Gordon Clark: Legalism (Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics)

1973. In Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics. Carl F.H. Henry, ed. Washington D.C.: Canon Press. [Reprinted in 1988 by Baker Book House.] Legalism

See also Fundamentalism; Phariseeism. Legalism, in the history of theology, is the theory that a man by doing good works or obeying the law earns and merits his salvation. Pelagius argues that since man has free will, he is able to keep God's commandments perfectly. The Pharisees, who denied free will, gave greater scope to grace, in that if a man's sins and merits were in balance, God would graciously remove one's sin.

The evangelical doctrine is justification by faith alone, and that faith itself is a gift of God. The merits are all Christ's.

The Apostle Paul considers the objection that justification by faith alone removes all need for good works and allows the regenerate man to continue in sin. His reply is that redemption is salvation from sin and that justification irresistibly issues in sanctification.

In the present century the term legalism has been given a new meaning. Situation ethics (q.v.) despises rules and laws. Anyone who conscientiously obeys God's commandments is regarded as legalistic. Therefore Joseph Fletcher approves the breaking of every one of the Ten Commandments. He thus transfers the evil connotation of legalism to the historical morality of Protestantism.

Gordon H. Clark