It's Not About Me - Max Lucado [21]
Why the intensity? Why so strident against legalists? Simple. Self-salvation makes light of our problem.
On our own, we’re spiritually sunk, my friend. As sunk as the Kursk. Remember the nuclear submarine Kursk, the pride of the Russian navy? August 12, 2000, was to be her banner day. Five high-ranking naval officers journeyed to sea to witness a demonstration of her strength. But then came two explosions, enormous thundering booms that registered 1.5 and 3.5 on the Richter scale. Something had gone dreadfully wrong.
The seven-ton vessel immediately took on water and plunged 350 feet to the seabed of the Arctic Ocean. Most of the 118 crew members died instantly. Others were left to spend their last hours in freezing, horrid conditions.2
Are we not like the sailors? Are we not equally helpless and hopeless? Like them, we are submerged—not in salt water but in sin.We need to be lifted up—not out of the ocean but out of our failures.“There is no one who always does what is right, not even one” (Romans 3:10 NCV). Like the sailors, we’ve hit bottom.
But suppose one of the submerged sailors thought of a solution. Suppose he declared to his fellow crewmen,“I know what to do. Let’s all press our hands on the ceiling and push. We will shove the sub to the surface.” Can you imagine the looks the crew would give him? Push a seven-ton vessel up through 350 feet of water? If they said anything, they would tell him to come to his senses. “You don’t understand the gravity of the situation.We don’t have what it takes to save our lives. We aren’t strong enough. We aren’t big enough. We don’t need muscles; we need a miracle.”
Paul’s point precisely. Separating you and God is not 350 feet of ocean water but an insurmountable flood of imperfection and sin. Do you think that by virtue of your moral muscle you can push this vessel to the surface? Do you think your baptism and Sunday attendance will be enough to save you?
Legalists do. They miss the gravity of the problem. By offering to help, they not only make light of sin, they mock God.
LEGALISM IS JOYLESS
BECAUSE LEGALISM IS
ENDLESS.
Who would look at the cross of Christ and say,“Great work, Jesus. Sorry you couldn’t finish it, but I’ll take up the slack”?
Dare we question the crowning work of God? Dare we think heaven needs our help in saving us? We’re stuck on the bottom of the ocean. We can’t see the light of day! Legalism discounts God and in the process makes a mess out of us.
To anyone attempting to earn heaven, Paul asks,“How is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? . . .What has happened to all your joy?” (Galatians 4:9, 15 NIV).
Legalism is joyless because legalism is endless. There is always another class to attend, person to teach, mouth to feed. Inmates incarcerated in self-salvation find work but never joy. How could they? They never know when they are finished. Legalism leaches joy.
Grace, however, dispenses peace.The Christian trusts a finished work.“Gone are the exertions of law-keeping, gone the disciplines and asceticism of legalism, gone the anxiety that having done everything we might not have done enough.We reach the goal not by the stairs, but by the lift.... God pledges his promised righteousness to those who will stop trying to save themselves.”3
Grace offers rest. Legalism never does. Then why do we embrace it? “Those who trust in themselves are foolish” (Proverbs 28:26 NCV).Why do we trust in ourselves? Why do we add to God’s finished work? Might the answer include the verb boast?
Saving yourself is heady stuff. Even headier than a high school varsity football jacket. I still own mine. I wore it every day of my senior year. Who cared if the temperature was in the nineties? I wanted everyone to see what I had accomplished. If making a football team feels great, how much more would earning a spot on God’s team?
But the truth is, we don’t. If we think we do, we have missed the message.