But the demonstration of God's love for us is. This illustrates how works are the fruits of faith, and sanctification follows justification. It is misleading and confusing to say, as many do say, that the gospel is a love relation with Christ. In such statements are seeds of legalism. A love relationship with Christ is a noble experience, but calling it gospel is ignoble as it distorts the true meaning of the gospel.
Legalism is wrong because it is illegal.
Legalism is a misuse of the law, using it as a method of salvation rather than a standard of conduct for those who are saved. The N.T. always protests against the law as a method of salvation, but it extols it as a standard of conduct. A good Christian life style is important, but it is not the gospel. It flows from the gospel, and the gospel is its source of strength. Unlike our life style and our experience, which is always imperfect, incomplete, and subject to failure, the gospel is about Jesus Christ and His experience and His righteousness which He lived and experienced for us, which is finished, complete, and not subject to failure.