Legalism vs liberalism which is worse?

Legalism is possibly more dangerous than liberalism, so fight for grace! Grace is absolutely foundational to the Christian walk, and should be a massive emphasis for us, as anybody who has been around this site for a long time, or for that matter a church belonging to the family of churches I am glad to be a part of, will most likely realize.  The Christian’s relationship to law and grace has been emphasized thanks to the ministry of Martyn Lloyd-Jones who’s excellent work on Romans impacted so many, including the young Terry Virgo who then devoted his life to building churches that are filled with grace.  We are fools if we think that we know it all, however, and someone once said, “inside every person of grace is a legalist trying to get out.”  As a result of this it does our souls good to be confronted regularly by teaching on legalism.  Thus, when I came across this fantastic post on the dangers of legalism by Micah Fries I was thrilled.  Here are some excerpts to whet your appetite:

• “When I grew up, the great enemy of the gospel was almost always known as “liberalism”, or possibly, “moderate theology”. Today, however, it seems that we must equally be on guard against a different enemy. This new enemy is just as old as the first, but it is often more difficult to spot. Of course, it would be the enemy of legalism. These two polar opposites of liberalism and legalism both stand apart from each other, in a sense, but in a very real way, they both accomplish the same goal; that of undermining God’s word.“
• “While liberalism claims that scripture says too much, legalism claims that scripture does not say enough”
• “Liberalism is often easy to spot, and . . .is easy to ridicule. Legalism is not nearly so easy to highlight, and often seems to find a more comfortable home amongst us.”
• “Legalism is a subtle, creeping cancer that masquerades as holiness”
• “A certain mark of legalism is a capacity to recognize others’ sins while failing to see our own.”
• “legalism worries more about “its reputation” than it worries about Jesus’ reputation”

READ THE REST and Follow Micah Fries on Twitter.