How to Pursue Holiness Without Becoming Legalistic

3 Min Read

In The Whole Christ, Dr. Ferguson gives a helpful definition of legalism: “Legalism is simply separating the law of God from the person of God . . . abstracting His law from His loving and generous person.” If we separate the law of God and its requirements from the loving and generous God whose law it is, we are bound to find our pursuit of holiness bending in an unhelpful, legalistic direction. So then, we must always pursue holiness by remembering who God is and why He calls us to be holy.

In 2 Corinthians 1:3–4, Paul praises God and gives us a wonderful description of who He is: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction.” The Father of mercies has comforted us in our affliction by sending His Son into the world to save sinners. Out of His great love, the Father sent Jesus Christ to redeem us out of the unholiness into which we had plunged ourselves by our sin. Our Father sent us a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to make us righteous before Him. By grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ’s saving work alone, we have peace with God (Rom. 5:1–2).

But our merciful Father is not content only to justify us and make us right before Him. He also desires for us to be holy even as He is holy (1 Peter 1:15–16). Therefore, God also works to renew us after the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, the good news of the gospel is that

Christ, having redeemed us by His blood,
is also renewing us by his Spirit into his image. (Heidelberg Catechism 86)

So then, we are called to pursue holiness in the sure and comforting knowledge that holiness is our Father’s purpose for us, and that Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is at work to accomplish this purpose. We are called to participate and cooperate with that work; however, the success of God’s renewing work does not depend on us but on our triune God whose work it is. The Holy Spirit assures us of this truth in 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” God wants us to be holy, and therefore He promises to work so that His desire will be fulfilled in us.

In our pursuit of holiness, gratitude for Christ is the great antidote to legalism. We do not pursue holiness in order to make ourselves acceptable to God.

God cares so much about our sanctification and renewal because He wants us to be fit for life with Him in His kingdom. We know that the kingdom of God is a matter of “righteousness and peace and joy” (Rom. 14:17). God knows that without righteousness, His people cannot experience the peace and joy of His kingdom. Think back to what happened in the fall of man: we turned from righteousness to unrighteousness. In doing so, we fractured the peace we had enjoyed with God and instead created enmity with Him. We exchanged the joy of fellowship with Him for the misery of alienation from Him. But God is a life-giving God, who made us to live with Him in righteousness, peace, and joy. Therefore, He set out to restore that relationship with us (Gen. 3:15).

Our merciful heavenly Father wants us to be like the man of Psalm 1, who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night. Why? Because that man

is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers. (Ps. 1:3)

We delight in God’s law when we understand it to be the life-blessing law of our life-giving God. God desires us to pursue holiness because He wants us to be planted, fruitful, enduring, and prosperous now and forever. The Father’s will for us is:

Wholehearted joy in God through Christ
and a love and delight to live
according to the will of God
by doing every kind of good work. (Heidelberg Catechism 90)

In our pursuit of holiness, gratitude for Christ is the great antidote to legalism. We do not pursue holiness in order to make ourselves acceptable to God. We pursue holiness in gratitude for the redemption that is ours by Christ’s blood and the renewal that is being accomplished in us by Christ’s Spirit. We pursue holiness with joy because it is what we were made and remade to do:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:8–10).

May God guard us from legalism and guide us by His grace and Spirit as we pursue holiness.