Signs of Legalism

Legalism is one of those terms often labeled but rarely understood. I’ve been accused of it, and maybe you have too, but what exactly is it? Is it, for example, loving God’s law? If so, count the psalmist guilty, who sang, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97), but loving the law is not legalism. Or, is it heeding the law? If so, he who said he came not to abolish “the Law of the Prophets” but to “fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17) was a legalist. But he wasn’t.