Sometimes the The Message makes things a little more complicated than they need to be.

2 Corinthians 3:17

NIV:

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

The Message:

They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it!

I just thought that was funny.