The Legalist Cannot Comprehend the Gospel

Those who espouse legalism and the keeping of moral codes simply do not and cannot fathom the message of the Gospel, and the teaching of Jesus Christ. They do not understand what it means to be His disciple. They see what is written in the New Testament as well as the Old and add it to the lists of rules not to break. They make the same grievous mistake which the Pharisees made and tried to enforce upon the earliest churches with their infiltration, something which Paul fought against vociferously. For them, it is all about right and wrong, good and bad, white and black, law keeping or law breaking.
They don't understand that it is this very mindset which defines the hamartia malfunction at its very root and core. They don't comprehend that separating things between "good" and "bad" is an effect of eating the fruit in the garden, and was not "God-given." We did it to ourselves against His express wishes, and we and the rest of this planet's inhabitants have born the increasingly disastrous consequences ever since. They don't understand that it hardwired every living human being so that we can never do anything but "sin," operate according to this malfunction, from our own neurological and psychological devices. And adding more rules and laws only makes the problem worse, not better. Look at the animals, they have neither rule nor law, yet they all function in their place in the environment and ecosystem, and they do so in innocence.
The message of the Gospel, the teaching of discipleship, makes no sense to the legalist. When being a disciple is explained to the legalist, to the person operating from his own devices, he immediately assumes you are advocating for anarchy and running riot in the streets. Of course not. He immediately starts quoting Biblical passages about how great the Torah is, and how wise someone is to follow it, completely misplacing the historical and cultural context of the Torah as well as its purpose. He cannot fathom God's solution to the human problem.
He cannot fathom the idea of God Himself being the source of one's actions and words so that this malfunction becomes impossible to affect them while so doing. He cannot fathom that just as Jesus Christ cooperated with and submitted to God the Father so that everything He said and did originated with Him, so also the path of discipleship is cooperating with and submitting to the Spirit of Christ with whom we are joined so that what we say and do originates with Jesus Christ as the Head to the members of His body. Would Jesus Christ commit murder? Would He steal? Would He lie? Would He commit adultery or crave what isn't His? No, of course not! God forbid! As Paul observed, there can be no moral law or rule against what the Spirit of Christ produces. And as John observed, what is born from God does not "sin." He cannot fathom that our true salvation through Jesus Christ is our salvation from this behavioral malfunction of ours through union with Him.
And so He assumes that our salvation is from punishment for breaking "God's Law," which he then raises up onto an altar and worships as though it were God Himself, always fearful that God will strike him down if he doesn't do everything written therein. He assumes that our salvation is only about being forgiven for our offenses. But then are we really forgiven for everything? How could God forgive "this" grievous offense? No, not even God would forgive that! He does not realize that he is still under the firm control of his malfunctioning mind which can only understand black and white, right and wrong, good and bad. And so his conception of God, what he experiences as God, is distorted by his malfunctioning mind into something which more resembles the way he himself thinks. And he ends up worshiping a shadow which strangely resembles himself, an image, an idol which looks nothing like the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. An idea of God that has nothing to do with God.
The disciple of Jesus Christ is governed by love, joy, peace, patience, trust, kindness, courtesy, and self-control because he is governed by Jesus Christ Himself. The disciple of Jesus Christ takes little thought for laws, rules, and regulations because he himself is not governed by them, but his words and actions originate with God the Father through Jesus Christ and out through the individual. What law could possibly restrain God who is love Himself? What law would need to?
To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to practice channeling Him, quite literally, in every moment. It is to practice being His conduit and relinquishing control to Him. It is to make one's home in their union with Him and stay put there. Laws cannot be enforced where there is no possibility of lawbreaking. Laws have no purpose with the person whose actions originate with Love Himself.
And this is, and has always been. the chief heresy within the Church, that it is about keeping moral codes and laws because the legalist, the man functioning from his own devices, cannot comprehend the true nature of the Gospel.