STANDING AND STATE
STANDING AND STATE
Every position or vocation, according to its importance, has its own responsibilities. If it confers much, then much must be required. If a standing were conferred without a state, it would be a mere empty title; there would be no real elevation or inherent dignity. With man it is too often the case that standing confers nothing, though the intention of all title or position is to recognize and reward desert; and where this is the case, the standing is conferred as in keeping with the state. Now with God there is no standing of any kind conferred, but with distinct and precise instruction as to the state which should flow and be derived from it; so that a person practically drops from, or denies his standing, if he have not the state which is in keeping with it.
[p. 27] It is not possible that God would appoint me to a standing which would subject me to ridicule or censure, because of the disparity between my name and my power; that is, He would not set me in high rank without any means or qualities to maintain it. No, according to the position in which God sets His people, He has from the very first given them power to be in keeping with it. Man in accepting the law assumed a position for himself, and failed in maintaining it; but according to whatever position God calls His people, so does He enable them to be; that is, He gives power in order that their state should be in keeping with their standing. He does not make their standing depend upon their state, because then the standing would be not of grace, but of works; but the standing is only enjoyed in proportion as the state belonging to it is maintained; for thus alone can there be ability to appreciate it.
When God called Abram saying, “Get thee out of thy country ... unto a land that I will shew thee”, and he, in obedience to it, came into the land of Canaan, unto the plain of Moreh, we read (Genesis 12: 7), “The Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him”. Here there was a state corresponding to the standing. Abram occupies the place which God had pointed out to him. By faith he went out, not knowing whither he went, and when he reaches the true spot, his faith is crowned by the special manifestation of the Lord: and he builds an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. The appearing of the Lord declared that he had reached the standing, and his state is formed by it, and is in keeping with it. Now if he had not by faith accepted the standing, he never would have known the grace which met him there, and which fitted him for being there, according to the mind of the Lord. The Lord vouchsafed His presence to cheer and to form him in this new standing; and he can go forward, fit for the place in which God’s favour had [p. 28] set him. But when Abram becomes occupied with the famine in the land, he declines in state; he forgets how the Lord had appeared unto him; the state goes first and then the standing. Thus we see that in order to preserve the standing in its worth, you must have the state which is in keeping with it. A rose tree is not only placed by a gardener in a favoured spot, but by its beautiful bloom it proves itself qualified to be there. Of how little worth is size or mind to a man, if he lack the health which would impart value to both.
It is simple and yet very important that we should truly accept the standing to which God is pleased to call us, but then unless the state which is becoming to that standing is maintained by us, we shall lose practically all the advantage of the standing. A flowerless rose tree is surely very unsuited for a fine garden. Position confers nothing upon any one unless he can enjoy it, and to enjoy it he must maintain it. When Israel got into the land, if they had not been able to overcome the enemies in it, their position there would have been a mockery. Thus although according to the purpose of God we are seated together in heavenly places in Christ, yet we have to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might; we have to put on the whole armour of God that we may stand against the wiles of the devil. Let any one neglect to put on the armour, and what benefit will he derive from his high calling? The higher a man’s position, the greater his fall when he is counted unworthy of it, and proved incompetent for it. A saint owning his heavenly position is subjected to greater dishonour if he does not maintain the state suited to it. If he be overcome, his fall is the greatest, because his height was the greatest. There is little use in obtaining any benefit, if I cannot keep it; and it cannot be kept, but as my state is true to it. The whole mistake of the Galatians was losing the state which belonged to their standing in the Spirit, and when they lost the state, they gave up the true standing, and turned to circumcision and the law. Had they walked [p. 29] in the Spirit, they would not have fulfilled the lusts of the flesh. The apostle has to remind them, “If we live in the Spirit”, that is your standing, “walk in the Spirit” - that is your state. They tried to get a standing by a state - by circumcision - and in doing so they surrendered their true standing, which if preserved would have ensured for them the highest state; but the state was given up, and the standing was surrendered, and the benefits lost; and so it is in every instance.
If the children of Israel did not remain faithful to the Lord in the land, if they were careless in their state, their standing was forfeited. “If thou do at all forget the Lord thy God ... ye shall surely perish”, Deuteronomy 8: 19. “And then the Lord’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain ... and ... ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you”, Deuteronomy 11: 17. Though in the place of the greatest favour, in the highest standing, yet if their state did not answer to it, they should be deprived of rain, etc. - of all advantages connected with the place - all was forfeited because they were indifferent as to their state. When Peter left the ship to go to Jesus (Matthew 14) he accepted his true standing, but when he turned his eye to the winds and waves, his state was not in keeping with his standing and he began to sink.
There is a tendency to err on both sides. Some will not accept their standing, they really have not faith in God, they cannot see why they should be placed in so high a position. This was Israel’s unbelief at Kadeshbarnea, when they heard of the giants, and the cities walled up to heaven. It is always looking at men and their works, which hinders a saint from accepting the position to which God has called him. It is God who has appointed it for him, so that it is simply a question whether God who calls him to it is greater than all that man could do to obstruct. Hence the apostle warns the Hebrews lest there should be in them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. It is called the day of [p. 30] provocation when Israel refused to go up and possess the land: how much more now when a saint refuses to accept the heavenly calling! He may allege that there are many difficulties in his way, but the fact is, he is more occupied with the difficulties than with God; and in his heart he has turned back unto Egypt. In 1 Corinthians 10 the apostle places “neither murmur ye” the last in the list, and the worst. I suppose he then gives the moral order, though it is not the chronological order, because when any one refuses to accept the position to which God calls him, there must be an end of all progress. If a horse will not stand on his legs how can he draw? If a bird does not use its wings, how can it fly?
On the other hand, with the increase of knowledge of the text of Scripture, there is great danger of giving a conscientious assent to the standing, particularly when insisted on by those really enjoying it, without a due sense of the state which the standing entails. This danger is to be chiefly apprehended, when the acceptance of the standing has relieved the heart of legal efforts to reach it, for then a delightful sense is made known to the soul; the standing that I pined after is discovered to be really mine, by the grace of God, and I enjoy for the moment unspeakable joy. I had been struggling in vain to reach it by seeking to have a state worthy of it; but after having found that the standing is mine, independently of my efforts, if I in any degree become indifferent about my state, and base my happiness and power on the bare fact of having ascertained my standing, I shall find ere long that I am nothing better than a miser, with means for a great position, but from want of making proper use of them, really worse off than I was when labouring to acquire them, and I am an object of mingled pity and reproach.
Finally, the one seeking to reach a standing by his own efforts, is like one attempting what is entirely beyond his power - trying to fly without wings - an attempt which must end in failure; while the one who is [p. 31] satisfied with his standing, and indifferent to his state, is in danger of what is expressed in that word, “his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened”.