Freedom

Freedom
 1. A state of exemption from the power or control of another; liberty; exemption from slavery, servitude or confinement. Freedom is personal, civil, political, and religious. [See Liberty.]
~~ Webster's Dictionary (Emphasis mine.)

As I was reading Psalm 119 again this morning, (I feel like I could read just Psalm 119 for the next six months and not completely plumb its depths!) I was thinking about freedom. Freedom used to sing to me of autonomy, "No one else tells me what to do." Now there are more strains to the tune. As I've gotten older, there are FEWER people trying to tell me what to do, but as I often remind my children, "There will always be SOMEONE who will have authority over you." So freedom makes me think of safety and "room to move" and choices and happiness. Interestingly enough, as I was reading the Psalm, I realized that sometimes RULES also mean freedom...

I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!
Psalms 119:32
 
I will keep your law continually, forever and ever, and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts.
Psalms 119:44-45
 
I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commandment is exceedingly broad.
Psalms 119:96

However, as wonderful as God's law is, it is insufficient to save me from my sin...

So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Romans 7:12
 
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
Hebrews 10:1

But Jesus fulfilled the law in my place!

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:3-4