Imagine you’re watching a TV romance with a sordid Hollywood love triangle. The wife has this evil husband who she isn’t in love with. Instead, she’s in love with another man. She doesn't love her husband, and feels guilty for loving the other man. So, what is she to do? Somehow, in the way only Hollywood can make it work, her husband dies and now she is released from her former husband to marry the love of her life.
That's the apostle Paul's description of the believer's relationship between the Law and Jesus in Romans 7:1-12. In Romans 7, verse 4 Paul says, "Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law [the old husband] through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another[ the new lover], to him who has been raised from the dead".. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code."
The problem for so many of us, is we're in love with Jesus, our new love, but we feel guilty when we don't measure up to some standard or set of rules. That guilt of not measuring up to some religious set of expectations [the Law] is holding us bound to the our old husband who is now dead.
We make New Year's resolutions that we're going to be a better Christian: we're going to read our Bible more, we're going to pray more or we're going to go to church more. All of these things become like the Law if we perform them in order "to be" a better Christian. Instead, our new husband, simply desires our love.
The problem isn't with these spiritual disciplines. The problem is with our reason for wanting to do them. The moment our motivation changes from simply being in love with Jesus, to “I’m going to be a better Christian”, we’ve run back to our old husband.
Instead of walking in guilt of not measuring up and trying to be a better Christian, focus on the new love of your life. Love Jesus, and let his Holy Spirit guide you. The rest will follow, as a natural result of being in love with Jesus.
