Free to Choose Love
When we are born of the Spirit through our faith in Jesus and His righteousness for our own, we are no longer spiritual orphans. We are adopted by our heavenly Father, and we may participate in His New Covenant of grace. We are not bound by the law but are free to walk in the spirit as we are led by His Spirit.
But how do we know what to do if we don’t have a list of dos and don’ts to follow? We trust the Spirit. Our new life in Christ means we can live by the Spirit and make love the basis of everything we do. Each situation we face becomes an opportunity to do the loving thing. Every situation in our lives won’t have a do this or don’t do that note attached, but with the guidance of the Spirit, we can choose love, and that will never be the wrong answer.
Spiritual Choices
Though we don’t get a list of dos and don’ts, we can make good, godly, and spiritual choices by considering how our actions affect others. Rather than deciding what is and is not sin, we can make love the goal and let the Spirit show us how to accomplish it.
I’m pretty sure most people who claim to be followers of Jesus aren’t going around killing people, stealing from others, or worshipping a false god. Those types of sin we find easy to define as “not okay.” But what about something less egregious? For example, is it okay to eat cake? Let’s look at some possible scenarios for eating cake and see if we can define it as “okay” or “not okay.”
For these examples, I am given one law: You may have only one slice of cake.
Is it okay?
1. How much cake? One slice. I hadn’t eaten for days because I was trapped inside my basement and no one found me until they came over to celebrate my birthday with me, cake in hand. Is it okay that I ate it?
2. How much cake? Once slice. Mom made it to celebrate my dad’s birthday tomorrow. It just looked good, and I wanted it. Is it okay that I ate it?
3. How much cake? One slice. My daughter is a baker and wanted me to try her new cake recipe. I wanted to encourage her, so I tasted it. Is it okay that I ate it? It was delicious, by the way.
4. How much cake? One slice. It was the last slice of cake from my sister’s wedding cake that she and her husband had saved from their wedding two years ago. He passed away last year, and she was going to eat it to celebrate their love, as a memorial to him, but I ate it anyway. Is it okay that I ate it?
5. How much cake? One slice. It’s my birthday, I haven’t had cake since my last birthday, and I enjoyed every bite as I celebrated with my family. Is it okay that I ate it?
6. How much cake? One slice. Tomorrow is my birthday, and I haven’t had cake since my last birthday. My sister made it as a surprise for me and couldn’t wait to see my reaction to seeing it. I am supposed to enjoy it tomorrow as I celebrate with my family, but I didn’t want to wait, so I snuck into the refrigerator and cut out a piece. Is it okay that I ate it? She did a great job, by the way.
I admit these examples vary in degrees of stupidity, but you get the point.
Yes, I technically obeyed the law and ate only one slice, but the consequences of my actions in some of these scenarios may be hurtful to others. The cake-eating dilemma is not as simple as it seems.
We can see that the answer to the question, “Is it okay to eat cake?” varies depending on many factors: the circumstances, others whom it will affect if I do, how much I eat, who owns the cake, and even the timing of eating it. No one could write a law that would address every scenario and circumstance in life. The answers to some questions aren’t always black and white, so having a set list of dos and don’ts doesn’t work.
Life is messy. This truth is why we need the Holy Spirit.
1 John 5:17 tells us that all unrighteousness is sin. So, if you are doing something unrighteous, or that isn’t right according to your God-given conscience, what God told you to do, or against the law God wrote on your heart, you can rest assured it is considered sin.
According to Romans 14:23, whatever we do that isn’t from faith is sin. How do we know what is and isn’t sin, or what is from faith and what is not?
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to come live in us so He could help us discern the difference.
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” - John 3:8 NKJV
What does this verse say about those who are born of the Spirit? No one can tell where a believer comes from or is going. We are like the wind. We are not bound by rules and laws, guiderails, or chains. We are free!
When we are born of the Spirit, He helps us discern right from wrong or righteousness and unrighteousness. There is freedom in not having everything written down on paper about whether you can do something or not, because each moment of every day is unique for every child of God. This freedom is a powerful gift, but it also comes with the hope that we will make choices that align with God's love.
The beauty of our faith lies in the fact that Jesus' grace is radical enough to handle both our righteousness and our unrighteousness. If we love God, though, we will seek to cause no harm. Sure, we will mess that up sometimes, but we will keep leaning toward love. If our obedience to God is to love Him and love others, then love is always the measure by which we know something won’t cause harm. It isn’t loving to cuss out the store clerk, lust after your secretary, or lie to your mom about where you are going. Though we won’t be condemned to Hell for doing so, if we love God, we will care about whether we hurt others or not.
Free to Care
Love means we care about the consequences of our actions not because we might suffer or get caught, but because we care about how our actions affect other people. We still slip up sometimes, but as a transformed, Spirit-filled, God-loving, Jesus-believing, righteous new creation, somewhere deep down in our innermost being, we care about others. Caring about what we do is not about whether we sin or not, and is not a salvation issue, but it is about living in the new life that Jesus has given us and allowing His Spirit to lead us in loving others.
Once you are transformed and made new in your spirit, that doesn’t mean you will never sin again in the flesh. If you think you won’t, you will be gravely ashamed and disappointed in yourself. Wallowing in shame and self-hatred is not freedom. Those whom Christ sets free are free indeed (John 8:36 NKJV). When you fail, radical grace says you can lay that shame and condemnation down and start fresh the very next second.
While grace pays for our sins and makes us righteous, it doesn’t rid us of our ability to choose sin because we still have our flesh hanging around. Meanwhile, sin is still sin; it’s not okay. At the same time, Jesus has forgiven all our past, present, and future sins. God asks us to love one another and grace gives us the ability and freedom to choose love. These statements are all accurate simultaneously, and their diverse truths are why we need the Spirit to guide us in righteousness and God’s radical grace.
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