Is Joel Osteen a Legalist?

Typically we think of legalists as rigid and strict, not with the easy going nature and southern charm of a Joel Osteen. However, I think those who have labeled his teaching as "law light" are correct. The law says "do this and live." Joel gives you practical steps to fulfillment and success. His message is that of good advice rather than good news. Fulfilling the requirements of "law light" will lead to a better you and your best life now (to make use of his own terms). Human beings are wired for law, just tell us what we need to do and we will perform if we believe it will be the answer for what we deem to be a great need. The problem here is two-fold. First, the gospel is totally different. It says that Christ has accomplished everything and that he did it in my behalf. Second, "law light" gives answers to the wrong questions. Our need is not to have a meaningful and fulfilled life, it is to be reconciled to our Creator.

Watch the video below with this in mind.


I have to admit that what he says about these animals seems to be good reason to stay away, but that is the point. His focus is completely off, he acts as though the dietary laws were merely given for health purposes. In Osteen's theology this is what truly matters, health wealth and prosperity. Legalism rules in religion without a gospel, no matter how "light" it may seem.

Due for Collision

It is by faith and not law that one is blessed by God, being freely justified. However, this does not at all solve our dilemma. The law remains written on tablets of stone by God himself, the same God who blessed Abraham without law, and this God curses those who are guilty of transgressing it. The tension could not be greater for “it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Galatians 3:11), while at the same time “the law is not of faith, rather ‘The one who does them shall live by them’ (Galatians 3:12). The difference between cursing and blessing can be defined in the distinction between law and gospel. The gospel or promise brings blessing for it comes from God, the fount from which all true blessings flow but the law can only give a curse for every thought, word, and deed of man is tainted with sin.

How can this dilemma ever be solved? How can the blessing of Abraham and the curse of the law ever be reconciled? These two seem to be striving against one another for supremacy in the redemptive story, they are bound for a head on collision and they finally meet in the cross of Jesus Christ.