I really like watching videos about people interacting with police and other public officials. On TV there is “Cops,” and on the internet there are videos of people filming the police. If you get pulled over by the police, and you have done nothing wrong, do you have anything to fear? Maybe not, but you don’t know. The police here have been very helpful to us, but it’s not like that everywhere. Regardless, if you’ve ever been pulled over, you know that sinking feeling that hits right in the gut.
How much different would it be to get pulled over by the police with your lawyer friend in the car with you? Even though we don’t really know the law, we could ask him/her how to walk through each step of the interaction.
When Jesus was facing his last night on earth, he told his disciples that he was going away, but he would send a legal friend, the Holy Spirit, to help them. The word in its original language is not “legal friend,” but that is the meaning. We have been saved by King Jesus from the Jewish law, and from the law that the world insists we follow. But to walk in the “law of the Spirit,” “the law of love,” we need legal aid. The Holy Spirit is our legal aid, and He is not only beside us, but inside us. Galatians 2:19 says: “For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law–I stopped trying to meet all its requirements–so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” We are free from the control of the world, the control of the church, and the insidious evil that is all around us. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you. Speak to your Christian sisters and brothers boldly, yet gently, remembering that “they too have the Holy Spirit.”