Which is it?

To be legalistic is to misuse God's laws in a way never intended. The Pharisees, for example, added many of their own humanly devised rules and regulations to God's laws, effectively misrepresenting them and misapplying them. This so distorted God's original purpose for His laws that they become ineffective (Matthew 5:16) and nullified. As a result, the people were no longer following God's law (John 7:19). Legalism is to substitute any humanly created laws for God's laws, to rely on the keeping of any law in the belief that it will replace faith in Christ to make us righteous in God's eyes, or if the focus is on obedience apart from the motivation of pleasing God as well as loving Him and loving our neighbor. That is the distortion of God's Law, a favorite trick Satan uses to manipulate and lure people away from God.

In (Ephesians 2:8-10), Paul makes it very clear that our works have nothing to do with our justification. He tells us that by grace we are saved through faith (not even our own faith that we think we have worked up), so we can't take any credit for our justification: it is the gift of God. He has to give us the faith and the power to believe through His holy Spirit, then we can act on it when and if we choose to exercise that power. Therefore justification does not come from anything we have done, lest we would put ourselves in the place of God. It is possible for us to have this power and faith and not act on it for multiple reasons (Matthew 13:3-9 explained in Matthew 13:18-23). But, once acted upon, we are His workmanship. We are now a newly created person in Christ Jesus and He can do the good things He planned for us long ago. In Titus 3:4-8, Paul is talking to believers who have experienced this justification. He again clearly states that those believing God should be diligent in doing good works. These works don't save us, but are the resulting evidence of genuine justification by faith.

So, what do we do to produce good works? We know that doing good is pleasing in His sight (1 John 3:22). The very next verse tells us that it is the love of God that we keep His commandments, and they are not grievous (heavy or burdensome). Obedience is when we keep His words, His commandments, and we live like He lived in the power and love of the holy spirit. 1 John 5:3 He tells us two proofs of our love for Him; that we love His children and we keep His commandments. It is vain to pretend we love God if we live a lifestyle that opposes His will and show no love for those who are obedient.

It is ridiculous to charge that keeping God's laws is legalism. He is God, the creator of all living things, so how can we not obey Him if we love Him? How can we call Him Lord and not do the things He says (Luke 6:46)? Hebrews 5:9 tells us that being made perfect, Christ became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him. I find no place that says eternal salvation is for those who say they love Him but do not do the things He says. There is not contradiction anywhere in the Bible, only in false doctrines being taught by those who care more about themselves than being in the true family of God. Obedience does not often make you popular, but it is not Legalism.