For too many of us we find it too easy to forget the gospel…Why are we prone, why are so apt to so quickly and so easily forget the gospel?  Well, a primary reason for our tendency to forget the gospel is in a word, Legalism…Legalism is a daily tendency.  Legalism is a daily temptation for each one of us.  No one is exempt from the daily tendency and temptation.  And no one will mature beyond this daily temptation and tendency.  (from a sermon on Galatians 2:15-16)

(Thanks to Todd for sending me this sermon.)

CJ Mahaney goes on to quote Sinclair Ferguson on the doctrine of justification in the context of legalism

The glory of the gospel is that God has declared Christians to be rightly related to him in spite of their sin. But our greatest temptation and mistake is to try to smuggle character into his work of grace. How easily we fall into the trap of assuming that we can only remain justified so long as there are grounds in our character for justification. But Paul’s teaching is that nothing we do ever contributes to our justification.

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