Freedom, Granted by Law?

James 1: 25
25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

I've been thinking lately about the concept that God's laws grant freedom. I've heard this many times in my life, but it never made sense to me. How can a set of restrictions give freedom? How can limiting what one is allowed to do be freedom?

I finally understood it through a conversation I had with a friend this past weekend. He was talking about the director, Stanley Kubrick. For those of you that don’t know, Kubrick is a highly regarded director, known for movies such as The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, Spartacus, Full Metal Jacket, and many others. Apparently, when Kubrick prepared to shoot a film, he would go through the set, the costumes, the film, the cameras, the lighting, every last detail you could imagine, to make sure everything was ready. He was a perfectionist, and he knew what he was doing. However, he would never pre-plan the camera angles. Those would be decided on the day of shooting. Why?

He spent so much time establishing boundaries, so that when the day of shooting comes, he had the freedom to do whatever came to his mind right then and there. He never had to worry if an area was lit properly, or re-shoot a scene because you could see the backside of the set. He had total freedom to work within the limits he had set up for himself.

That’s what God’s laws are like. He set up boundaries for us so that we have complete freedom within those limits. Like rock music? Listen to it! Prefer classical? OK. Singing hymns your way of worshiping? Awesome! NIV or KJV? Sure! How about, having a few drinks? Abstaining from all alcohol? Watching R rated movies? Only G rated? Play guitar? Piano? Be a preacher or a plumber? Vegetarian? Barbeque hamburgers? OK! His laws are not to restrict our freedom by outlawing certain behavior. We have freedom because that’s what His law is about!