Who Fooled You? Breaking the Chains of Legalism

By Gina Lynn Murray

Are you spinning your wheels and wearing yourself out trying to please God?

Are you constantly trying to figure out how to get God to answer your prayers, and then feel discouraged and disillusioned when you have done all you know to do and you are just exhausted, and nothing has changed?

Gina Murray spent most of her life trying to please God and do everything perfectly so that He would love her and heal her. When Gina finally got the revelation from the Holy Spirit that it is finished and there is nothing, she needs to do this changed her life and she begin to see chains fall and healing flow just by believing and resting in the finished work of Jesus at the cross! It is finished!

Let the chains fall to the ground and live the free and whole life that you have been fighting so hard to live as you allow the Holy Spirit to give you the revelation of the cross.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gina Lynn Murray
• Release date: Oct 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215414606

Book preview

Foreword

Several years ago, I met Gina Murray.  Not in person, but through an email.  Her first email seemed to be a cry for spiritual help.  She was reaching out with a tinge of desperation as she asked me some theological questions.  Each of her questions could be traced back to a battle of legalism she was fighting.  It was obvious she loved Jesus with everything in her, but she was paralyzed by the fear of not being accepted.

That first email was followed by dozens of emails over the next few years. Each correspondence would show a sense of progress yet dripped with hesitation and fear.  There didn’t seem to be an instant miracle of freedom, but a continuous invitation to step out of a legalistic mindset and walk into this new freedom.  There were always voices and triggers that would pull her back and make her question if this new found freedom was actually free.

I’ll never forget the Easter service when my wife came up and introduced me to her friend.  While I had never met her in person, when I was introduced to Gina - I immediately connected her with the dozens of emails.  To see her in our church, celebrating Jesus with family was nothing short of a miracle.  For some time, she had been gripped with fear as a result of not feeling worthy of God’s freedom.  I knew that this was more significant than simply showing up at church.  This was more than stepping out of the house.  This was a step into the freedom that Jesus had been inviting Murray to enjoy for years.

As a pastor, transformation is what we preach and prepare our people to experience.  Murray’s journey has been nothing short of a transformation.  Her freedom has impacted her family, and her story will impact many. 

Let the words of this book reach into the hearts and minds of those who feel trapped in legalism and less than God’s delight.  May these words carry the invitation of your Father in Heaven.  May these words give you permission to take courageous steps into the light and freedom of Jesus’ yoke.  His yoke is easy.  His burden is light.  Seems crazy.  We seem unworthy. We might call that kind of invitation...grace. 

Dr. Jeremy Johnson

Lead Pastor

North Point Church

Introduction

Paul said to the Galatians in Galatians 3:1-5 NLT, "Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of Course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely, it was not in vain, was it?

I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ."

I spent most of my life trying to earn something from someone. I wanted to be good enough to make my parents proud and earn their love as a child. When I went to school, I wanted to be good enough to earn my way into the popular group of peers. As a teenager, I wanted to earn approval and attention. I wanted to be loved. When I married my husband in 1996, I began trying to earn his approval and affections. The same year I became a born-again Christian and began this cycle of trying to earn from God.

I would try so hard to be good enough for God. I wanted Him to be pleased with me. I did not want His anger or wrath poured out on me. I was afraid to make a mistake or do anything that might be out of God’s will. I feared His punishment even when I had an argument with my husband. Would He let something terrible happen to me? Would He allow me to even live? While everyone else enjoyed life and was filled with laughter, I was fearful and anxious. While my family watched T.V. or played games together, I was at my table reading my Bible or praying in my room. Not because I loved God so much, though I did, and was in a relationship with Him, but because I was constantly trying to appease Him.  

Fear and anxiety ripped through my life like a ferocious monster (I talk about this in my book One Trembling Heart, Out of Darkness into the Light) until it took me down. Most of this was caused by a cycle of trying to earn my way into God’s favor. Trying to earn His love and blessings. My constant motive was to appease Him. As the fear and anxiety paralyzed me, I began to try to earn God’s healing. I did all the things I had been taught to do in church. I fasted and prayed. I quoted scriptures, watched only Christian T.V., and listened to Christian music. 

I tried everything and only got worse. It was only when God began bringing me a revelation of the finished work of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross that I began to be set free from the vicious grip of legalism in my life. My healing and freedom came when I began to rest in 3 words, IT IS FINISHED! Those three words spoken from heaven to my heart changed everything for me.

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A lot of what I had been taught as a Christian had been the chains that were holding me down from really experiencing a life in Christ that was free. Well-meaning people steeped in traditions was the cause of my bondage to legalism. I believe many in and outside of the church today are also bound by the chains of legalism. This bondage is not God’s will for us. He has not called us to be bound and in despair all the time trying to appease Him. He has called us into a relationship. He has called us to rest in what His Son did at the cross. The cross is the pivot point of our faith. It is what everything hinges on. It is right there, smack dab in the middle of the Old and New Testament. It is only in beholding the cross of Christ that we can break every chain of legalism that the enemy of our soul loves to keep us bound in. Today is your day of freedom and victory! As a Christian, you are no longer striving for freedom; freedom is already yours. There is not one thing you are facing or will ever face that Jesus has not already conquered at the cross. As you read Who Fooled You, I pray that you will begin to get the same revelation that I received from God. There is nothing you need to do. Jesus’s sacrifice was enough, and IT IS FINISHED!

Jesus’s invitation to you is found in Matthew 11:28-30 MSG, Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

Chapter 1

It Is Finished!

Two Covenants

We see two different covenants in the Bible between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  

The Old Testament represented man trying to be good enough on his own to appease God. It was full of rituals and sacrifices that had to be made for man to even begin to think about approaching a holy God. It had to be a priest who approached God for them even then. The common man or woman could not enter the Holy of Holies without being struck dead. Only the pure and holy priests could enter in and make a petition to God to cleanse the sins of the common man. In the Old Testament, God gave Moses ten commandments. Out of this was written approximately 613 different laws that had to be followed. 

Wow! Can you imagine having to follow 613 different laws just to be okay with God? And if you broke one, you were guilty of breaking them all. "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it" James 2:10 ESV.

I can only imagine how anxious I would have been if I had been alive back then. I would have walked on eggshells to ensure I was doing everything exactly right so that God would not pour out His wrath on me. Yet still today, the church puts upon Christians their own man-made laws and traditions that we are expected to perform to appease God. The difference is today, we have the ultimate sacrifice to take our place so that we no longer must obey the laws and traditions of man.  

The law was not supposed to be carried over after the finished work of Jesus on the cross. "So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith" Galatians 3:24 ESV.

The law was given to keep us until Jesus finished everything and made the ultimate sacrifice once and for all to fulfill the law. 

"But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" Hebrews 9:11-13 ESV

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Dead Works

Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross changed everything, including how we relate to God. In the scripture in Hebrews, Paul tells us that Jesus' sacrifice was once for all, and it was an eternal sacrifice. His sacrifice was so much greater than the blood of animals. His blood purified our consciences from DEAD WORKS. After the finished work of the cross, there is no number of spiritual hoops you can jump through that could ever earn anything from God. Everything we do now with the motive of trying to get something from God or earn God's affections and blessings is like saying to Jesus that what He did on the cross wasn't enough. We think we can somehow add to it to make it better and manipulate God to answer our prayers or call us righteous. What a slap in the face to