Why is legalism so tempting? My Christian life for the last while has revolved around doing particular acts, and if I do not do them, I feel I am close to forfeiting my salvation. In this I have sinned, and I know it. I have focussed so completely on myself and my spiritual walk, that I have lost much of the praise for God I used to have. It struck me this week when I realised I still felt guilty when I could think of no sin against anyone that had not been sorted out, but I’ve become subject once again to slavery, and not a slavery to Christ that sets free, but one that weighs down. I thank God he has given me repentance from these dead works.

If I was in the parable of the unrepentant servant, I would have forgiven my friend, but still tried to pay back the debt myself. Both this attitude and the attitude of that servant are an abomination, and I hope that if I have hurt any with my selfish attitude that they will forgive me.

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to think of anything as coming from ourselves, but our sufficiency comes from God, who has made us sufficient as ministers of the New Covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Just to clarify, I am not saying that what I have felt called to do has not been God’s will, but the attitude I have done it in, one of guilt, and not of praise to God, has been wrong.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Announcements, Christian Thoughts . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.