Don't be a legalist, live by the Spirit of God
When you try to do things perfectly by following very strict rules and regulations, you become a slave who loses the joy of freedom.
We must seek to remain under the ministry of the Holy Spirit to obtain the true joy and true freedom that God has given us in Christ Jesus.
And if the ministry of death engraved with letters in stones was glorious, so much so that the children of Israel could not fix their eyes on Moses' face because of the glory of his face, which was to perish, 8 How can the ministry of the spirit not be rather glorious? 2 Corinthians 3: 7-8 King James Version (KJV)
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Living under the Law leads to death and not life. For me, "living under the Law" means that I must do everything perfectly; If I don't, it will get me into trouble with God. It means rules and regulations, without freedom. I lived under the Law for years, it stripped me of all my peace and joy. It was alive, and yet it was full of death.
Death in this sense means, in reality, all kinds of misery. A legalistic lifestyle makes people tense and rigid; It makes them practically not know anything about mercy since they do not receive it from God and neither do they bestow it on others.
When I was trying to walk in love, I realized that I was not a very merciful person. Once again, God taught me that I couldn't give what I didn't have. I had not received His mercy for my failures; therefore, he had no mercy to give to other people.
I tried to follow all the rules and regulations: what I had been given, what the church had given me, and the thousands with which I had allowed Satan to program my mind.
They weren't even rules according to the Bible, they were just things to feel guilty about.
God gave Moses ten commandments. I once read that by the time Jesus came, the religious leaders had already transformed those ten commandments into approximately 2,200 different rules and regulations that people were to follow. I am not sure if there were really 2,200 or not, what I do know is that they had many more than one person could handle.
Some people are more prone to legalism than others. Even our natural temperaments can contribute towards perfectionism or legalism. But we must remember that where there is legalism, there is also death.
Jesus said that He came to give life (John 10:10). The new dispensation was one so that the people would not be governed by the Law, but by the Spirit of God. It was a new way of living! This new way, included mercy towards failure, forgiveness for sin, and instead of having sacrifice have faith in Jesus Christ.
It was almost too good to be true. It was simple, and some considered it too simple. They couldn't believe it. They kept trying to impress God with how good they were. The Bible says that we are justified by faith not by works (Ephesians 2: 8-9). Any other way of trying to get justification and righteousness will only frustrate and exhaust us.