Then, finally, we may very briefly touch upon the thought that is implied here and in the whole con-text--namely, the abiding Sonship which constitutes the slave's emancipation.
The process of deliverance is the transference from the one household to the other. We are set free from our bondage when, through Christ, we receive the adoption, and cry Abba, Father!' This filial Spirit, the Spirit of life which was in Christ, and this alone,' makes us free from the law of sin and death.' The only way by which a man is reclaimed from obedience to sin is by his learning to call God Father, and by receiving into his evil nature the life, kindred with the paternal source, which owns no allegiance to his former taskmaster. The only way by which a man receives that new life from God which has nothing to do with sin, and that consciousness of kindred with God which makes the name Father' natural to his heart, is by simple faith in Christ, who gives power to become sons of God to as many as receive Him.
There are but two conditions in which we can stand. One or other of them must be ours. The alternatives are--slaves of sin, or sons of God. What a contrast both in the relation and in that to which it is sustained! Slaves or sons I God or Sin! On the one side tyrannous bondage, on the other gentle swaying love. On the one side the whip and the lash, on the other, My son, hear the instruction of thy Father.' On the one side is such a master, to obey whom is degradation, and like all base-born usurpers, cruel as lawless. What a wretched humiliation for a man with such a nature to be the serf of such a lord--to be, as Milton says,' the dejected and downtrodden vassal of perdition!' On the other side is the Source of all love, the Fruition of all desires, the Fountain of all purity and all peace. And we, dear brethren, may, through Christ, draw near to Him as sons, and cry Abba, Father!' Then we shall abide in His house for ever, in the happy consciousness of His Fatherhood and love, compassed by His care, and enriched by His gifts, and glad to serve, and blessed in obedience. Earth's changes will not take us away from our rest in God, nor its distractions rob us of the sweetness of kindred with Him. Whithersoever we go we may still be at home with God; whatsoever we do we may still be about our Father's business. Death itself will not break our Sonship, nor our consciousness of it. We shall but pass from an outer to an inner abiding-place in our Father's house, the place prepared for us by the Son, who set us free. Thou art no more a servant, but a son,' and if sons, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.'
