45 Bible Verses about Legalism

While Israel, which was in search of a Law which would ensure righteousness, failed to discover one. And why? Because they looked to obedience, and not to faith, to secure it. They stumbled over 'the Stumbling-block.'

For 'no human being will be pronounced righteous before God' as the result of obedience to Law; for it is Law that shows what sin is.

All who rely upon obedience to Law are under a curse, for Scripture says--'Cursed is every one who does not abide by all that is written in the Book of the Law, and do it.' Again, it is evident that no one is pronounced righteous before God through Law, for we read--'Through faith the righteous man shall find Life.'

So we placed our faith in Christ Jesus, in order that we might be pronounced righteous, as the result of faith in Christ, and not of obedience to Law; for such obedience 'will not result in even one soul's being pronounced righteous.'

But alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You turn the key of the Kingdom of Heaven in men's faces. For you do not go in yourselves, nor yet allow those who try to go in to do so.

For 'no human being will be pronounced righteous before God' as the result of obedience to Law; for it is Law that shows what sin is. But now, quite apart from Law, the Divine Righteousness stands revealed, and to it the Law and the Prophets bear witness-- The Divine Righteousness which is bestowed, through faith in Jesus Christ, upon all, without distinction, who believe in him.read more.
For all have sinned, and all fall short of God's glorious ideal, But, in his loving-kindness, are being freely pronounced righteous through the deliverance found in Christ Jesus.

More than that, I count everything as loss, for the sake of the exceeding value of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And for his sake I have lost everything, and count it as refuse, if I may but gain Christ and be found in union with him; Any righteousness that I have being, not the righteousness that results from Law, but the righteousness which comes through faith in Christ--the righteousness which is derived from God and is founded on faith.

Though I, if any man, have cause to rely even upon them. If any one thinks he can rely upon external privileges, far more can I! I was circumcised when eight days old; I am an Israelite by race, and of the tribe of Benjamin; I am a Hebrew, and the child of Hebrews. As to the Law, I was a Pharisee; As to zeal, I was a persecutor of the Church; as to such righteousness as is due to Law, I proved myself blameless.

And how, in my devotion to Judaism, I surpassed many of my contemporaries among my own people in my intense earnestness in upholding the traditions of my ancestors.

Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You pay tithes on mint, fennel, and caraway seed, and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law--justice, mercy, and good faith. These last you ought to have put into practice, without neglecting the first.

Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You destroy widow's houses, even while pretending to make long prayers; therefore you shall receive greater condemnation.

As it chanced, a priest was going down by that road. He saw the man, but passed by on the opposite side. A Levite, too, did the same; he came up to the spot, but, when he saw the man, passed by on the opposite side.

As for these people who do not know the Law--they are cursed!"

The Pharisee stood forward and began praying to himself in this way--'O God, I thank thee that I am not like other men-- thieves, rogues, adulterers--or even like this tax-gatherer. I fast twice a week, and give a tenth of everything I get to God.'

Take care not to perform your religious duties in public in order to be seen by others; if you do, your Father who is in Heaven has no reward for you. Therefore, when you do acts of charity, do not have a trumpet blown in front of you, as hypocrites do in the Synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. There, I tell you, is their reward!

All their actions are done to attract attention. They widen their phylacteries, and increase the size of their tassels, and like to have the place of honor at dinner, and the best seats in the Synagogues, and to be greeted in the markets with respect, and to be called 'Rabbi' for everybody.

"You," said Jesus, "are the men who justify themselves before the world, but God can read your hearts; and what is highly esteemed among men may be an abomination in the sight of God.

For, in their ignorance of the Divine Righteousness, and in their eagerness to set up a righteousness of their own, they refused to accept with submission the Divine Righteousness.

His answer was: "It was well said by Isaiah when he prophesied about you hypocrites in the words--'This is a people that honor me with their lips, While their hearts are far removed from me;

But vainly do they worship me, For they teach but the precepts of men.' You neglect God's commandments and hold to the traditions of men.

Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed look fair outside, while inside they are filled with dead men's bones and all kinds of filth. It is the same with you. Outwardly, and to others, you have the look of religious men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and sin.

His reply was: "How is it that you on your side break God's commandments out of respect for your own traditions? For God said--'Honor thy father and mother,' and 'Let him who reviles his father or mother suffer death,' But you say 'Whenever any one says to his father or mother "Whatever of mine might have been of service to you is 'Given to God,'"read more.
He is in no way bound to honor his father.' In this way you have nullified the words of God on account of your traditions. Hypocrites! It was well said by Isaiah when he prophesied about you-- 'This is a people that honor me with their lips, While their hearts are far removed from me; But vainly do they worship me, For they teach but the precepts of men.'"

Wisely do you set aside God's commandments," he exclaimed, "to keep your own traditions! For while Moses said 'Honor thy father and thy mother,' and 'Let him who reviles his father or mother suffer death,' You say 'If a man says to his father or mother "Whatever of mine might have been of service to you is Korban"' (which means 'Given to God')--read more.
Why, then you do not allow him to do anything further for his father or mother! In this way you nullify the words of God by your traditions, which you hand down; and you do many similar things."

Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are filled with the results of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the dish, so that the outside may become clean as well.

Was not it Moses who gave you the Law? Yet not one of you obeys it! Why are you seeking to put me to death?"

"The man cannot be from God," said some of the Pharisees, "for he does not keep the Sabbath." "How is it possible," retorted others, "for a bad man to give signs like this?"

Presently Jesus said to them: "Take care and be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

So Jesus gave them this warning. "Take care," he said, "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."

Then they understood that he had told them to be on their guard, not against the leaven of bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

You are scrupulous in keeping Days and Months and Seasons and Years! You make me fear that the labor which I have spent on you may have been wasted.

Understand that I, Paul, myself tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, Christ will avail you nothing. I again declare to every one who receives circumcision, that he binds himself to obey the whole Law. You have severed yourselves from Christ--you who are seeking to be pronounced righteous through Law; you have fallen away from love.

Why, then, do you now provoke God, by putting on the necks of these disciples a yoke which neither our ancestors nor we were able to bear?

For a man who has laid the Law, as a whole, to heart, but has failed in one particular, is liable for breaking all its provisions.

No, it is through the loving-kindness of the Lord Jesus that we, just as they do, believe that we have been saved."

Do not think that I have come to do away with the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to do away with them, but to complete them.

Christ ransomed us from the curse pronounced in the Law, by taking the curse on himself for us, for Scripture says--'Cursed is any one who is hanged on a tree.'

Tell me, you who want to be still subject to Law--Why do not you listen to the Law? Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one the child of the slave-woman and the other the child of the free woman. But the child of the slave-woman was born in the course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born in fulfillment of a promise.read more.
This story may be taken as an allegory. The women stand for two Covenants. One Covenant, given from Mount Sinai, produces a race of slaves and is represented by Hagar (The word Hagar meaning in Arabia Mount Sinai) and it ranks with the Jerusalem of to-day, for she and her children are in slavery. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she it is who is our mother. For Scripture says--'Rejoice, thou barren one, who dost never bear, Break into shouts, thou who art never in labor, For many are the children of her who is desolate--aye, more than of her who has a husband.' As for ourselves, brothers, we, like Isaac, are children born in fulfillment of a promise. Yet at that time the child born in the course of nature persecuted the child born by the power of the Spirit; and it is the same now. But what does the passage of Scripture say? 'Send away the slave-woman and her son; for the slave's son shall not be co-heir with the son of the free woman.' And so, Brothers, we are not children of a slave, but of her who is free.

For it is by God's loving-kindness that you have been saved, through your faith. It is not due to yourselves; the gift is God's. It is not due to obedience to Law, lest any one should boast.

"Look!" the Pharisees said to him, "why are they doing what is not allowed on the Sabbath?"

"Why are you doing what it is not allowable to do on the Sabbath?" asked some of the Pharisees.

But the President of the Synagogue, indignant that Jesus had worked the cure on the Sabbath, interposed and said to the people: "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come to be cured on one of those, and not on the Sabbath."

Our fitness comes from God, who himself made us fit to be ministers of a New Covenant, of which the substance is, not a written Law, but a Spirit. For the written Law means Death, but the Spirit gives Life.

Through my union with the Lord Jesus, I know and am persuaded that nothing is 'defiling in itself.' A thing is 'defiling' only to him who holds it to be so.

"I am a Jew, a native of Tarsus in Cilicia, but I was brought up in this city under the teaching of Gamaliel, and educated in accordance with the strict system of our ancestral Law. I was as zealous in God's service as any of you who are here to-day.

Here one of the Students of the Law interrupted him by saying: "Teacher, when you say this, you are insulting us also."