Dear reader, listen to Jesus
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven....Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matt 5:44 - 48
Now listen to the legalists. You are a sinner because you are not perfect. Here is a list of laws, and a list of evil thoughts, and all the good things you fail to do, so you are infinitely evil. You are so bad if I say you can be redeemed walking in love, that is now evil, hypocracy.
Jesus is saying something very simple. Learn how to love from the heart, not just show, or because it looks good, and you will be perfect like your Father in heaven is perfect.
So here is the victory. From the outflow of your heart you will obey Jesus commands if you walk in the Spirit. Paul calls it being a slave to righteousness. Now to deny this is possible, the law will be taken and they will say you cannot walk in love or being perfect, because one sin means you have failed. This failure is the definition of legalism.
We do not fail because of one failure point, we fail if we stop loving which happens if we do not repent and allow sin to fester.
If we stop loving, we do not have the energy of obey Jesus, we wither and die. So weirdly those who claim not to be legalists are the real legalists because they deny the power of love to change the heart. Sin creates a problem, but we just repent when it appears and walk on.
Christians talk about satan says this and that. But satan condemns christians, disappoints them, talks about their failures, and gets them to ignore Jesus and the cross, and just says look at the church, it fragility and difficulties. So why is this power a failure? Because the law says one sin means you fail. But Jesus says the Spirit overcomes through faith so we walk in righteousness.
We can never walk as Jesus walked. But this has never been Jesus's words or aim. He said we could be like Him. I am not saying I have arrived, I am just saying this is what Jesus said. Do you believe Him?
Or do you believe the preachers and teachers who do not know how to unlock the door.
Jesus one issue about mankind is we do not love as our first reaction. But the Lord says, that is who I am, but you need to be like me, in communion with me or you are my enemy. So how can people claim to be following Jesus but their drive is not learn how to love everyone, through the power of the cross. That is the power of Jesus.
What are you going to do? Ignore the cross and love, or start to walk in the Kingdom?