...episodes on Encore Westerns. No commercials, interesting plots, and Chester's stiff leg lure my attention.
Yesterday, one episode showed an old man quoating scripture as he beat another man with a whip because he had sinned. He said he was beating righteousness in him. This is the extreme of legalism, the old sinful nature trying to be righteous by living the Law.
Legalism makes a believer wretched because it grieves the new nature created in Christ and aggravates the old nature. The Pharisees were legalists with beautiful outward appearance, but despicable inward attitudes.
The believer's old nature wants to keep him/her in bondage. The Apostle Paul struggled with this. Romans 7:18 For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.
If we depend on the energy of the flesh, we cannot serve God, please God, or do any good thing. But if we yield to the Holy Spirit, then we have the power needed to obey His will.
As the old legalist withered on the ground from a gun fight, Matt Dillon poked his gun in the side holster and quoated scripture. Proverbs 16:19 Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.
