God knows our limitations and has dealt with the nagging sin that plagues our selfish nature. But He will not tolerate slavery to sin. We’ve been freed from sin and enslaved to God Himself (Romans 6:22). The fruit of this relationship is holiness. God only asks that we commit ourselves to be led by His Spirit. He has promised that we no longer need to suffer under a spirit of slavery. Quite the opposite, we have received a spirit of adoption as sons and now are fellow heirs with Christ.
Our natural course of behavior once we’re saved is to move forward in our relationship with Christ instead of against Him. This penchant to pursue Him is a spiritual law—“the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” by which we have been “set free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). This is what it means to be “in Christ.”