, TPT)
“The presence of fear indicates the absence of love.” When we disbelieve “God perfectly loves us and that His grace is always sufficient, never needing to be earned”, we tend to have identity confusion and issues, potentially enslaving us into legalistic perfectionistic slave patterns. This is contrary to God’s desires, who designed us to live as free, joyful, loved sons and daughters, not in fear of His wrath and punishment.
It is also God’s will for us to be healed from our emotional hurts. Healing from our worthiness wound can occur when we come to Abba Father as a child and receive His love on a daily basis. When we are finally able to remove the barriers (the fear of being rejected and punished by Abba, just as our earthly fathers previously did) that prevent us from truly experiencing the love of the Father, we can come as a child and receive God’s healing through His perfect love. But for that to happen, we must renounce the lies that God is an “angry, punishing father who you have to be perfect to be loved and accepted by Him”. We must believe that God is a perfect Father who always loves and receives us perfectly, regardless of all our sins and flaws, and this love and acceptance need not be earned through performance and or perfectionism. These are the first steps to not only healing of the heart, but also freedom of the soul.
“God did not put us here to live in constant fear. He wants us to know how much He loves us so” (Catherine Pulsifer). Here are some quotes about God’s amazing love:
“God’s love is like a river, constantly flowing, always giving, and never-ending”. (Author Unknown)
“The love of God toward you is like the Amazon River flowing down to water a single daisy”. (F.B. Meyer)
“God’s love is bigger than all the love of men combined. A man can leave anytime when he feels tired, but God never gets tired of loving us.” (Author Unknown)
“Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount-that is the measure of God’s love for you.” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf)
“The highest act of love is the giving of the best gift, and, if necessary, at the greatest cost, to the least deserving. That’s what God did. At the loss of His Son’s life to the totally undeserving, God gave the best gift – the display of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.” (John Piper)
“Here’s the paradox. We can fully embrace God’s love only when we recognize how completely unworthy of it we are.” (Ann Tatlock)
“By the cross we know the gravity of sin and the greatness of God’s love toward us”. (John Chrysostom)
“God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, ‘I love you.” (Billy Graham)
“The cross is the ultimate display of God’s radical love for humanity”. (A.W. Tozer)
“In God’s mercy and grace, He forgives us and still loves us despite ourselves.” (Jeanette Duby)
“God’s capacity to forgive is as great as His love”. (Author Unknown)
“God’s Grace – from God’s abundant love and tender mercy, unearned, unmerited, undeserved by me”. (Catherine Pulsifer)
“God’s unconditional love is a very difficult concept for people to accept because, in the world, there’s always payment for everything we receive. It’s just how things work here. But God is not like people!”. (Joyce Meyer)
“God’s love is not restricted to when you think you’ve performed well. He loves you even when you make mistakes and fail.” (Author Unknown)
“We serve a God who loves us no matter what, the ugly parts, the mistakes, the bad days, His love never changes, that’s something to rejoice about.” (Author Unknown)
“I have given God countless reasons not to love me. None of them has been strong enough to change Him.” (Paul Washer)
“Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.” (C.S. Lewis)
“Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely. … He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken.” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf)
“God is not a God who tolerates you. He is a God who loves you. He is a God who desires you.” (Paul Washer)
“God is love. He didn’t need us. But he wanted us. And that is the most amazing thing”. (Rick Warren)
“You ask me, ‘What’s the greatest act of faith?’ To me is to look in the mirror of God’s word, and see all my faults, all my sin, all my shortcomings and to believe that God loves me exactly as he says he does.” (Paul Washer)
“God cannot change for the better, for He is already perfect; and being perfect, He cannot change for the worse.” (A.W. Pink)
God is perfect love. His love never worsens. It always remains perfect. Therefore, we can always trust in that Love. His love for His children never changes. Regardless of all our sins, because we are justified forever, we will always be eternally loved, totally forgiven, and completely accepted. His grace can never be earned. It is always freely given to all His children by Him because He is perfect love. That is a promise of God. Perfect God never lies. Believe in the truth daily. Stand firm in your identity as perfectly loved children of God. Live as sons and not slaves. Come as a child to Abba Father and let His perfect love heal your worthiness wound.
“Nothing binds me to my Lord like a strong belief in His changeless love.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
A Love That Cannot Be Earned, Part 1
Sources:
https://www.gotquestions.org/works-of-the-law.html
https://biblehub.com/galatians/2-16.htm
https://biblehub.com/topical/l/legalism_vs._faith.htm
https://www.monergism.com/legalism
https://smithforchrist.com/2024/09/28/grace-vs-legalism/
https://www.bibleanalysis.org/what-is-legalism-according-to-the-bible/
https://creedrehearsal.com/grace-vs-legalism/
https://biblehub.com/topical/l/legalism_vs._grace.htm
https://biblehub.com/topical/l/legalism_vs._relationship.htm
https://biblehub.com/topical/u/understanding_legalism.htm
https://www.monergism.com/what-legalism
https://madeofstill.com/2021/10/29/legalism-theology/