Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So, you are no longer a slave, but God's child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Galatians 4:6-7 (NIV)

 

According to the Apostle Paul, God sent the Holy Spirit, who is also “the Spirit of His Son” to bear witness to our hearts the truth of our sonship and heirship in Christ. This gracious act of divine adoption frees us from our bondage to the law for our justification and sanctification. Both justification and sanctification come by grace through faith in Christ alone.

For instance, if we reduce sanctification to merely doing a list of good things or maintaining spiritual habits, we are undermining the work of the Holy Spirit and replacing the truth of our sonship with the slavish fear of God.

We do not need to strive for acceptance and approval because we know we are eternally and forever loved by God. Since we are already sons and daughters of God because He has placed His Spirit in us, we can choose to be like our Father God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24). We cannot become holy on our own, but we can partake in God’s righteousness and holiness (2 Peter 1:4) because of our union in Christ. In other words, holiness is a gift we actively accept with joy, not a goal we achieve.

The Holy Spirit will continue to deepen our desire and capacity for holiness by enabling us to live and walk in complete obedience to God, with our will perfectly aligned with His. He accomplishes this by creating in us a "new heart" in which He writes the living law of holiness.

While the outward observance of the law might lead to legalism, the inward working of the law of the Spirit of life within us frees us to do far more than we could have imagined. This allows us to experience what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15:10: “I have worked harder than all the other apostles, yet actually I wasn’t doing it, but God working in me” (TLB).