He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. - 2 Corinthians 3:6 (NLT)
I went to a Christian Liberal Arts university in South Dakota. The first year I was there, we had a “no alcohol on campus” policy. This did not apply to drinking off campus, and coming back to the dorm. Occasionally a cab would show up late at night and someone would stumble out of it and crawl down the hall to their dorm room. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t good It wasn’t Godly. Now that I have THAT out of the way (because I know there is some head-shaking happening right now), I’ll continue on with the story. The next year, we had a new campus policy. The “No Alcohol on Campus” policy became the “No Alcohol on Campus, Including Alcohol in Your Bloodstream” policy. It was punishable by expulsion. This might have seemed like a good idea, and there were a lot of happy students that were tired of seeing the occasional drunk person in their dorms. Something else happened, though. The people that would generally leave on a Saturday night and come back drunk, would leave on a Saturday night and not come back until Sunday evening. The people that would generally be a designated driver started staying with them. The party crowd began to party harder. If they did come back, they would sneak in without anyone knowing how close they were to alcohol poisoning. Alcohol consumption on campus began to rise, hidden in dorm rooms. The Christian students that would enjoy an occasional beer off campus legally (and responsibly), would still have a beer, but now it was with an air of rebellion.
I’m not sharing this with you to debate whether a believer should drink alcohol. It’s an illustration of how enforcing the letter of the law can kill the spirit of the law. The original intent of the rule was to protect people, but it allowed for grace. The new interpretation of the rule stifled grace and it blew up. No one was happy with the results. The same thing happens with us in our walks with Christ. It’s the same reason that all the laughter, smiling or any other indication of joy is gone the moment a worship service starts. We don’t have joy, because we don’t have freedom. We don’t have freedom because we don’t trust in the redeeming power of the blood of Jesus Christ. Instead, we place our trust in moral code. Moral code is a lot easier to follow than the Holy Spirit. It’s a list rather than a relationship. It’s distant rather than personal. It means we can outwardly change, but we don’t have to deal with the internal. It gives us a feeling of superiority rather than humility. It’s also idolatry. Anytime we follow a list of rules rather than Jesus, we are saying Jesus is not our God.
If we are truly trusting in God with ALL of our hearts, there should be freedom. If we are bogged down with agendas, guilt, or the responsibility of moral superiority, then we still are holding onto pieces of our hearts. 2 Corinthians 6:17 tells us that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom, so it stands to reason that if our desires and burdens aren’t accompanied by Holy freedom, then our desires and burdens are not in the hands of God. I’m not disregarding the Law. The law and morality are two completely different (and often, contrary) things. I don’t want to be bogged down by earthly morality, I want to be completely changed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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