Do Not Taste, Do Not Touch

6 · The preacher traces how the admirable desire for Sabbath rest degenerated into legalism, illustrated by prohibitions on visible activities like lawn mowing and children playing outside, where keeping Sabbath became a performance measure and transactional relationship with God rather than genuine rest

But what started with an admirable desire to rest and honor God proved to be a temptation for some to legalism. You see, it also became unheard of in my hometown to mow your lawn on Sunday. It was scandalous to do so. My dad remembers his parents they lived on the highway just outside of town, being told if he was going to play catch with his friends to do it behind the barn so that no one could see from the road. If he was going to ride his bike, make sure not to do it on the driveway. Lord forbid the neighbors see all that pedaling and hard work. Keeping Sabbath became a measure of someone's spirituality. Even if you didn't totally keep the seventh day holy, you at least had better appear to be doing so. For some, what they did or didn't do on Sunday became a sort of spiritual currency with God. It became this transactional relationship: God will do good things for me as long as I do and don't do certain things on Sunday. The day of rest had become a day of legalism.

7 · The preacher makes the transition from illustration to thesis, asserting that legalism is a deadly spiritual cancer — one that appears spiritual on the surface but is actually fatal to life in Christ, which is what Paul confronts in Colossians

But on the surface, to a casual observer, my hometown would look highly spiritual. Underneath it, there was potential for a growing malignancy. Not just a malignancy unique to my town, something that can take root anywhere legalism is festering. We'll see in our text today this cancer of legalism is dangerous, deadly dangerous. We'll see this morning that the lies of legalism, what Paul is sensing in Colossae, what he's teaching against, what the false teachers are promoting, the lies of legalism are fatal to life in Christ. They're contrary to life in Christ.

8 · The preacher expounds Paul's command not to let anyone pass judgment regarding food, drink, festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths, identifying these as Jewish holy days prescribed in the Old Testament and explaining that legalism creates rules that give people ammunition to judge others

So read with me again from verses 16 and 17. Paul writes, therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one pass judgment on you. Now that in and of itself shows you one of the things legalism does is it sort of gives people ammunition to pass judgment on others. It sets up rules and those who don't abide by the rules in the way they should, you are then able to judge in light of your legalistic rules. Paul unpacks a litany of things that are being peddled legalistically by these false teachers. The first distinctive of legalism then and there back in Colossae involved festivals and new moons and Sabbath keeping. These are all things involving Jewish holy days. These are things mentioned in Numbers and 1 and 2 Chronicles and Ezekiel and Hosea, things the people of Israel were instructed to follow.

9 · The preacher addresses the potential objection about how God-ordained Old Testament practices can now be legalistic, explaining through verse 17 that these practices were shadows pointing forward to Christ as the substance, and served the purpose of preparing the way for the fullness found in him

So that brings up a question, right? How can things that God laid out in His Word for His people to follow, how can those things now be considered legalism? The answer isn't that the people of Israel were legalistic, although no doubt some of them were. It's not that the Old Testament teaches legalism and the New Testament teaches grace. That's not why that happens. Verse 17 is the key. It says, "These things," these festivals and new moons and Sabbaths, "they were a shadow of the things to come. They were a shadow of the things to come. The substance belongs to Christ. The festivals and holy days, they're not evil in and of themselves. In fact, they served an important purpose. Paul says the sacrifices and the rest they observe pointed forward to something better. They prepared the way. They foreshadowed the fullness that would be found in Christ.

10 · The preacher highlights the irony that the false teachers in Colossae were demanding observance of practices that were designed to point to Christ, while simultaneously claiming that Christ alone was insufficient — effectively requiring believers to go backward to the shadow after the substance had arrived

So do you see the irony in Colossae? There are these false teachers coming in and saying, you don't have enough with Jesus, you need to practice these things. And Paul says, don't you understand the craziness of what you're doing? Those things that you're now practicing to feel better, they point forward to Jesus. They point forward to the fullness you find in Christ.

11 · The preacher articulates the first lie of legalism: that keeping moral rules earns God's favor and ensures salvation, transforming legitimate practices into requirements added to Christ as necessary for being truly saved

So where is the legalism? It's bound up in the first lie. Legalism's first deception is to convince people that keeping moral rules and regulations earns God's favor. It sets you on a safe place in terms of salvation. These false teachers are twisting religious practices into means of proving your spiritual superiority. Here's the key to the lie: it's not that the actions themselves are necessarily wrong. It's not that it's necessarily wrong to not mow your lawn on Sunday or to rest, right? But it's the fact that they were regarded as sufficient and necessary to be truly, fully saved. "Yes, good that you have Jesus, but don't you know that to be really saved you have to have Jesus and all these other things?"

12 · The preacher applies the first lie of legalism to contemporary church practices, showing how attending the right church, worshiping with the right songs, and reading the right Bible translation become addendums to Christ that categorize Christians as subcategories or even questionably saved

Let's make that contemporary, see if it reveals the lie a little further. This form of legalism says, do these moral, maybe even biblical actions to ensure your salvation. Earn that last bit of salvation before God. In other words, go to the church, more specifically the right church, on Sunday. Worship God, worship God with these songs, read your Bible, of course in the correct translation. It's not just enough to have Jesus for salvation, you also need these add-ons, these addendums. You don't keep the Sabbath? You don't attend my denomination? You don't worship in my preferred style? Then you are certainly a subcategory of Christian. Maybe not even saved.

13 · The preacher exposes how legalism operates through positive prefixes added to "Christian" (missional, radical, Reformed, Spirit-filled), showing how these can subtly categorize believers and create hierarchies even when the impulses behind the labels may be innocent

You can also see that in the flip side. We can be tempted, while we wouldn't go around calling someone sub-Christian, "Oh, this is my friend Susie from work, I want you to meet everyone, she's a sub-Christian!" She's not quite as cool a Christian as you are. This is Bob. He's a halfway Christian. We don't usually affix those titles to people, right? But we put a positive spin on it. I'm a missional Christian. I'm a radical Christian. I'm a Reformed Christian. I'm a Spirit-filled Christian. Now, sometimes those titles can be perfectly innocent and just identifying godly impulses. I'm a missional Christian. I want to live on mission for Christ. I'm a Reformed Christian. I believe glorious things the Bible teaches about God's sovereignty and His goodness and the way He's working all things together for for those who are in Christ. They can be sweet applications, but they can also be subtle ways of categorizing people, right? Think of the ways those titles can be applied and the way it feeds into a legalistic structure to which Paul answers, "Let no one cast judgment on you."

14 · The preacher establishes that moral and ethical behaviors performed outside of faith in Christ's sufficiency are spiritually dead and worthless, having value only when done in union with Christ and flowing from satisfaction in him rather than as transactions to earn God's favor

Don't let them cast judgment on you because they're Sabbath-keeping Christians, because they're New Moon Christians, right? Because they're ESV-reading Christians. Moral things performed outside of faith, outside of the sufficiency of Christ, are dead. Ethical behavior done in your own strength done through your own power to perform a transaction with God, "I'm going to do this and now God owes me," they're worthless. Those things only matter, those good things only matter when they're connected to the person of Christ, when you're being nourished and bound to the Head, when your satisfaction comes from your communion with Christ, when you come before God empty-handed, not saying, Missional Christian, let me pray. Reformed Christian, be more pleased with me when you come empty-handed and say, "I'm one debt-free in Christ, one aware that in Christ all my transgressions are nailed to the cross and I come in His name and hope to enter Your presence, Father, because of the blood of Jesus and nothing else." Those things matter only to the person convinced of the gospel of grace alone.

15 · The preacher signals a shift from the first form of legalism (adding moral requirements to earn salvation) to a second distinct form involving ascetic practices, dietary restrictions, and mystical elements present in Colossae

But the lies of legalism are not that simple. The passage also talks about food and drink, asceticism and the worship of angels, even visions. What's that talking about? Well, it's another kind of legalism.

16 · The preacher explains the ascetic practices in Colossae — extreme self-denial, dietary restrictions, and bodily severity described in verse 23 — comparing them to medieval hair shirt practices as attempts to demonstrate love for Christ and commitment to God through self-torture

This idea of abstaining from food and drink and asceticism. This asceticism in verse 23 is even described as severity to the body. It's this extreme form of self-denial and self-discipline that's happening in Colossae. So it's maybe like an ancient form of the medieval practice. You had these people who would wear hair shirts, right? You'd wear hair shirts, a severe practice of torturing your body with itchiness to show your love for Christ, to work and show your commitment to God. There's that sort of stuff going on in Colossae. They're renouncing certain foods and certain drinks.

17 · The preacher interprets "do not handle, do not taste, do not touch" in verse 21 as slogans of the false teachers, exposing their logic that abstinence is inherently superior to participation and that complete renunciation is the highest spirituality, creating a system that marginalizes those who don't conform

In fact, verse 21 is probably Paul quoting actual slogans of the false teachers. Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, don't even associate with those things. If you follow the rules, you're spiritual like us. But if you handle, if you taste, if you even touch, we'll make you feel judged. We'll make you feel marginalized. It's a kind of false humility that attempted to say abstinence is inherently more spiritual than participation. Not doing things is always more spiritual than enjoying God's good things. If less is better, then none is best of all.

18 · The preacher explains the angel worship and visions in Colossae as practices rooted in pagan ideas that angels serve as necessary intermediaries to God and protectors against evil spirits, which Paul equates with actual worship directed toward angels rather than approaching God through Christ alone

Added to this is a practice of angel worship and mystical visions. Commentators seem to think it's a practice related to this pagan idea that angels help fight off evil spirits, that you need to approach God through angels and not just Christ. So you pray to angels, you call on angels for protection. Paul even equates it with worshiping angels.

19 · The preacher identifies the second lie of legalism: requiring extra-biblical practices beyond Scripture's instruction as marks of spiritual maturity, which creates a cancer in the church body by filling it with sinful judgment and pride, enslaving not only the legalist but burdening everyone around them with condemnation

The common thread between angel worship and mystical visions and asceticism and abstaining from food and drink is one thing: not a single one of them is prescribed in Scripture. This is the second lie of legalism. Legalism would have you believe you must follow certain practices and rules and regulations beyond the instruction of Scripture if you would be mature in Christ. And if this isn't enough, these unbiblical standards, Paul makes clear, fill the church with sinful judgments and prideful people. Legalism in this way becomes a cancer to the entire body. It doesn't just kill the legalist, right? It potentially burdens and enslaves everyone they interact with. The legalism willingly puts the yoke around their own neck. Everyone around the legalist has to battle off the condemnation that they don't also wear the yoke. Maybe I should feel rotten. That I mowed my lawn last Sunday.

20 · The preacher signals a shift from ancient Colossae to contemporary application, carefully disclaiming personal accusation while stating his intent to inform the congregation about how the second form of legalism manifests today, framing the upcoming illustration

So in Colossae, the poison expresses itself in asceticism, in radical abstinence. What could it look like for us today? Now, when I give these illustrations, please hear I don't have specific people in mind. Like, I'm not up here— if my gaze falls upon you, it's not I know. I suspect. Legalist. Legalist. That's not what I'm doing. But I want us to be informed in the same way Paul wants the church in Colossae to be informed, to be well instructed. So I think a story might illustrate this well.

21 · The preacher narrates how his father's Reformed denomination split over the issue of Christian education, tracing how a legitimate biblical conviction to raise children in the fear of the Lord degenerated into legalistic dogma where school choice became a test of salvation and spiritual maturity

My dad grew up in this community like I did, steeped in Reformed Christianity. It's a tradition. That supposedly knew the gospel, knew the doctrines of grace inside and out. But that denomination went in a legalistic direction. It had a tendency towards that. In this denomination, one of the extra-biblical things that showed your maturity, maybe even showed your salvation, depended on where you would send your children to school. Specifically, good Christians— the denomination split over the issue sent their kids to the Christian school. Pagans sent their kids to the public school. It grew from a biblical conviction. I think this started out as people really wanting to live out the call of Deuteronomy. They wanted to raise their kids in the fear and knowledge of the Lord. They felt a conviction the best way to do this is through a Christian school education. But that real conviction began to take on the form of sacred dogma. In this denomination, good Christian parents— good Christian parents— sent their kids to the Christian school. Those who didn't send their kids to the Christian school got viewed like certain people in Colossae. They were substandard Christians.

22 · The preacher narrates the concrete consequences of the denomination's legalism when his grandfather faced church discipline — being permanently barred from eldership — for allowing his son to transfer to public school for FFA, demonstrating how extra-biblical standards became moral absolutes enforced through church authority

This is borne out. My dad and grandpa experienced this when his junior year They decided that he would transfer from the Christian school to the public school. Now, it's Iowa. Why were they doing this? My dad wanted to be in FFA. That was the reason why. He wanted to be in Future Farmers of America. The Christian school didn't have it. The public school did have it. So they were going to transition. The next week, the pastor and another elder scheduled a meeting and came to my dad's home and sat down at the kitchen table with my dad and my grandpa, and they informed my grandfather this was wrong morally. He was leading his family into danger. And then they told him if they did this, he needed to understand he would never be allowed to be an elder in the church again.

23 · The preacher shares how his young cousin directly connected public school attendance with inability to go to heaven, illustrating how legalistic environments communicate extra-biblical requirements as salvation markers even to children who absorb the mentality without explicit teaching

You see the sense of slotting, the substandard decision that you would send your kids to the Christian school. I had a similar conversation with a cousin once. I was really young, like kindergarten or first grade. She was a couple years older, first or second grade, and she asked, "Where do you go to school?" "Hosper's Elementary, public elementary school." She had this shocked look on her face. "Then you can't go to heaven!" Direct quote. Now, did her parents ever tell her that I wasn't going to heaven because I went to the public elementary school? Probably not. But she was picking up on the second lie of legalism: extra-biblical practices canonized as a way to mark maturity. The mentality is only a short step away from leading people to believe attending the right school is a ticket to heaven.

24 · The preacher exposes the deadly result of legalism: people finding assurance of salvation in external conformity to extra-biblical standards while showing no evidence of knowing Christ, and the pattern where one person's genuine conviction from God becomes imposed as a universal requirement for everyone

And so there's people in these communities who, if you observe their lives, it doesn't appear they actually know Christ, but they don't mow their lawns on Sundays and they do send their kids to the private Christian school. And so there is assurance of salvation for no other reasons. Legalism polluted a godly conviction for some, Christian education, into a legalistic standard for everyone. It polluted a godly conviction for some people people who really felt called by God to do this, and so they were doing it full of faith, and then made it a legalistic standard for everyone. Simply put, what God called Andy to do, he has called me to do. Or what God has called me to do, he certainly called Andy to do as well. You see how the logic works.

25 · The preacher applies the pattern of legalism to contemporary areas like school choices and dating practices, showing how believers fall into legalism by either imposing their convictions on others, feeling pressured to adopt others' convictions, or reactively rejecting legitimate convictions just to assert freedom

Where can we be tempted like that? Where can we be tempted to take our own godly convictions and set them in tablets of stone? Where can we feel pressured to act out the convictions of others because we don't want to be judged? We can think about school choices, and it cuts all sorts of ways, doesn't it? Some people feel the need to extend their conviction to others. Some people feel pressured to pick up that conviction. They're both responding to legalism. Some people going a certain way simply because they want to stick it to those people that have that conviction, right? Oh, you're wonderfully free of legalism. We can do it with dating practices. There is only a certain prescribed way in 3 Timothy chapter 27, don't you know, that says this is the way thou shalt date if you would have a godly relationship and successful marriage going forward. Just so we're clear, there's no 3 Timothy chapter 27 or 28 or whatever I said. It's an extra-biblical idea. Now there are wrong ways to pursue relationships. There are ways to do it in a worldly fashion that don't honor Christ. And there are a myriad of ways and things to call it where you do honestly, responsibly, in a God-glorifying way, walk towards marriage. Young men and women do it together all the time under all sorts of different labels.

26 · The preacher extends the application to multiple contemporary areas — reading habits, entertainment choices, body modifications — identifying the common pattern where legalism transforms morally neutral or even good things into requirements for spiritual approval and assurance of salvation

You can do it with reading. I've seen people who get legalistic about reading and sort of like, lots of books! Mature, godly Christian. Couple books, they're short, they've even got some pictures. Ew, don't even let that guy teach Sunday school. Ingrate. No. You gotta read certain books. Certain books every year. It can include things like TV and movies and music. Body piercings and tattoos. The common thread in all these examples is that legalism can take morally neutral things. It can even take moral things and turn them into requirements for making the grade and finding favor and assuring you're going to heaven.

27 · The preacher expounds verses 20-23 to establish the core paradox of legalism's appeal: these regulations appear wise and effective at restraining sin, but Paul declares them utterly powerless to actually stop the indulgence of the flesh, making the appearance of wisdom the fatal deception

That leads us to the second point: legalism's fatal appeal. Look again at verses 20-23. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? You've died to these elemental things; why do you still live like you're enslaved to them? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring things to all that perish, as they are used according to human precepts and teachings. These have the appearance of wisdom, Indeed, they appear wise, but they promote self-made religion. They are of no value, Paul says in verse 23. They are of no value, none whatsoever, in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. They are of no— legalism does nothing to empower you from not sinning. Even though it looks like it does just the opposite. That's legalism's fatal appeal. It appears wise, Paul says.

28 · The preacher identifies the fundamental danger of legalism as self-made religion originating in human minds rather than God, appealing to human pride by allowing people to play God and create their own commandments, making it structurally equivalent to cultic systems

The most baseline danger of legalism is summed up in one phrase. Paul says this: it is self-made religion. It doesn't come from God. You're making this stuff up. And that's why it's so dangerous and deadly. At its core, the false teachings in Colossae, the legalisms of our own day, they're not God-ordained. They're the creations of the human mind. You know why they appeal to us? They appeal to us because they offer us a chance to prove I get to sit on the mountaintop and I get to create my own Ten Commandments. Legalism at its core is a move by men to play God and say, "I define the rules." It's no different than cults like Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses. It doesn't have its origin with God.

29 · The preacher contrasts legalism with obviously absurd cultic beliefs (Heaven's Gate), explaining that legalism's danger is precisely its appearance of wisdom rather than obvious insanity, especially when it perverts legitimate Christian teaching by making good things absolute requirements

But the danger goes deeper than just the fact that it's created by us. Verse 23 says it has the appearance of wisdom. The temptation to legalism, it's not like the Heaven's Gate cult. Do you remember that? It's a while back now. The Heaven's Gate cult was this thing where there was There was this group in California, this group of people, they all committed suicide. And as it came out in the media, the Heaven's Gate cult committed suicide because they were filled with hope and sure they were going to be caught up with a UFO before the Earth was destroyed. And everyone saw that on the media and just thought, "How stupid are these people?" There were no copycats, like, it didn't pop up in Indianapolis. Oh, they had it all right. Well, let's form our own Heaven's Gate cult. In a couple weeks we're going to drink the Kool-Aid too. No, because people saw it and said, "This is totally crazy! This is insane!" But Paul's point is the exact opposite is true of self-made legalistic religious systems. It's not like the people killing themselves for made-up UFOs. Appears wise. It seems like a good way to get on good terms with God. Especially when it comes coupled with perverting orthodox Christian teaching. Taking good things and making them absolute.

30 · The preacher connects legalism's appeal to the universal human awareness of the record of debt established in verses 13-14, explaining that human wisdom's natural response to legal predicament is creating a legal system to pay the debt, making the most legalistic lost people appear the most spiritual

Think back to last week's passage. What did verses 13 and 14 say right before our passage. And you who were dead in your trespasses, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us. The truth that every human heart, that every human bears in their soul, is that you are dead in your trespasses. Because of that, there's this very real record of debt. We talked about it last week. This, this long list of legal demands that we failed to keep that hangs over our heads. So what does human wisdom do in reaction to that kind of legal predicament? Here's this record of debt, these legal demands, this list of obedience. Human wisdom says, let's create a legal system to pay off the debt. Some of the fatal appeal is that many of the most legalistic Lost people, legalistic lost people you ever meet also appear the most spiritual, the closest to God. It appears so wise, this system they've devised.

31 · The preacher uses the analogy of a rotten apple to expose legalism's skin-deep appearance, reiterating Paul's blunt assessment in verse 23 that despite appearing effective, legalism has zero power to restrain sin

The appearance is only skin deep, that's what Paul is showing us. It's like a shiny red apple. It's got all the appearance of health, but when you bite into it, it's mushy and rotten and dead. One fatal aspect of legalism's appeal is that for all the shiny appearances, verse 23 states bluntly, it is of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. For all its rules and regulations, self-made religion is powerless to hold back sinful ravings.

32 · The preacher exposes how external restraint can mask internal sin, distinguishing between legitimate Spirit-empowered self-denial done in union with Christ and legalistic self-denial done to earn God's favor, which is actually a program of self-salvation rather than genuine mortification of sin

The deception is so deep. Even what looks like restraint on the outside can sometimes be illicit sin on the inside. The self-made legalists appear so effective, don't they? Don't handle, don't taste, don't touch. Look at Andy. It's not just that he doesn't go to bad movies and doesn't watch bad TV shows, he never watches TV! Andy doesn't even own a TV! Andy really loves Jesus, doesn't he? He's so disciplined and godly. Now, maybe Andy doesn't own a TV because he really does love Jesus and he's sensed in his own flesh a temptation to indulge in things he shouldn't, and so he is avoiding those things. But he's doing it connected to the head. If he's doing it to earn favors from God, it's dead. This thin veneer of godliness, when stripped away, reveals the opposite. Not a person putting sin to death, Oftentimes someone engaged in an intricate program of self-salvation. I don't do, and I don't do, and I don't do because deep inside me I feel like I have to earn and earn and earn and earn.

33 · The preacher articulates legalism's ultimate deception as a double lie: first, that it can restrain sin, and second, that following these self-made rules leads to life and soul satisfaction, when in reality legalism is not a road to life at all

Legalism's greatest lie is that it not only has the power— this is the lie— that it has the power to stop the indulgence of flesh, but also legalism's lie is I can stop the indulgence of the flesh and keep these rules, and I can lead you to life. Keep these rules that I make up, and you will have the power to stop sinning and keep these rules that I've made up, and it will lead you to life. It will satisfy your soul. But just like our rotten apple, just like the false teachers in Paul's day, legalism is not a road to life.

34 · The preacher expounds how Paul brackets the legalism discussion with gospel bookends — the "therefore" in 2:16 grounded in debts canceled at the cross, and the "if-then" in 3:1 calling believers to seek things above based on their union with Christ, establishing that the antidote to legalism is the gospel itself

That's the good news of our final point: there is life without legalism. Read the first 4 verses of chapter 3 with me. Chapter 3, verses 1-4: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth, this self-made religion. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Look for a second how Paul brackets this, this talk of self-made religion. Here in verse 1 of chapter 3, he says, "If then." If you go back and look at verse 16, he says, "Therefore." He's bracketing this whole idea of legalism with two concepts. In verse 16, the nuts and bolts, the antithesis of legalism, He gives us the gospel. Your debts have already been set aside. You can't earn your way out of this debt. It's an eternal debt to an eternal God, but it's been wiped clean. It's been canceled. Those debts have been nailed to the cross. You're free of them. That's the therefore. Reject judgmental attitudes of legalism. You don't need self-made religion. And then we get the if-then. If you've been raised with Christ, if those debts have been wiped away, then seek the things that are above. You've been connected to the head. Your debts are gone. You're united with Christ. Don't live for dead rotten apples. You can have Jesus.

35 · The preacher contrasts the two paths — legalism leading back to slavery despite its appearance of wisdom, and seeking Christ leading not merely to salvation but to life itself in union with him as the source and fountain of delights

To put it bluntly, if you want life and not bondage, if you want health and not cancer in your soul, Paul says, "Seek Christ." That little phrase "if then" gives us perspective to look at the trajectory of these two paths. The one path, the broad path, the popular path, the one contrary to all appearances leads back into slavery. It puts the yoke back around your neck. It puts the burden back upon you. But the other path doesn't just lead to heaven, Paul is showing us, doesn't just lead to salvation, it leads us to life. It leads us to the source, it leads us to the head, it leads us to the fountain of delights, to Jesus. Real life is to have Christ himself.

36 · The preacher introduces Flannery O'Connor's penetrating insight that legalism's deepest motivation can be avoiding Jesus by avoiding sin — a satanic conviction that one can pursue morality without pursuing Christ, making legalism fundamentally anti-gospel

Why is legalism powerless to provide the life it promises? Why can't legalism deliver on what it says it's going to deliver? I love this incredibly perceptive quote from Flannery O'Connor. She's an author, Southern author from the last century. She's speaking here to the deception of legalism, and there's a character in her book Wise Blood named Hazel Motes. Flannery O'Connor puts this phrase in Hazel Motes' mouth. She says, "There was a deep, black, wordless conviction in him that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin. Think about that for a second. There was a deep, black, wordless conviction. There was a satanic conviction in this guy's heart that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin. I don't want Jesus, and I know one way to avoid Jesus is to be a legalist. The Gospel is contrary to legalism. I don't want anything to do with Jesus and that source of life, so I'm going to live this way.

37 · The preacher identifies legalism's ultimate danger: it offers the possibility of pursuing life and salvation while bypassing Jesus entirely, making moral conformity a substitute for drinking from Christ as living water — a satanic strategy that damns precisely by avoiding Christ

You want to know the real danger of self-made religion? You want to know the fatally appealing thing about it? You can try to pursue life without pursuing Christ. You can look spiritual without ever savoring Jesus. That's the horribly effective strategy Satan tempts us with, this deep deception of moral conformity to man-made rules. The deeper sin is that by striving to keep all the rules, you can pursue life without ever tasting living water. I can quench my thirst without ever drinking from Jesus. That's what legalism tells you. Legalism is lethal not just because it convinces you that your performances will get you saved. It's lethal because it tries to go around Jesus for salvation. It tries to avoid him at all costs. Legalism says, "I want life, but I want it my own way. I want salvation, but I'll be damned if I'm going through Jesus for it." And that is exactly the point.

38 · The preacher declares the liberating counter-claim to legalism: believers need no spiritual prefixes or categories because union with Christ alone — being connected to the head, feasting through the vine — is sufficient and complete, which is Paul's entire point

Legalism is fatal because it takes you away from the only hope for life we have. The life that Paul throws in our face at the beginning of chapter 3. You don't have to live for the rules somebody else created. You don't have to feel condemnation because you don't get to put that little prefix on the front of your Christian title. Something-something Christian. You don't have to feel like you're less. That's Paul's whole point. There's no prefix. It's just in Christ. It's just connected to the head. It's just feasting and feeding through the vine and flourishing. Because I have Jesus.

39 · The preacher concludes by reading the bookend passages again, anchoring the congregation in Paul's call to reject legalism by holding fast to Christ the head and seeking things above, climaxing with the eschatological promise that believers will appear with Christ in glory and experience the fullness of delights beyond imagination

That's where Paul leaves us. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels. Going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, seek The things that are above providence. It's where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For you've died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And here's the promise: when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. When He appears, you will experience the fullness of the Fountain of Delights in ways you can't even imagine.

40 · The preacher transitions to closing prayer, inviting the congregation into a posture of worship and response to the word preached

Would you bow your heads?