Here are my notes from Sinclair Ferguson’s lecture on Legalism in the Marrow Controversy. As an interesting aside, I’m currently reading Costly Grace which is a modern application of Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship. Many of the formulations there sound much like the conditional grace which plagued the Pharisees and the Church of Scotland. That bears more thought.
Legalism
Robert Trail: men who take a middle way have more kindness toward that extreme toward which they move than that from which they come.
John Simpson has been accused of propogating Arminianism. He would later teach Arianism. He was merely warned not to grant too much to natural reason. The General Assembly had been moving away from free grace and toward legalism. They were kind to this halfway house to full blown legalism.
You cannot understand antinomianism if you do not first understand legalism. This is a matter of great practical & pastoral concern. It concerns each and every Christian and congregation. It is one of the most subtle and pervasive influences that can twist our hearts away from the Father and the gospel grace. Legalism is the ultimate pastoral problem.
Satan wanted to deceive people into believe God relates to us on the basis of the law. The lie is that God has a legalistic, rather than a gracious, spirit. Satan has taken the gracious promise of God and turned into a covenant of works.
So often our response to antinomianism is legalism, not free grace.
The Nature of Legalism
Dictionaries tend to define it as justification by works. It takes many forms and has many faces. It distorts the grace of God. It also distorts the law. Paul does not distort the law. Grace confirms the law. It is legalism that destroys grace and distorts law from its original character & function.
The Pharisees mixed grace & works. Paul had to defeat this mingling to defend free grace.
Self-righteous men don’t claim to be perfect, but modify the covenant of works that they might rely upon those works they actually do. They did not believe that the righteousness of Jesus alone was sufficient, so they added their own observance to Christ’s work.
We encounter not only doctrinal legalism. There is also an experimental legalism. We can have an evangelical head and a legal heart. This was the position the Marrow Men opposed. The Auchterarder Creed acted as a litmus test for grace & legalism. The Marrow Men’s doctrine showed men for its true colors.
The Development of Legalism Before the Controversy
The reason the Auchterarder Creed created consternation is that it struck exposed nerves in legalistic hearts. An unnoticed but real change had occurred in the ordo saludis. Grace always precedes the means of grace. Repentance was not a cause of grace, but a consequence of grace.
They had begun to put repentance as a condition for the preaching of grace. We cannot repent apart from grace. Sorrow and grief for sin necessarily presume the love of God. Alteration of life comes after conversion, not before it.
Calvin: we cannot divide faith and repentance chronologically. The true Christian believes repentantly and repents believingly. We cannot confuse logical priority with chronological priority. No one truly believes himself to belong to God until he has received grace. Such faith is the root of repentance.
The Church of Scotland was returning to a medieval view of salvation: penitence meriting grace. It led people into bondage to legalism.
In Luke 15 both sons display a legalistic heart. The younger son wonders if he’s repented enough to warrant acceptance. The older brother cannot enjoy what could be his by grace alone.
The Causes of Legalism
It could almost always be traced back to particular principles.
Failure to Grasp that Justification is by Free Grace and Received by Faith. It is the article of the standing or falling of both the church and individuals. Legalism creeps into the gospel offer. But Peter preached the gospel to those who put Jesus to death, before they repented.
Rutherford: “The reprobate has the same warrant to believe in Christ as the elect.”
Let us not put stumbling blocks in the way of sinners
It also creeps into our thinking about the character of sanctification. The Galatians had begun with faith & the Spirit and were now working by the flesh. The Colossians believed in a second blessing, which was merited by obedience to the law.
The failure to distinguish between the law as a covenant of works and the law as a rule of life. It arises when a man when we fail to see the difference between the gracious covenant and bargaining with God with the law. Sinai was never a legalistic bondage, but a manifestation of grace. The free grace of God was given in Sinai.
John Calhoun: the distinction is a Scriptural and necessary distinction. We must distinguish between the Law as covenant and the law as a rule. It is the key that opens the treasure of the gospel.
The 10 fingers of accusation become 10 friends pointing us Christ. The law is not a motor car to heaven. Apart from grace it lacks everything. But it is a map from God for those who have already been energized by the power of the Spirit.
Legality inbred in men’s hearts. This is the key to the cry from Paul in Romans 7. We who were slaves to sin, but have been redeemed and set free by Christ. But we have an inner Pharisee, a little religious fanatic inside us. While regenerate, our hearts are not perfect.
Ferguson- for 2 years they have been fixing all the changes made by the previous owners of his home. God has to remodel our hearts to undo the damage done by legalism & sin. Think: Holmes on Homes
It takes the constant application of the gospel of grace to change us internally, to break us of our legal spirits.
The Pastoral Dangers of Legalism
The Doctrinal Danger of Legalism builds up what the gospel tears down. It is one of the chief spiritual disorders we need to treat.
It produces a self-righteous temper. It discloses itself in many ways. We compare ourselves to others. We judge others. We argue against free grace to others we deem “notorious sinners.”
It produces a bondage spirit. Grace sets us free from this spirit of bondage. In Pilgrim’s Progress Faithful was struck down by Adam the First. The secret inclination to the covenant of works is in all of us. Its an abusive husband, unlike Christ who is a loving, sacrificing husband. We are apt to turn aside, returning to our former spouse.
It makes us a slave to Satan. It provides the foothold he needs to turn us against God and the gospel. Jesus breaks the claim he has- Romans 8. None shall accuse when He justifies!
The Remedy of Legalism
The only remedy is grace. Christ is more full of grace that we can be of sin.
Cavman Considers 
Leave a Reply