"Sometimes we are told that if we only were filled with the Spirit, all tensions would vanish. However, the very fact that the Spirit lives in our lives as the Spirit of sonship is what causes the tension! Without his presence we would not have the firstfruits of the Spirit; we would not be the children of God. We would be so totally a part of this world that the family of God and the world to come would mean nothing whatsoever to us. And we would be strangers to grace. We would not experience the conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of the world. Again and again we need to remind ourselves that we experience many tensions in our spiritual pilgrimage, not in spite of the fact that we are sons and have the Spirit of the adoption, but precisely because we are sons!"
Sinclair Ferguson, Children of the Living God (Carlisle, Pa: Banner of Truth, 1989) 126.
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