Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. –Rom. 8:15
The Spirit of God never was, never is, nor ever can be "the spirit of bondage" to any soul: some have asserted it, but it is a mistake; it is contrary to his name, the Comforter: he is a free Spirit, a spirit of liberty to the soul: he takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us; testifies of Christ; brings us into the liberty of Christ; enables us to glory in the adoption of children, and to call God Father, in the faith of Christ. When he convinces of sin, it is not to bring the soul into bondage, but to break the bondage of sin, of the law, of death, and of Satan in the conscience, and to cast away the cords thereof, that the soul may be united to Christ by faith. In all this he is the Comforter.
What then is this "spirit of bondage?" It is the spirit of the law: just as the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor, and made their lives bitter with hard bondage. Exod. 1:14. Do what they would, they could never please, never get a good word from their task-masters. So let the poor sinner labor, tug and toil from day to day to fulfil the law, and to be made righteous by obedience to it, yet, like hard-hearted Pharaoh, it says, "Ye are idle, ye are idle;' pay me what thou owest me, my full due: I am not satisfied: you have not fulfilled my righteous demands: you are still cursed." Thus a legal spirit is always in bondage: his soul is always subject to fear. Though he works like a slave, yet he gets nothing but slavish dread of God, and fear of perdition at last; for the law works only wrath in the conscience. Rom. 4:15. This is fearful bondage indeed.
Glory to the Spirit of adoption for bringing us frog it, and enabling us to cry, Abba, Father. How does he effect this? We receive the Spirit of adoption by the faith of Jesus: we see a righteous law perfectly fulfilled by the one obedience of Christ: by this we, sinners, are made righteous. Rom. 5:19. Here our hearts take refuge: through this righteousness the Spirit brings peace to our conscience; discharges from the condemnation of the law; frees us from guilty fears and terrors of God; and instead thereof, breathes this precious cry in our hearts, "Abba," my loving, my adopted Father in Christ. Now love reigns in the soul. The Spirit of adoption does not again become a spirit of bondage: but if you do not walk in faith and love, he may leave you to the awful bondage of your own spirit, and under the terrors of a broken law. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." Eph. 4:30.