God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Consequences of legalism:
1. Keeps people distanced and alienated from God. Afraid of God, the taskmaster. Afraid of God’s rejection. No assurance or security.
2. Guilt, condemnation (Rom. 8:1), accusation, disapproval (both objective and subjective).
3. Defeat, despair, frustration, futility. “It’s a losing battle. I can never do enough, be good enough, do it right and perfect as expected.” Burned out!
4. Self-destructive behavior; self-belittling, sense of worthlessness, low personal concept of oneself.
5. Hypocrisy. Play-acting; role-playing; lip-service (Matt. 15:8, 9). Contrived piety, perfunctory performance, pretense, ostentation.
6. Minimalization. What do I have to do to get by, to side-step the rules?
7. Impersonalization; shallow personal relationships because they relate to law rather that to Person of Jesus Christ and other persons.
Satan will always claim to know more about God than God Himself has revealed. He will claim to have special insight into God’s motives for a command or a prohibition that God Himself has kept secret. In other words, he will sow seeds of doubt in your mind concerning God’s goodness; he will lead you to believe that God has ulterior motives in what He does designed to deprive you of blessings you might otherwise experience. “God is not telling you the whole truth. He can’t afford to.”
