Live in Love, Live in Freedom

“But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.” - Romans 7:6

The law only exists because sin exists. A rule is only in place because someone did something wrong to begin with. Think of all the ridiculous rules and there’s always a story behind it.

For example, in Georgia, it’s illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your back pocket on Sundays. The story behind it - horse thieves would use this tactic to lure horses away.
Nobody would have ever thought that law would be necessary, until someone used it to cause harm. Then the law had to be put in place.

Are you following me? The law exists in response to sin.

But if we walk in the spirit, choosing not to gratify the desires of sin, there’s no longer a need for law. Law seeks to correct sin. Therefore if we are without sin, we are without the need for the law.
 
“But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law…And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” - Galatians 5:18, 24

Just like the teenager that rebels and disobeys is bound by stricter curfews, so are we bound by law because of our disobedience. Parents of this teen may impose boundaries around where they can go and who they can hang out with, or use phone tracking apps to make sure their child is obeying. These boundaries are put in place for the teenager’s protection because they are bent toward rebellion. Out of love, the parents must create the rules to protect the teen from themself.
 
But the teenager that doesn’t disobey or rebel gets more freedom. They can go where they want and hang out with who they want because the parents have not been given a reason to distrust their child. They can rest easy  knowing that their child is equipped to make wise, responsible decisions and that teen gets to enjoy the freedom of not living under heavy rules and restrictions.

Walking in the Spirit gives freedom in the same way. It’s not freedom so that we can go and do sinful things. As soon as we go that route, we end up in bondage again - bound to the desires of our flesh and bound to a stricter law.
 
Instead it’s a freedom to live in the love of God. His holy love compels us to do what is right and keeps us from sin. The more fully we submit to this love, the less we will desire sinful things and the more we will desire holy things.

Living in God’s love changes our hearts so that we desire to live the way he leads us: loving others selflessly. When we live this way, we have no laws binding us because we don’t need them.

Please hear my heart and know that I’m NOT saying the law is bad. The law was born out of love. Given by Love Himself. Just like the rebellious teen in the example above, the law was created to protect us from ourselves. And then, when we couldn’t fulfill, it God stepped off of His throne to fulfill it on our behalf.

That’s why we can now walk in freedom from the law. It’s been bought for us and lovingly given to us.

We’re going to be digging into this over the next few weeks, so if you’re confused, just hold on and come back next week!

In the meantime, live in the freedom Christ bought for you, loving Him and loving others.