In grace, where alone, as lost and ruined, we could stand, we learn that all our blessings are accomplished by Christ and vested in Him. To possess and to enjoy remain with us. Simple as this truth appears, none is practically so embarrassing to our legal and self-dependent spirits. To possess and to enjoy God's gifts, we must first value them as gifts; and here is our difficulty. Our pride blunts our sense of need, but the earnest soul counts all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord. The surrender of nature proves the appreciation of grace, but it does not obtain it; though it opens the door to possession and to enjoyment. Grace is laid up for me; as I value it, I enjoy it. There is none newly provided or prepared for me; for it is already provided and laid up in Christ; and I enjoy it when I am in a position to enjoy it. We see this in the apostle's prayers in Ephesians. In the first, that the saints might know the power which wrought in Christ, and what He has accomplished for them; and in the second, that they might know Christ Himself-that they might be filled with all the fullness of God. As the soul enters on the position in which grace sets it, it knows the power which wrought in Christ. Truly, power must first work in me to raise me to that position, and for this is the prayer; but being in the position, I not only know the power but the fruition of it, and while I keep it I enjoy power efficiently. I do not gain the position. Through grace it is mine, and I take it. There is power in the taking of it, and still greater, evidently, in keeping it; because it is its effect. It is possible for a man to assume a position in name, of which he, in reality, knows nothing; but this will soon test him. If a man assume the position of being "heavenly" without knowing the power which wrought in Christ-the only question is, Is he "heavenly"? If through grace he be, he is so in spirit and act, and by gift, even as Christ is. If he be this only by assumption, there is an effort to prove it rather than enjoyment in the possession of it. In the one case you labor to convince others; in the other, to magnify your possession.
I am bound to take every position in which the grace of Christ has set me; and my weakness is because I do not. The position is the verification of Christ's power; and in taking it and maintaining it, I am acknowledging Him, even though thereby my own infirmities are more openly disclosed. While to hold the position proves that I have possession and enjoyment in it, though I should fail to prove to others my title or fitness for such a position. Thus the position of itself affords me strength to value and to keep it. If I know that my position is "heavenly," is it not power to be heavenly, to take the position of being so? I am entitled to it through grace; and I own my title,(it being a true one), and my soul adopting heavenliness as its right, and in a way I could not expect if I were only looking for such a position. When once we are impressed with the copiousness of Christ's work, and what grace is, we take up the position, as we have light, and we are taught instinctively that it is a moral error to surrender it; as undoubtedly it is a return to nature. We are, however, constantly allowing the question of fitness to mar our enjoyment; but it is grace that puts us there, and while we own Christ and His work we enjoy the effect of it. Our eye rests on the goodness of the giver, and not on the unworthiness of the receiver; and our labor is not to make ourselves fit for that expression of grace, but to walk worthy of the vocation. Let a soul refuse to acknowledge the vocation as his, and his action, however sincere, must, at least, be legal and coerced. Another hindrance is, the tendency to measure ourselves with the difficulties in the, path, and not to look at Him who puts us there:- a sure evidence of want of true energy, " There is a lion in the streets I" For difficulties in the way always occur to those who have no heart to encounter them. Thus Israel lost Canaan; and the giants, and the cities walled up to heaven, shut out the goodness and majesty of God. But what was the language of one who would hold his position? " The land which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey." Caleb held the position, and he had the power of it; and when years afterward he laid low the giants and cities, he had the full fruition of it.
It is possible to have enjoyed our position (and this was power, for it is of grace), and yet to have lost it. We have not walked worthy of it; that is, we have not in spirit kept the position; and the effect is a craving, if I may so speak, for enjoyment and deliverance which were once known. Alas! how many things, and in how many forms, are in this state offered to compensate us for our loss! Attention to forms, good works, acts of obedience, and the like, are freely proposed and adopted; but if we had kept our position we should not only have known the power which wrought in Christ, but the reaching forward, according to the second prayer in Ephesians, would be unto Christ Himself and all the fullness of God. The going on to perfection, is alone the progress of the soul; and this has to do with Christ in glory. Skilful in the word of righteousness, confirmed in the results of His work, the soul learns its proper and true place with God, and has power accordingly. How can we have power when we do not know our title to it nor own the grace which confers it? The Epistle to the Hebrews is entirely occupied with this. It teaches us in detail that "we are partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." Surely holding anything does not entitle us to be made partakers of Christ; hut holding the position in which grace sets us, we know our fellowship with Him who is the Source of it. It is only as the soul is sustained by faith that it can own the greatness of the place conferred on us. Faith practically results from an acquaintance with God, which He, who declares the Father, imparts to us. We thus know Him, and as we know Him, we freely take the place His love assigns to us; and as we maintain and assure ourselves of our right to that place, do we realize the power of the grace which has called us to it. We could have no genuine power to act in any position if we doubted our title to it. Wherever there is a shallow and imperfect sense of acceptance, there is always a shallow and partial admission of all the other gifts through grace. If the soul be not established on the broad basis of full justification without works before God, its power to progress will be always deficient and uncertain. But, on the contrary, if I have learned distinctly the real value of Christ for me, before God, though I may make many mistakes, and slowly shake off old religious prejudices, yet the light gradually breaks in on my understanding, and I advance in acquaintance with the power which wrought in Christ. Paul is an example of this.
Many were the deep-rooted and once true religious prejudices he had to break through; and slowly enough he escaped from them-yet he advanced; and why? simply because he never let go the grand doctrine of justification by faith without works. The great landing-place where grace had set him he would not surrender; and hence his power, not only to carry him onward through his religious prejudices, but also where others slipped from their places in grace to hold it still for them and for the church. As he maintained the true position before Peter, can we not see that his soul was animated with the power of it? Though Peter be confronted and Barnabas be turned aside, yet he enjoys the power of the position he maintains; and he loses sight of man while he shows forth the virtues of Him who hath called him out of darkness into His marvelous light. If Barnabas rejoined him again (as from 1 Cor. we may suppose), did he not rejoice that Paul had so faithfully maintained the truth of God? And must he not have felt his own departure as weakness? And of this weakness we have an evidence on another occasion; so true is it, that we have imperfectly apprehended the doctrine of grace, when we are unable to walk worthy of our vocation. Paul would not consent to take Mark, who had previously returned from Pamphylia and went not with them to the work; and though now repentant, Paul thought it not good to take him, for he had departed from the position he once assumed. But Barnabas, the son of consolation, the man' who went to Tarsus seeking for Saul, does not see this. He takes Mark with him and sails to his native country, Cyprus, in nature and unto nature! Such is the man that can be turned aside from the full liberty of the Gospel. Paul maintains the right position, and he has power to go on in it; and well was it for the Church and well was it for Barnabas and Mark that he did so.. Any position we are led to by God's grace, let us never Surrender. "Continue thou in the things which thou past learned." It is to call in question the excellence of the position when we surrender it; for how then could we prove our appreciation of it as God's calling? Now this applies to every truth we learn, for we do not merit -we only apprehend. We see, own, and enjoy, what grace has done for us. If I surrender it, it is not an acquisition of my own I surrender; but it is God's gift, which He calls on me to own, and which to surrender is plainly equal to a refusal to own that it was of grace; or at least it is an evidence that I did not know that it was of grace. If a believer acts unlike a child of God, is he restored the sooner and the better by surrendering the fact that he is a child of God-or by maintaining that he is one—-and consequently that he ought to be humbled and self-emptied, and cast upon the grace which has given him so high and so undeserved a calling? In the one ease he escapes censure, for he denies responsibility; but in the other, he learns from the censure (for lie owns and rejoices in the responsibility), though he is thereby afflicted. This desire to escape censure by denying responsibility is a great evil, and arises from a low state of communion, because the soul has been imperceptibly filled with other things, and the sense of grace has become faint. Trial, or more deadness follows.
When Israel gave up its position as able to go up and possess the land, judicially they forfeited the power to do so. They doubted their power before they tried, and in their hearts they turned back into Egypt. Their proper position they surrendered. The weakness which thus declared itself might have been of long growth, yet as long as they held the position of being able they progressed. They surrendered, and they were humbled and debarred from the place of blessing. So was Mark, to whom reference has been made. They immediately; but not so Mark. They were under law. Mark was under grace. Their attempt to recover their position was presumption. Mark, though disciplined for his secession, and perhaps separated from (see Col. 4:1010Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;) (Colossians 4:10)), was profitable and forthcoming for service, when many others were declining. This chews that if in weakness we have surrendered a place which grace called us to, it or a higher one remains open to us: for it is not by merit, but by grace I am saved. True if I surrender, I shall, and ought to be, judged and disciplined, and for a time unfit for the position I surrendered, which was my weakness. Caleb and Joshua never surrendered the position of being able to possess the land, though many years passed over before they were allowed to prove their power to do so. It is always important to own and abide in what God calls me to, and as He calls me; for it is His grace to me, and by His grace I can alone keep it. I might essay to keep my position, but in a careless way; but this would not be power and would lead to judgment. This happens when there is more of imitating others than learning for myself. The position to be of power must be in spirit and energy according to God, or it is merely human, which is worthless. Eli is an example. Rightly a priest-but with neither the discernment, nor the energy suited for such a place. Both the house of God and his own house gave evidence of his indolence and imbecility. The man that is not true to God is true nowhere. Eli might have had heart, but he had no soul for God: and being overcome by the judgments which his carelessness had expedited, he died as powerless as he lived. But this was not because he took a true position, but because he was negligent in it; and cursed be he who doeth the work of the Lord negligently. Of course every position is not open to me. It is not a true one unless I have a divine warrant for it. But having a divine warrant for it, though I cannot enjoy the fruition of it, yet it is strength to maintain it, even though the opportunity for declaring it be long deferred. It was so with Caleb and Joshua, and so with Daniel. It was so with Paul, though his eye only by degrees opened to the grandeur of the position. to which he was called. Yet faithfulness to the position that he saw, gave him power to go on. " To him that hath more shall be given." It has been said "I ought not to take position without power." Now what ought to be the answer to this? Is it not the inquiry whether the position I am called to be of grace or not? If it be and I take it, I know the power in the act that made it mine; for it is faith that leads me to do so-and that is Christ in me. Let us not excuse ourselves from a position to escape the responsibilities of it. There are inalienable ever-existing rights and privileges to the Church, of which by failure it may lose the enjoyment-still repentance always puts us at the open door to possession. Sorrow does not this, though repentance be thus produced, for godly sorrow produces it; but it is not the sorrow, but the fruit of it rather, which restores the Church to the enjoyment of her unalterable position with Christ. Repentance is a change of sentiment from conviction. To the errant and faithless this always ensures recovery, because it proves the value of the ways of God instead of one's own. The church has never lost its right to the affections of Christ, or the privilege of His Lordship. It has failed to maintain these blessings; and thereby has forfeited power and commission to maintain subordinate glories. The moment it occupies a true position, be its state ever so low, it is in the power suited to it. The church at Corinth was low enough-their condition one of disorder and defilement-yet the word to them is, to come together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Taking their proper position, though weak and defiled as they had been, they are empowered to abide therein and get rid of whatever offended. I do not allude to this for the purpose of arguing that we may reckon on the same kind of power if we take the same position; but I do so to show that the needed power follows or flows from taking our true position. I think the position cannot cease, for it is secured in Christ, but there might be, and there is, a different order of power required at different times. All that I desire to insist on is, that my taking my proper position irrespective of former failure is the place of power. We see, in every revelation of God to man, that there are relations established between them which no weakness or infidelity can disannul; though during the season of weakness or infidelity, they are not, or they could not be, enjoyed. But restoration when that was sincere, was always marked by a return to these unchangeable relations, and an acknowledgment of them. When Abram returns from Egypt, he builds an altar where he built one at the first. If his restoration be a perfect one, it reinstates him with God, and more, because it is grace restores. God never restores without engaging us more intimately with Himself. Jacob added to his trials even in Canaan, because of his tardiness and forgetfulness to go back to Bethel and there to revive his soul in the grace which visited him on the first night of his exile. Shalem and the altar there, El-elohe-Israel, is the halting-place of the slothful soul, one who will not roast that which he took in hunting: eager to obtain, but with energy expiring when results were to be enjoyed. It was thus with Jacob; it is thus with many a one; but there is no power in such a condition, for it is not the place of grace, and so, after deep and sore trial and disappointment, Jacob is taught that, though he may have done much in the interval unworthy of the blessing revealed at Bethel, yet it is with God, as he had revealed Himself, he has to do, and not with his own fitness, and therefore Bethel is his ground; and being there it was not merely Bethel engrossed his soul, but El-Bethel the god of Bethel, which was the power of his position. If we turn to the book of Judges what do we find? Though Gilgal be Bochim, each deliverer's power is that Israel was God's people; and hence Deborah could praise for the avenging of Israel, and sing praises to the Lord God of Israel. She saw God in all His terrible greatness and majesty as the God of Israel, as if Israel had never departed from the vigorous devotedness at Gilgal. The earth trembled-the heavens dropped-the mountains melted before the Lord-even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel. To see what God is to His people, and to own it, is the secret of power. Barak could not receive the instructions of Deborah according to their nature and tenor; for doubtless he looked more at the people and their deserts and their condition, than at God as the God of Israel. And here is the clog to us all. Gideon's mind had to be cleared of misgivings on this point before he is in efficient service; but when confirmed in it how great was his power. Perhaps no thought so invigorates the soul in reading the book of Judges, as the ease with which each deliverer counts on God's favor towards His rebellious and fallen people. Though vanquished and enslaved, the deliverer's power always lay in his regarding God as their King. Appearances were against it on every side; but faith counted on it and took that place, and there was power accordingly. David gets rid of Michal when he brings back the ark-the effect of true position. Could the soul do a worse thing than seek a lower place than the one assigned it by God? Certainly not. And it is not humility.
See Ezra and Nehemiah-how eagerly and unhesitatingly they, not only in their hearts but in practice, return to the position to which God had called their nation True, they had to endure a long and a painful captivity; for God is not unrighteous, though He be very gracious; and if we rightly know Him, we shall receive the punishment of our iniquity and submit. to His righteous hand, but never forget His grace nor where His honor dwelleth. True also they returned to Jerusalem shorn judicially of the physical power with which they were once honored. But though conscious of all this (yea, calmly submitting to it), yet they confidently resume their old position with God, and though there be many enemies, yet as long as they retain it they have power and blessing. Let them say (see Haggai), "The time is not come;"-Let them refuse to take the position, and what is their power and blessing? It was, "you looked for much and it came to little; and when ye brought it home I did blow upon it." But when they were admonished and resumed, it is, " from this day I will bless you." Now we learn here what has been a sore evil to the people even in this day, namely, that because they are not able to present as great and as powerful a front to the world as they once were permitted to do, or were endowed with, that consequently they have no light, that the time is not come for them, as they revive or are restored from Babylonish thralldom to resume the place with God to which He originally called them, and thence all their weakness, I am persuaded. We want to learn from the foundation all that God has called us to; nothing short of His vocation will satisfy Him nor bless us. May our souls indeed learn that if we would have power to serve Him we must own the place, and take the place, His grace sets us in. To go back to a lower position or to tarry in one, is to have the Lord to "blow on what we bring home." The church can never cease to be the body of Christ; bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh; and now nourished and cherished by Him, and the Holy Ghost ever present to reveal Him. As it owns and takes this position, it proves its confidence in Him-realizes the blessing of it-and is thus confirmed in it. The church may have lost her ornaments, but not the affections nor nurture of her Lord, nor His Spirit that waits on her. She may be feeble and faltering, but she is loved in spite of it all; and she but Crowns her sin when she owns it not. In like manner each believer should own and abide in the place where Christ's full work has set him. There cannot be power in the soul if it be not so. The less we own Christ's supremacy over all power, the less power practically can we expect, and the less deliverance from under Satan's power can we enjoy. If we have conflict with wicked spirits in heavenly places, it is because we are in heavenly places; and fellowship with Christ's victory over all the power of evil, can alone give us ease and dignity in passing through the world that lieth in the wicked one. The true soul always wants the sense of this victory; and as long as it owns the full service of Christ and where His grace sets it, it is satisfied and progresses with energy. But if it lose its place, as in this dreary journey we are apt to do, though it retains the sense of former relief, it will become occupied with expressing its own victory or giving proofs of it more than with Christ's. The end of this always is that such attempts are found unsatisfying, and so powerless that there is an insensible but decided return to worldliness once renounced. Nothing but true position is power, for naught else is grace; and may we praise our God for it, and evermore rejoice in His love in and by our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.