A number of Biblical passages indicate that the tension between legalism and antinomianism goes back to the very beginnings of Christianity.
Jesus directed some of his harshest words at the Pharisees and their accompanying "scribes" and "lawyers," the guardians of the ritual law of Judaism. Matthew 23 is just one of the several sermons Jesus preached against them. The gravamen of Jesus' charge against the Pharisees was that they did, in fact, scrupulously follow the ritual laws of Judaism, but their scrupulousness did not make them more charitable or lead to inner repentance.
Jesus also said that "except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20 - part of the Antithesis of the Law - KJV translation) Jesus sought to call his followers to a more inward form of obedience, in which righteous acts stemmed from an inward love of God, rather than a desire to please others, to seem holy in their eyes, or for a fear of temporal or divine retribution. Some have said that this teaching resembles the teachings of some strains of Judaism from the period immediately preceding Jesus, and in particular the teachings of the Rabbi Hillel the Elder.
The tension continues in the epistles of Paul of Tarsus. Paul also had to deal with issues regarding the acceptance of Gentiles into Christianity, and the extent to which Gentile converts were bound by the Torah or the traditional religious rules of Judaism. Paul generally rejected extension of the purity laws of Judaism to Gentile converts, saying that no one should "judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days." -(Colossians 2:16, KJV) Yet according to Acts 15 Council of Jerusalem he accepted James' decree that new Gentile converts should follow what was later called the Noahide Law subset of the Torah. In Galatians 2:14 (part of the "Incident at Antioch") he publicly accused the Apostle Peter of "judaizing", i.e. Legalism. On the other hand, his writings also contain frequent statements to the effect that those who commit a list of sins "shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (E.g. Galatians 5:19-21), leading to conclusions like 2nd Peter 3:16 . Paul, who called himself "Apostle to the Gentiles", at times seems opposed to the Jerusalem Church of James, John and Peter which has led some to conclude that Pauline Christianity was different from the Christianity of the Jerusalem Church which is sometimes called Jewish Christianity.
Jesus directed some of his harshest words at the Pharisees and their accompanying "scribes" and "lawyers," the guardians of the ritual law of Judaism. Matthew 23 is just one of the several sermons Jesus preached against them. The gravamen of Jesus' charge against the Pharisees was that they did, in fact, scrupulously follow the ritual laws of Judaism, but their scrupulousness did not make them more charitable or lead to inner repentance.
Jesus also said that "except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20 - part of the Antithesis of the Law - KJV translation) Jesus sought to call his followers to a more inward form of obedience, in which righteous acts stemmed from an inward love of God, rather than a desire to please others, to seem holy in their eyes, or for a fear of temporal or divine retribution. Some have said that this teaching resembles the teachings of some strains of Judaism from the period immediately preceding Jesus, and in particular the teachings of the Rabbi Hillel the Elder.
The tension continues in the epistles of Paul of Tarsus. Paul also had to deal with issues regarding the acceptance of Gentiles into Christianity, and the extent to which Gentile converts were bound by the Torah or the traditional religious rules of Judaism. Paul generally rejected extension of the purity laws of Judaism to Gentile converts, saying that no one should "judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days." -(Colossians 2:16, KJV) Yet according to Acts 15 Council of Jerusalem he accepted James' decree that new Gentile converts should follow what was later called the Noahide Law subset of the Torah. In Galatians 2:14 (part of the "Incident at Antioch") he publicly accused the Apostle Peter of "judaizing", i.e. Legalism. On the other hand, his writings also contain frequent statements to the effect that those who commit a list of sins "shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (E.g. Galatians 5:19-21), leading to conclusions like 2nd Peter 3:16 . Paul, who called himself "Apostle to the Gentiles", at times seems opposed to the Jerusalem Church of James, John and Peter which has led some to conclude that Pauline Christianity was different from the Christianity of the Jerusalem Church which is sometimes called Jewish Christianity.
