STANDING, STATE, AND PRACTICE
[p. 180] STANDING, STATE, AND PRACTICE
Romans 5: 1, 2; Ephesians 1: 3 - 6; Ephesians 5: 1 - 21
The standing is God’s free gift to me. It is what He has done for the believer, or what He has given him.
The state is the divine consequence in me through the Spirit, in accordance with the standing. The light is His grace; the consequence is that I have light; that is my state. Practice is that I act in keeping with the state which has been conferred on me by the Spirit in accordance with the standing.
Now let us see how, in every case, grace, that is free gift, received by faith, confers a state, and then follows practice in keeping with the state.
The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ shines, and God opens the eyes to receive it. That is pure grace. The state of the sinner is changed. Like the thief on the cross, or like Saul of Tarsus, he fears God, and the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; his state is changed; he believes, the grace is apprehended. The state is quite new; there is repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Then follows practice; he prays.
Now suppose a sinner heard of the grace of God, and contented himself with saying, as many have done, I admit it is true, I believe it; as a blind man might say, I believe the sun shines; and yet there is no change of state, no alteration. There is not really faith - a divine work, or he would have had as a consequence of the grace, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
He says he believes, but is as before; in fact contenting himself with being a nominal believer. The mighty work of God in the soul is altogether unknown; there is no state in keeping with the grace professedly accepted, but there is a practical denial of the greatness and blessing of the grace, because there [p. 181] is no consequence from it, any more than from a dream.
Now the truth is that when grace is received there is a divine work in the soul; a fear of God at first, and then comes relief when there is faith in Christ, “Whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood ... in respect of the passing by the sins, ..”. Romans 3: 25. There is then the consequence of grace in the soul, there is the sense of forgiveness. And when we believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, then we are justified. There is no freedom from the judgment of death and the power of the enemy before justification. “It is God that justifieth”; and “being justified by faith, we have peace with God”, an entirely new state, which we could not have if we were not justified, but being justified by the grace of God, we have consequent thereon the new and blessed state of peace. I could not have the state of peace if I had not received the grace that Christ was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification. If there were not the grace, the free gift, there would not be the state that is attached to the recipient of it. The grace would be of no use to me if it did not confer a state. If I am not in peace, a new state, I am not justified. I either have the form of godliness without the power thereof, or I am still seeking peace.
It is clearly impossible that so great a work of God - namely, turning a soul from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God - could be without, as a consequence, a remarkable and singular change of state; and this state has two parts one is, how God is known through Christ; the other, our place in Christ before Him. The former with reference to our being justified, we read of in Romans 5: 1 - 11 the other in Romans 8.
Now it is vain for a man to say he is justified, and at the same time to admit that neither is God known [p. 182] to him through the work of Christ, nor does he know his place in Christ before God. It is all God’s work; the grace is His. He has provided the blessing, and He - blessed be His name! - knows it will affect me as He had appointed; so that, if the blessing is not known, the grace is not apprehended. It is only “a name that thou livest, and art dead”.
It is evident that the practice follows, as in Romans. How could I please God in my walk and ways before He was made known to me through the work of Christ, and before I knew my place in Christ before Him? Simply impossible. I do not say that many believers do not try to do good works, and to please Him in their walk and ways; but it is evident that it must be, however sincere, without any personal and intelligent direction from Himself.
Now, if the consequence or blessing is so marked in the reception of the gospel, which is altogether outside and apart from me, through the work of Christ, and only made known to me in absolute grace, how much more so will it be as we learn our association with Christ, and also our relationship to Him. I do not doubt that in the reception of each there is the state with two parts: one, as we have seen, how God is known; and secondly, our place in Christ before Him. If I know association with Christ, the Minister of the holy places, who is not ashamed to call us brethren, I have boldness to enter the holiest of all through the blood of Jesus. God is known to me as the One whom I can approach in His own unclouded light and unsullied purity.
Thus He is known to me, and if He is not thus known to me, I do not know association with Christ, I have not apprehended the grace conferred on me, even that I am in company with Him, as were the sons of Aaron in company with Aaron. I have not boldness to enter the holiest, nor do I know the other part of the state, how I myself personally can draw [p. 183] near with a true heart and in full assurance of faith. Assuredly if I am not in this state, I have neither the heart nor the power to enter on the race to run on to where He is. We find the same, and even more distinctly, if we turn to Colossians. The Colossians had received the gospel, and the apostle commends them for their faith in Christ Jesus and love to all the saints. For these the apostle had a great conflict that they might enter on the state which the knowledge of the mystery would confer on them, the knowledge of Christ as Head of the body. First their standing:
“Ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and authority”. Secondly, as to themselves, “In whom also ye have been circumcised with circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh”. The state is described in chapter 3: 1 - 11, where, as risen with Christ, you enter on a state completely unknown before. “Ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God”. You enter on moral circumcision, virtually accepting what has been effected for you in the circumcision of Christ, the putting off of the body of the flesh; and there is that new state where Christ is everything and in all. Then follows the practice which becomes such a state, both in the assembly and in the domestic circle.
Lastly, in Ephesians we find the same truth and in the same order confirmed and expanded. We have, in chapter 1, God’s calling; His purpose and will that we should be individually in nature and life suited to Him, “holy and blameless before him in love”, together with the adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself; and accepted in the Beloved, we are united to Him who is Head over all things to the church. This is the grace, His free favour which belongs to every believer. But mark the blessing from this immense favour - God’s calling. It is not merely a great elevation, a position, without conferring any sensible benefit or gain on me. Nay, on the contrary,
[p. 184] in chapter 3, I learn the state I am in because of His calling. We get first how God is known to us in Christ. Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, and rooted and founded in love we can survey the expanse of glory; and secondly, knowing the love of Christ that passeth knowledge, we are filled unto all the fulness of God. What a state! Then follow chapters 4 to 6, practice of the highest order. The state of power in which we are placed in association with Christ in heaven enables us to be here for Him in every relation, both in the assembly and in our home circle, while, at the same time, to withstand all the power of the enemy.
The more we study this subject the more we shall be interested in it, and also be judged by it. That is light which does make manifest. In this day, when knowledge is assumed to be faith, it is of all importance to own that the grace of God, as it is received, has a peculiar and singular blessing or consequence by the Spirit in keeping with itself. The first epistle of John was written, not that the believers should have eternal life, but that they should know that they have it: not the grace, the gift merely, but the blessing of the gift. It is said, “Receive not the grace of God in vain”.
Each gift has its own distinct blessing. No grace or gift can produce the gain which is derived from another gift.
The sunlight and the air are natural free gifts, but the sun, however powerful in itself, or however fully appreciated, could not produce the same blessing which the air does; neither could air produce what the sun does. Each is distinct and peculiar, or in keeping with its nature. This explains much of the condition of each of us. We may think we have entered into the grace of the Ephesians, but in very deed, however we may know it in theory, our state proves that we have only, in a small degree, entered into the grace in Romans. There cannot be the state without [p. 185] apprehending in faith the standing, or the grace. The defect, though it is seen in the state, is traceable to an imperfect apprehension of the standing, and in order to rectify the state we must be assured of the standing. The one who is occupied with his state in order to correct it, is self-occupied; on the other hand, when one is exclusively occupied with the standing, he is heady and high-minded. The standing and the state go together.
The Lord give us to see that it is by the grace of God we are what we are, so that positive results may flow from the state consequent on His grace, and we may be able to add, “His grace ... has not been vain; but I have laboured more abundantly than they all, but not I, but the grace of God which was with me”.