For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts…
— Hebrews 8:10

I’ve never been a fan of “Christian” films like Fireproof, which exalt human righteousness more than the righteousness of Jesus. On the other hand, “worldly” films such as Braveheart portray the heart of the Lord better, even if not explicitly. The Passion of the Christ became an outstanding film because it was made by a director who knows how to portray the heart of a hero, not of a religious monk. Yesterday I watched the film Yes Man (in Russian, Always Say YES). On the one hand, a religious eye may concentrate on the drinking, the naughty granny and the hero’s bare backside as he races along on a motorbike; on the other hand, it portrays God’s truths beautifully.

For many of the sect members, YES was a law, and if they broke it, misfortunes began to happen in their lives until they returned to the path of the law: “Always say YES!” At the end of the film the main character realised that YES is not a law but a way of life. He said: “Now I say YES not because I have to, but because I want to.” These words describe in plain terms the new covenant of grace in which we live.

God said: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts…” The emphasis here is often put on the word “laws”, and then begins an endless search for what these laws are that God has put into our minds and hearts. In that case the search will be in vain, because the eyes are fixed on the law, which blinds, and not on the Lord. In fact, the essence of the new covenant is not in new commandments and laws — which is why the Holy Spirit didn’t say what these laws are — but in Who puts them there, and where. When we live under God’s grace and don’t try to fulfil anything in order to look righteous before Him, we begin to act as our hearts move us.

I have often noticed God’s children being frightened with the idea that their desires are often fleshly and sinful and must be guarded against, while God’s desires are somewhere deep down and only “special” people know how to get at them. In reality such preachers hinder God’s children from walking in the Spirit and acting as their hearts move them, and also hinder the Holy Spirit from transforming a person from glory to glory. “But what if I want to smoke? Did God give me that desire?” Brother, an addiction is stronger than willpower, and of course you can, as some put it so nicely, fight it “with the Lord’s help”, but after a certain period of abstinence your hand will still reach for a cigarette. A person is addicted because he lives under the law, not under grace [Rom.6:14]. The outcome will always be like the last scene of the film, which shows vividly how it all ends [Rev.3:17].

Living under the law means relying on your flesh and works, even if “with the Lord’s help”. Living under grace means relying ONLY on the Lord and His work. The key to freedom in Christ is the closing words of the new covenant: “and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” [Heb.8:12]. This statement of God, to which the Holy Spirit also bears witness [Heb.10:17], takes the handcuffs off a person, sets him free from fear — “what if this desire isn’t from God?” — and gives him freedom to act as his heart moves him, because it is through the heart that the Lord works in our lives. He settled there so that our lives would be easy and simple. He has even freed us from mental labour, for He said: “I will put My laws [desires, ideas, impulses…] in their mind.” After that, how can we not give Him glory and thank the Lord endlessly for His care and love!?

So if you have a desire that seems crazy, and you are frightened by the thought that it isn’t from God, here are Jesus’ words: “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid” [Mar.6:50]. Even in the Old Testament God said to the prophet Hosea: “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry And children of harlotry” [Hos.1:2]. Imagine if a Christian today had the desire to marry a harlot. Straight away a “commandment” comes into his head: “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers“, without understanding that this verse, like that whole chapter, is not about marriage at all, because marriage is not a yoke. That is why even Jesus’ own relatives according to the flesh thought He was out of His mind [Mar.3:21]: His behaviour contradicted the worldly understanding of things. To the fleshly and legalistic mind God’s actions always look like foolishness and blasphemy [Mar.2:7]. But for God this path is the path of life, not of law, the path of His righteousness and holiness!