Freedom and bondage

Collin Hansen at Christianity Today on Solzhenitsyn and Christian freedom:

.... Freedom is not truly possible apart from Christ, and for those who are in Christ, it's not the goal. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:21 that the creation is in bondage to sin. Only God in Christ will set it free. He elaborates on freedom in Galatians 5:13. Christians must use their Calvary-bought freedom to serve one another in love. Likewise, the apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:16 that freedom is not license to sin but invitation to service.

When we understand freedom biblically, we more readily embrace God's resolve to work good even from bondage. God liberated Solzhenitsyn in the Gulag. "It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good," Solzhenitsyn wrote in The Gulag Archipelago. "Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts. … That is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me: "Bless you, prison!" I … have served enough time there. I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: "Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!"

Freedom Is Not Our Goal | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction