View source for Gods law is not bondage

True liberty is not freedom from law. True freedom can be found only within law. Righteous laws secure and guarantee freedom. 

"But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work," wrote the apostle James, "this one will be blessed in what he does" (James 1:25).

James called God's commandments the "law of liberty," not a form of slavery. He said one who obeys it is blessed; his life is one of happiness and peace.

The law of God is not a straitjacket; it doesn't restrain freedom. It is a way of life that guarantees the welfare of the individual and of society. "Peace is the reward of those who love thy law; no pitfalls beset their path" (Psalm 119:165, New English Bible).

When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He did not deliver them from one form of slavery into another. He liberated them from a society in which they had no protection through law. The Egyptian code of law did not provide freedom for the Israelites. It did not protect them from evil treatment nor guarantee their security. Israel was abused and oppressed.

God delivered His people from these cruelties and gave them a law that would guarantee their safety and protection. "Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live ..." (Deuteronomy 4:1). 

It was a perfect law (Psalm 19:7). Israel "needed no additional rules or directives, and none of those given were superfluous ..." (Expositor's, Vol. 3, p. 42).


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