The Christian Jewish RootsSýnishorn

Some religious teachers today write or speak as if modern Christianity were in danger of believing that the way to salvation was through physical circumcision and other regulations. The idea is somewhat preposterous. Christianity isn’t in danger of being taken over by promoters of circumcision!

Please understand that there is a difference between legalism and being a law-abiding Christian.

Many today believe that the heresy of Galatians was that God required His Church to keep the law. They fail to see the difference between legalism and being law-abiding. Paul argued with equal force against legalism and for being law-abiding.

The analogy of how parents administer household rules illustrates legalism vs. being law-abiding. Legalism would be demonstrated by a home in which parents offer love to their children only if their children adhere to strict rules. In such a home, there are rules for every aspect of life from dawn to dusk. Harsh punishment is administered for breaking them. “Love” has to be earned. Of course, it’s not truly love, and such a home is dysfunctional.

By contrast, being law-abiding is demonstrated by a home in which parents love their children unconditionally but at the same time teach their children that they expect a definite standard of behaviour. When the children fail to live by those standards in some way, the parents lovingly correct the children and require them to change their behaviour. The children are always loved, but they are also guided through life.

God is a family. His laws are the household rules for His children’s behaviour. He loves His children unconditionally, yet at the same time He guides them in how they are to live. When they fail to live by His laws—and every person sins—He corrects them, requiring them to change their behaviour. Keeping His laws does not make people His children. They become His children in a way that is similar to how any human child’s life begins, which is explained in our articles on the process of conversion. God produces His children in love, and then He guides them in love through His beneficial household rules, His laws.

Being law-abiding is normal and healthy in both a physical family and in God’s family.