Legalism and the prosperity gospel have more in common than you think. When God is viewed merely as a comic cop dispensing perpetual judgment when we don’t walk the line or a genie granting wishes, then we’ve fundamentally missed it. A nice suit worn out of traditional obligation or as a sign of God’s blessing has the same amount of impact on our relationship with God, none. Despite the seemingly polar opposite emphases of the prosperity gospel and legalism, both misunderstand grace, each denies liberty, and neither grasps the gospel.
Both Misunderstand Grace
God’s unmerited favor has a way of perplexing our works-saturated minds. Whether we are creating new rules to earn His favor or using His favor like a token to make us wealthy and healthy, grace is a scandalous reality we don’t quite understand. Grace is not merely the means to the end of morality or prosperity. Grace is the explosive paradigm shattering reality of God’s very nature whereby sinners are offered redemption despite their utter unworthiness. Grace points us to Christ, which dispels any myth of self-righteousness and any notion of divine entitlement.
Each Denies Liberty
Legalists are bound by the confines of their piety and proponents of the prosperity gospel are bound by a false reality. Each denies the liberty we have in Christ. One makes up their own rules in the name of righteousness and imposes them on the masses while the other misses the freedom found in abiding by the very nature of God as expressed in His truth. Liberty is denied when we continue to see the law as a taskmaster or when we selectively approach God’s revelation and refuse to allow it to have its full freeing impact.
Neither Grasps the Gospel
It is difficult to accept that God would redeem us through the cross. If the substitutionary death of Christ is sufficient to save, then what exactly is there left for us to do? Believe. Faith is not a past passive transaction that we can wave like a membership card whenever we fail to live up to our standards or those of others. The baffling beauty of the gospel is that on account of Christ, God forgave us our sins entirely apart from our works and disconnected from any obligation to bless our lives materially.
Neither a staunch Christianity obsessed with toeing the line nor a pop-psychology Christianity chiefly concerned with prospering here and now offers the glorious hope we have in Christ. Cling to the crucified one for the perfect fulfillment of the law on your behalf and look to Christ for a life that is bruised but not broken because He was broken for us. What legalism and the prosperity gospel have in common is their mutual contrast to true faith in Christ.