Marcionism: The First Major Attack to Biblical Christianity

Marcion was a wealthy second-century Roman who studied Jewish scripture and compared it to the teachings of Christ. He maintained that the teachings of Christ were incompatible with that of the Old Testament. He believed that Jesus is the Messiah and that Paul is Jesus’ chief apostle. However, Marcion denied the humanity of Christ and held that He is not the God of the Old Testament. Marcion claimed that the God of the Old Testament is a demiurge, an evil being, who is separate and lower than the God of the New Testament. Marcion saw God in the New Testament portrayed as loving and forgiving, very unlike the God of the Old Testament, who Marcion viewed as jealous, wrathful, and genocidal. He taught that the demiurge created a world filled with suffering and imperfection. This, Marcion maintained, is not the true God. Furthermore, since the Old Testament God is the God of the Hebrews, Marcion maintained that any association with the Hebrew religion is evil.

            Regarding Christ’s work in salvation, Marcion claimed that Christ was not sent to save the Jews, but to bring salvation from the demiurge and to make known the truth of the good God, who may not have even been known by the demiurge. He claimed that those who were loyal to the demiurge crucified Christ.

            Marcion developed a canon, which included an edited version of Luke, called “Gospel of Christ”. His canon did not include any of the Old Testament, nor did it include certain parts of the New Testament such as the prophecies of Christ, His birth, His baptism, and His death. Marcion wanted to show that Christ was revealed as a man, but was not really a man. Thus, he eliminated parts of Scripture that attest to Christ’s humanity.

            Marcion’s teachings brought division in the early church. For the first time in the post-apostolic period, the church was led to formulate creeds in order to defend itself from these and other heresies. This also led to the adoption of the current canon of the New Testament.

            Marcion was also a legalist who imposed strict laws upon his followers. He believed in a strict moral structure and prohibited sex of any sort, even between married couples.

            Marcion was a heretic who did not believe in the inerrant, authoritative Word of God. He, just like many other heretics before and after him, chose which parts of Scripture to believe and which ones to deny. He claimed that Christ’s teachings contradict the Old Testament, but any knowledgeable reader of Scripture would know what Christ really said about the Old Testament. Jesus quoted Old Testament Scripture numerous times and accused the Jewish religious leaders of abusing the law. He even said that He did not come to destroy, contradict, or even revise the law, but that He came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17-18). Jesus spoke of the Old Testament often. He lived His life according to the law.

            The humanity of Christ is also clearly presented in Scripture. Two of the most notable references are John 1, in which Christ is presented as the eternal Word which took on flesh, and Hebrews 4:14-16, which presents Christ as the Great High Priest Who is able to sympathize with His people.

            The claim that the Old Testament God is a demiurge is nothing new. Marcion takes this belief from the Gnostics. Marcion cannot truly comprehend the justice and righteousness of God (Who can?) so he asserts that God is evil because he judges humans for their sins.

The majority of Marcionist teaching is based on human reasoning. Marcion struggled with the answers to difficult and confusing questions, such as how a just God can sentence people to death, or how a good God would allow evil to occur. His questions were unlike questions that are currently being asked in post-modern evangelicalism. They are legitimate questions. But Marcion was not satisfied by the answers he found in Scripture, so he sought to form his own conclusions apart from Scripture and based on conjecture and reasoning. This is the problem that occurs when we stray from Biblical teaching. Scripture teaches that man is totally depraved and unable to find the answers to life’s difficult questions on his own (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore we cannot find truth outside of Christ and His inspired, infallible, and authoritative Word.

Circumcision of the Heart

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Romans 2:17-29

 

 

The Apostle Paul had just finished a diatribe against the unrighteous, both those who know God, but yet choose to serve the creature instead of the Creator (1:25), as well as those who claim to be followers of God, but yet judge others for the same sins that they themselves lovingly partake in (2:1). All of these types of people, regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status will be judged by God. Now, Paul turns his attention to God’s covenant people: the Jews.

            The Jews were, and still are, a people set apart. In a world of polytheism and idolatry, the Hebrew people were to be known for their faith in and worship of the One true invisible God. God had made a covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12:3) that He would bless his offspring. God continued to renew this covenant throughout the Hebrew generations. Therefore, the Jews perceived themselves as blessed because of their heritage. They believed that they were a superior race of people. The irony is that less than two-thousand years after the writing of Paul’s epistle to the Romans, the view of the Jewish people was basically reversed.

            Paul, in his usual rhetoric, questions his readers concerning their hypocrisy (17-24). Their hypocrisy is so apparent that they have blasphemed the Name of the very God that they claim to worship by their behaviors and attitudes. They were guilty of the very sins that they were accusing the Gentiles of committing. Why would the Gentiles want to conform to a hypocritical faith? The Pharisaical abuse of the law was shameful, not only in God’s eyes, but in the eyes of the unbelieving Gentiles as well. The Law had become a blasphemy to the Gentiles because of the Jews. The same is true today. Why would unbelievers want to worship a God whose people partake of the very same sins that He forbids?

            The Jews had missed the whole point of circumcision (25-29). Circumcision had little to do with outward appearances and everything to do with inward appearances. It showed that the Jew had made an inward covenant of the heart (Genesis 17:11). The circumcision of the unbelieving Jew was of no value. A disobedient circumcised Jew was no more blessed than an uncircumcised Gentile. As a matter of fact, God blesses the uncircumcised believing Gentile in the same manner as the circumcised believing Jew. Paul’s point is that it is not circumcision and ethnicity that makes one a child of God. A true child of God is one who has a circumcision of the heart (29), one who has cut away the outer person, revealing that new inner person (Galatians 6:15). Salvation comes from an internal working of the heart, not externally conforming to the law. 

            These truths should cause us to examine our own hearts. Even though we are not bound by the law, we are still under the new covenant of Christ. We need to make sure that we are not adding to the gospel by mandating observance of certain rules and regulations that even we ourselves cannot keep. Legalism is a problem that has plagued the church for centuries. As believers, we need to keep in mind that salvation comes through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone.

God's Righteous Judgement

"Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus."

-Romans 2:1-16

Since the evidence of God can be clearly seen through Scripture, creation, and human reasoning (1:19-21), unrighteous humanity has neither excuse nor claim to ignorance. While the pagans are guilty of committing heinous acts against God and each other, the legalist looks on in judgmental hypocrisy. Paul spends the first 16 verses of Romans 2 admonishing the religious moralist. Dr. John MacAruthur notes that “Paul presents his case against the religious moralist—Jew or Gentile—by cataloging six principles that govern God’s judgment” (MacArthur, 1694).

The first of Paul’s principles against the moralist is the principle of knowledge. The fact that one has not indulged in the moral excesses mentioned in chapter one, does not make that person exempt from God’s judgment. The self-righteous person has more knowledge of their sin than does the one who has never heard the name of Christ. That is why they are good at pointing out other people’s faults. They are hoping to take attention away from their own sin. It is like a boy who points a finger at his brother for eating out of the cookie jar when he himself has his hand in it. The self-righteous has a greater accountability for their sin. This person actually condemns themself because, as MacArthur puts it, “he shows that he has the knowledge to evaluate his own condition” (1694). These people are so busy finding fault with others that they have seemingly excused their own sin. They are too busy noticing the splinter in others’ eyes that they do not notice the log in their own (Mat 7:1-5).

The second of Paul’s principles against the self-righteous legalist is the principle of truth. The judgment of God falls on the unrighteous as well as the self-righteous (2:3). No one can escape the judgment of God. Since God is truth (John 14:6), disobedience against Him is untruth and thus makes one liable to judgment.

Thirdly, Paul notes the principle of guilt which condemns the moralist. The moralist takes for granted God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience, believing that these attributes are needed for only the most hardened of sinners (2:4). This person even shows contempt for God’s grace, reacting in surprised amazement when God calls a sinner out of sin. The moralist wants to see people die in their sins. The irony is that it is the religious moralist that is truly the unregenerate. While they despise the grace of God, assuming they are more righteous than others, they are truly the ones that are the most unrighteous people on the planet. They are the ones with the refusal to repent. They would rather treasure up wrath and evil in their hearts than kindness and grace. The moralist will be dealt with on the Day of Judgment. 

This brings us to Paul’s fourth principle of God’s condemnation: good works. While works are not meant to merit God’s favor, grace, and salvation, they however do merit God’s judgment (Isaiah 3:10-11). The works of those who have faith alone in Christ are the evidence of their salvation. True saving faith, and eternal life in Christ, can be evidenced by good deeds (James 2:14-20).

The fifth principle of God’s condemnation against the self-righteous is the principle of impartiality (2:12). God shows none. He is a perfect judge. He chooses His people based on no merit of their own, but of His own grace and mercy. Mankind, regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status, is judged by God based on their sin against Him. The fact is that all have sinned (Romans 3:23), making us all liable for God’s judgment. But God casts judgment on Christ, who died for His people. All those covered by the blood of Christ will be saved from God’s wrath.

The sixth and final principle that governs God’s judgment against the self-righteous person is motive. On the day of Christ’s return, all will be judged because of their sin, even secret sins. MacArthur writes that “the secrets of men”, mentioned in verse 16, “primarily refers to the motives that lie behind men’s actions”. Even our motives will be judged.

The wrath and judgment of God are very frightening topics of discussion. They are unpleasant and unsettling. But the wrath and judgment of God are real. Christ will return soon to claim His people and bring judgment to the world. On that day, Christ will not bring peace, but a divine sword (Matthew 10:34). Those who have placed their hope and trust in Christ alone for salvation will be saved from the wrath of God. But all those who refuse to acknowledge Him or trust in Him alone, will be the subject of God’s divine wrath.

Sources: MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Study Bible: New King James Version. Nashville: Word Bibles, 1997. Print.

According to dictionary.com, theological legalism is defined as "the judging of conduct in terms of adherence to precise laws." Jesus accused the Pharisees of legalism. They were known for misconstruing the law for their own purposes. They were also extremely judgmental of those who did not hold to the same convictions. Furthermore, they were known for taking God's word out of context. Even though we have been redeemed from the law, legalism is still alive today.

Dispute between Jesus and the Pharisees, by Gustave Dore

Modern legalism takes on many different forms. First, legalism is taking God's laws and commands out of context. Some of God's laws were written for specific purposes. While it is true that all scripture is given to benefit all believers, some laws were given for specific reasons. For example, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians that women should have their heads covered when praying and worshiping in the church, and should not cut their hair too short. The Corinthian women apparently had a rebellious spirit. They did not want to submit to the male authority in the church. The women seemed to rebel by intentionally cutting their hair too short. Legalists take this verse out of context by saying that it is imperative that women have their heads covered by either a hat or some kind of material covering at all times while in the presence of males. Paul merely meant that women are never to have a rebellious spirit in worship. They were, and still are, to submit to male authority in the church.



Another form of legalism is when we make our personal opinions and convictions law by placing them on the same level as divine revelation. It is honorable to have convictions and beliefs. But when those beliefs are not found in the Bible, we must never pass them off as part of God's law. Furthermore, we should never judge those who go against our convictions when they are not necessarily condemned by God. We should not impose our unfounded and self-proclaimed beliefs on others when they are not backed biblically.


A third form of legalism includes adding rules to the Bible. The pharisees were guilty of this, and the Lord called them out on it (Mark 7:1-13). Legalists today say that partaking of certain pleasures are in themselves sinful. For example, modern legalists are more likely to add rules to the Bible that includes, but not limited to, the prohibition of dancing and movie theater attendance; music preference; and Bible preference. These pleasures are not in and of themselves sinful. God has created everything for man's enjoyment. However, these things become sinful when man uses them to disobey God's specific commands.