Relationship or legalism?
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
SUMMARY: Christ calls us to live in Him with total victory and freedom, not burdened by religious precepts and routines. Legalism burdens our minds and exhausts us physically, leading us to seek acceptance from others instead of the Lord. We must approach God with the perspective of His infinite grace and allow Christ to manifest His life through us. Our Christian work should flow from the inside out, with our fruits bursting visible in the formidable grace of salvation. God's greatest desire is that our life in His Spirit be our most precious delight.
Christ has promised to be in us by giving us new life with eternal perspectives. Being in Christ means that He longs to live His life through us. Christ is our life and walking in Him can never be burdensome, otherwise Christianity would not make much sense. If life in Christ were a burden to live it. Do you think that Christ would have shed tears of blood in Gethsemane knowing that he was going to die on the cross so that we would walk through this world “toiled and burdened”? Death on the cross was for the opposite. God did not send his only son to die for us so that we would wander the world with a bulky bundle on our backs. It is we ourselves who often make schemes to comply with certain liturgies and rites that by dint of becoming customs tend to also become burdens that are difficult to carry: “I have to get up at 2 in the morning to pray”, “I must read 3 chapters of the Bible every day ”,“ every Tuesday will be a fast day ”, etc., etc.
We should not be Christians of religious precepts and routines that can become obstacles to living Christ with total victory and freedom. The spiritual disciplines that we are committed to exercising as Christians must flow naturally from our spirit as a consequence of our zeal and intimacy with the Lamb of God. When these disciplines (praying, searching the Word, preaching, fasting, ministering) become mechanical rituals and habits that do not emanate from a fluid communion with the King of Glory, the day that for some reason we cannot develop them, we see each other ourselves as inconsistent, frustrated, and incapable Christians. The legalistic trim that we often add to our spiritual journeys can rob us of joy, limit our weapons in spiritual warfare, and condemn us to self-indulgent religious actions that do not glorify God.
We should not be Christians of religious precepts and routines that can become obstacles to living Christ with total victory and freedom. The spiritual disciplines that we are committed to exercising as Christians must flow naturally from our spirit as a consequence of our zeal and intimacy with the Lamb of God. When these disciplines (praying, searching the Word, preaching, fasting, ministering) become mechanical rituals and habits that do not emanate from a fluid communion with the King of Glory, the day that for some reason we cannot develop them, we see each other ourselves as inconsistent, frustrated, and incapable Christians. The legalistic trim that we often add to our spiritual journeys can rob us of joy, limit our weapons in spiritual warfare, and condemn us to self-indulgent religious actions that do not glorify God.
