When Christians fight, they become either legalistic legalists or legalistic antinomians …

I think Dave Edling’s post over at our RedeemingChurchConflicts site is brilliant. One of his best writings to date! I encourage you to read and enjoy:

495 Years and a Lot of Conflict

Two of my favorite excerpts from the essay:

• There has been one consistently common thread among all church conflicts. It is best captured by a question: If we are justified before God not by our works but the free grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ, why are church conflicts almost always characterized by defensiveness and self-righteousness?

• What happens when Christians fight is that they become either legalistic legalists or legalistic antinomians. They defend their actions on the grounds of either how their faith has been more righteous (that is, that they have kept the commandments—works righteousness—better than their opponents), or how their faith has been demonstrated with more love than their opponents (that is, that they have kept the commandments—works righteousness—better than their opponents). Either way, they forget that it is not their righteousness that matters; it is Christ’s and his alone.