How many times in the past have I been standing in an express line and started counting other shoppers' items as I waited to get checked out at the grocery store? When I saw one to many items I would raise my eyebrows and be filled with disdain, "What do these people think they are doing? Don't they know how to count?" I would then spend my time looking at their items and then looking at the sign, looking at their items and looking at the sign . . . When I was with my wife at the store I thought, "Do we each get 20 items?" Sometimes there were long lines when the express lane was empty and I groaned (once in a while a checker would sneak me in though!) recounting what was in my cart, wondering if I was buying two of the same item (or six) that I might be able to count that as one.

When express lanes started popping up in every store I used to think, "Hey! Let them wait in line, I was here first! My time is valuable too!" When shopping I have almost always let someone with a few items cut in line in front of my cart full of goods, but then it was my choice. Why did the grocery store get to make that decision for me?

Truth is, after a while everyone tries to get in and out of a busy store with only a few items. The logic of an express lane makes total sense then. Owners of the store want all the business they can get (and if I shop there I want them to be successful too). I don't think we need to get all crazy over "exactly 20 items" or be forever grocery store shamed. The idea is that you don't have a lot, and those other lines are for people that were not planning on a quick exit plan. I have let the anger and frustration go, and agree with the wisdom in an express checkout and follow the guidelines.

The express checkout is similar to what James wrote about in his letter to the first Christians that he called "The Law of Liberty." The law God provided in His scriptures identify sin. Jesus identifies that we are to love God and love our neighbor as the key elements to the law that everything else is based on (Matthew 22:37-40). When I gave my life to God my violations of this law, my sin, had been paid for by Christ. With the Holy Spirit in me I want to do the things God desires, the law doesn't weigh on me anymore because the punishment is gone and I want to do the things that please God. The liberty is that I don't want to sin anymore I want to love God and love my neighbor.

Is the law gone?

After I became an express lane convert the 20 items or less rule is still there, but my anger and frustration is not. The rule doesn't bind or irritate me because I'm all for it. The rule isn't even for me any longer because the way I check out at the grocery store agrees with the rule maker, the owner of the store.

Now that I am saved the things that are to set God's people out to be Holy don't matter? What made Israel set apart was that they were not committing sin when they followed God's commands! They became right with God when they weren't following the law by stopping their wicked ways and then followed God's instructions. There really is no law for me now that I am obeying it, because I want to be close to God. With the Holy Spirit I am liberated from the law of sin and death because the penalty has been paid. As a new person I want to follow God's Words, his instructions on how to glorify Him with my life. My old self, the one that needed to be convicted by the law, is gone.

Freedom.

No longer under sin.

Following God's ways makes life worth living.