Freedom #3—Morally Free

I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will not need to teach each other to know Yahweh. From the least to the greatest, all of them will know me; and I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:33–34

Forgiveness and freedom is good news! God’s covenant instructions to Israel are “holy, righteous, and good.” But God’s instructions alone cannot not free us from our desire to boast about having God’s instructions rather than following them. While the Law instructs us to live by faith, it cannot change our self-centered and self-serving hearts. Now, however, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit gives us new hearts, hearts inclined to obey God’s Word with joy. By means of these new hearts we are free to “fulfill the requirement of the Law.” We call this kind of freedom “moral freedom.” Before the Spirit’s life-changing work, we were free in that we were physically able to trust God. But we were not morally free. We were bound by our desire for self-glorification; we had no desire to honor him with faith. The practical effects of this moral inability are staggering: We were not free to love our enemies because we didn’t want to love them. Now, in Christ, we are free from our bondage to hatred, and all the trouble that goes with it, because we desire to trust God’s promise that he will provide more for us than our enemies can ever take away.

Lord Jesus, you have transformed me with a powerful new affection. Keep me trusting your promises so I will remain free of my old self-centered tendencies. Amen.