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I. "Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created; and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth" (Ps. ciii. 30). The sanctification of men is really a new creation, and a renewal of the face of the earth by covering it with a new order of life and action. The work of sanctification by the effusion of grace resembles more the generation of the Eternal Son than the creation of the material world. God
sends forth an efflux of His intellect which knows all things, of His will which determines all things, of His love and His sanctity, and produces in man, when properly disposed by the consent of his will, a reflection of His own divine image. This resemblance is not merely superficial as are the vestiges of God in the material creation, but in some wonderful way the souls of men are "made partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. i. 4). The advantages which are communicated in sanctifying grace resemble the qualities which belong to sonship. We are placed on the same super natural level of existence as God, we receive an infused life from God, we are most closely united with Him, and share in some manner in His divine nature. "Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called and should be the sons of God" (1 John iii. 1). It is however a sonship not of nature but of adoption. Therefore you should cry Abba, Father. God is no stranger to you, no remote Creator or terrible judge; but He has revealed Himself as your Father, to exalt you and to show what love and service He expects from you.
II. The sonship of God is conferred on us, not immediately by the Father, but through His Son, Jesus Christ. Of ourselves we are absolutely cut off from all supernatural communication with God, and from all means of re-establishing it; but the Son of God who is also Son of Man has brought God and man again into union. God the Son has joined Himself to man in community of nature; there is also a personal union of the divinity and humanity in Him. Something more, however, is required; each individual has to be brought into union with Jesus Christ, in a manner more intimate than by physical brotherhood in the same human species, and this requirement is fulfilled by sanctifying grace. The Incarnation made God the Son like to us, sanctifying grace makes us like to Him. We meet Him in the community of natural and supernatural life, so as to be able to say: "I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 20). We are brought to the highest level of humanity, to the level of its first-born and predominant member; and then the final stage of the evolution of man on earth is reached. These things are not figures of speech or exaggerations; they are literal reality. What happiness it is to possess these advantages and be conscious of them in your faith and religion!
III. The sonship of God by sanctifying grace involves other privileges. "If sons, heirs also" (Rom. viii. 17). As adopted brethren of Jesus Christ we acquire a participation in His rights merited by Him as man; and the chief one is the right to the kingdom of heaven. St. Paul describes another aspect of this state of grace. "Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God abideth in you?" (1 Cor. iii. 16). And not only the Holy Ghost but the three Divine Persons dwell in the soul that possesses grace: "If any man love Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him" (John xiv. 23). And again: "He that abideth in charity abideth in God and God in him" (1 John iv. 16). How great is the dignity of the supernatural state, and how great the obligation to maintain the sanctity of the condition to which God has raised us! St. Paul shows us the true inference from these facts: "You are not your own; for you are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body" (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20).
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