fair? continued and expanded

Some things I was thinking about that (to me) related to my comments in "fair?" had to do a little more with the law in relation to our rule of law and the law concerning the old testament.

I've been getting much more understanding about what the Bible means when it tells us that the law was given to show us our hearts. I knew the words forever and I knew the explanation you were supposed to give to people, but they were just words with no real understanding, only the simple understanding of "this is what it says, this is what I've been told".
What I see in America is our tendency toward more and more laws. Now I know many arguments will be made that we need those laws because we continue to have people finding more and more ways around them and just plain breaking laws. But what I seem to find is that the more laws we make the more we end up breaking. There's no such thing as commonsense anymore, because we can sue McDonalds for our own bumbling the hot coffee in our lap. We continue to make more laws because people refuse to be responsible for their actions. They want laws to tell them what they can and can't do. But those people are the same stubborn, foolish people that will ignore the commonsense in their heart and heads, and will continue to do so until they have no freedom and eventually, no will left. The government becomes their everything, it makes all their decisions and directs all their efforts-effectively subduing, crushing their own will.

What I think the Old Testament shows us is that the law can't change our hearts. It was only meant to show us the condition of them. God was trying to show us the problem isn't just in our actions, and we can't just regulate our actions with an abudance of laws. We have to get to the root, to the heart that determines the actions, which is something laws can't reach. All of this gives me a great appreciation of God's intention of/for our liberty, and what it really means to be free. Who is the better citizen, the man that obeys the law because it is the law, or for fear of reprisal or the man who obeys the law from his heart, not because he is made to (the law) but because he wants to. God wants us to see His goodness and choose His ways over ours because we WANT to, not because we HAVE to (the law). And it is only when we recognize His goodness, His love, that we even begin to WANT to choose His ways over ours. Until we come to that point individually, that we see Him for who He is, we will struggle with choosing His ways over ours. But even then, it's not over. Everyday we have to deny our own selfish desires and choose His ways. It's a battle, because freedom is a battle. So part of the victory comes from our focus, if we keep Him before us we can press on toward the upward call of Christ.

wow, I am all over the map, but let me know what you think