A. Legalists completely miss the main issue:

MAT 15:2. Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.

MAT 15:3. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

MAT 15:4. For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.

MAT 15:5. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;

MAT 15:6. And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

MAT 23:23. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

MAT 23:24. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

MAR 7:6. He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

MAR 7:7. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

MAR 7:8. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

JOH 5:8. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

JOH 5:9. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.

JOH 5:10. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.

JOH 5:11. He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.

B. Legalism is a crushing weight to those it is imposed upon:

MAT 23:4. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

2COR 3:6. Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

C. The solution: Walk in God's love & Spirit:

MIC 6:8. He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

JOH 6:63. It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

ROM 7:6. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

2COR 3:6. Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.