Legalism with a Smiling Face

I need to point you all to Jared Wilson's The New Legalism. We Christians have gotten so used to routinely defining ourselves as anything but legalistic, that we have failed miserably to recognize the pervasive "soft legalism" (legalism with a smiling face) that we preach and hear preached from week to week. These are sermons that paint a picture of the kind of life/attitude/heart/marriage we should have, give numerous Biblical examples (one of which can even be Jesus, who was an exemplary fellow, don't you know), and then tell us that God is willing to help us achieve this model life/attitude/heart/marriage if we only ask.

We really need to examine ourselves honestly about this. Jared has analyzed the situation quite well:

What it does, in message format for instance, is spend the majority of its time giving us stuff to do to achieve something, and then tacks on at the end a brief message about choosing Christ's free gift of salvation. In my estimation, this is bass ackwards. A Gospel-driven message focuses on Christ's work, on God's work on our behalf, and then moves to an exhortation or application. In most sermons in evangelical churches, the focus breaks down to 90% Helpful Tips and 10% Jesus Did it For You (if that much). But I think the reverse should be the standard....

Even as the new legalism pays lip service to grace, as it plays up the need to do this, this, and this to achieve success or victory in your work/marriage/life, it sets up success and happiness as the goal of the Christian life. Those are not bad goals, but they are not specifically Christian goals. The problem with focusing on our work with the promise that it will produce results is that we end up working for results, rather than out of joy in Christ. And when results are slow (or nonexistent), it only breeds dissatisfaction, and ultimately, despair.

And why doesn't this kinder/gentler legalism (which, by the way, I hear in my church each and every week) actually fulfill its promises? "Because it doesn't address sin."

It does not take seriously the problem of sin and therefore it does not take seriously God's all-sufficient provision for that problem. Instead it suggests, inevitably, 3 steps, or 5 steps, or 7 steps, to achieving that for which you've always dreamed. Jared again:

[T]he new legalism, for all its talk of grace and love and tolerance and anti-condemnation, is just like the old legalism in that it tells us not to be satisfied with Jesus. Don't be satisfied with Jesus' work on your behalf, it suggests. That's not enough. Do more, be more, become more. Because the real goal is not satisfaction with Christ, but success in life.

As I said before, we really need to examine ourselves carefully about this. I find that people are so used to the self-improvement style and values, and so prone to accord it respect, that they don't recognize that it is categorically at odds with the gospel of Jesus Christ.