There is a slavery on the near side of sonship. (Galatians 4:7)
And there is a slavery on the far side of sonship. (Galatians 1:10)
On the near side it's death.
On the far side it's life.
On the near side it's flesh.
On the far side it's Spirit.
On the near side it's your righteousness on show.
On the far side it's Christ's righteousness in you.
On the near side you don't know who you are without it, so you step it up.
On the far side you do know who you are without it, and you keep in step.
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There is no way from slavery to sonship.
And there's no way to true slavery except sonship.
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All of which means...
We must refuse to be slaves ascending to higher degrees of slavery.
We must look away from any schemes of progressive slavery.
We must proclaim sonship.
And not because we we're not into works.
If we want true works, we must strip away works.
We must be left bare in the presence of God with nothing but Christ for our justification.
We must know who we are without our works - sinners clothed in Christ.
We must know our sonship not in ourselves but in the Son. This means by grace alone.
And now, in Him, we can do no other than gladly take our place in the Father's business.
But it is the Father's business.
The only gateway to true work is sonship.
The only Gate is the Son.