This is the beginning of a series of posts that will talk about the journey I'm on to recover from Legalism. While writing about this subject is something I've thought about for a while, starting now is prompted by a question I was asked in our Sunday morning caregiving support group.
Interestingly, I can't remember exactly how the question was phrased. But how I received it was as a request to explain the why, the how, and the when of the significant shift in my life from legalism toward freedom in Christ. I came out with some "thinking out loud" response for the group, but recognize that it's time to spend some time writing about and processing all that's involved in that change, because it is without doubt the most major change that has occurred in my life, and it's a change that impacts every facet of my life.
I need to process it for me, because there is still a lot of stuff that I'm sorting out. But maybe more importantly, I need to process it and write it down for my now adult children, since I was still immersed in legalism during their formative years. My hope is that it will help them understand gradual but very significant changes they have seen in what I believe and how I live, and that it may also help them understand some of the beliefs, attitudes, and conflicts that I passed on to them with the best of intentions.
It's hard to know where to start. Maybe the best place is to simply try to write a simple phrase that is at the core of it all.
- My being right with God (salvation) is 100% the result of what God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit have done, are doing, and will do. It is not the result of my actions, my beliefs, my theology, or how I do or don't do things, being right. My only goal is that each of these will be God-honoring.
So that's a good place to pause. More to come...
