We are like an adopted child trying desperately to prove to his adoptive parents that he deserved to be adopted. Can that child ever rest in that condition? Can he enjoy his parents or be thankful for them? Can he ever freely love them? He will only labor on as a slave to his own imagination.
But we who are in Christ (who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit by faith in Christ alone) have been adopted by God the Father! He has made us alive in Christ for his own name’s sake! Can the promises of God be revoked? Will you prove to your adoptive father that you are his? What more can you do than Christ? Take no more confidence in the flesh and rest wholly on Christ, repenting of unbelief. (This is a daily prayer for me.)
When you are tempted to revert to legalism, remember that even if you give your body to be burned and have not love, those works are worthless (1 Corinthians 13:3). Only when we realize that we are already secure in Christ will we abound with the works we were created to do, which will confirm even more that we are his.
//taken from the Desiring God blog.
