If you think about it, legalism is like March Madness all year long. How does legalistic theology relate to a championship basketball tournament? Simply! “One and out” ! Just like the tournament, lose a game and you go home. In a legalistic relationship, one sin and you’re relationship with God is lost.
With legalism, one doesn’t win a national championship trophy by winning six straight games. If it were possible, six wins for a legalist would only cover about six minutes of one’s life. And the tournament bracket goes into infinite. Satan is the perpetual number one seed. Man defaults to the number sixteen seed. History has proven; the sixteenth seed never wins. Satan and his All-Stars show up for every game – and they are ready to play. However; just by setting foot on the court and thinking you can be victorious against sin, results in a forfeiture of the game. The game is lost before it’s even played.
In reality, the Legalistic Tournament isn’t even a God sanctioned event. It’s like comparing the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). The official championship game was played at a different level, long ago – and Jesus won in a blowout at Calvary.
With that devastating loss, Satan and his boys just hang around the gym, hoping to play “pick up games” with whoever shows up. And the Legalist continues to show up, accept the challenge, lose, and then go back and start all over again. That is until one day when Jesus comes back and locks up the gym – for good.