THE grace of God has given every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ a perfect position in Christ before Him — a position which once given, is never withdrawn. “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. 11:29), that is, without change of mind on His part; so that, once given, they are never recalled.
This must be so, for grace is Divine favor with no condition attached thereto. Moreover this position is “in Christ,” and therefore it is governed by who He is and by what He has done. So we read, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17); or there is a new creation” (N. Tr.). In that realm there is and can be no failure nor breakdown.
If it is a question of the efficacy of the work of Christ, we read that “the righteousness of God” is “upon all them that believe” (Rom. 3:22). That is most evidently a matter of grace, for it comes upon those that believe. Christ is said to be made of God to the believer, “Wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Now if Christ is made righteousness to the believer, it is clear that this is absolute and permanent, for Christ never changes.
It is well to recognize that God can only have perfection, and this He can alone find in Christ Himself. Therefore the believer’s position must be connected with Christ, and this it is in the fullest way possible. Once saved, saved forever. Once justified, justified forever. Faith is a wonderful thing! Faith takes God at His word, and rests there.
The reader may say, “But I am a poor, weak, frail inconsistent Christian. How can all this be true of me?” It is true of you, as of every believer, as we shall seek to show.
You may further ask, “If this is true that I, a poor inconsistent believer, have a perfect and inalienable position before God in Christ, is God therefore not concerned about my shortcomings?” He is indeed. The one concern of the Holy Spirit of God, given to indwell the believer, is to make the practical coincide with the positional, but the divergence between the two never impairs or alters the positional, once it is accorded by the grace of God. A professed believer, who is not exercised as to being consistent in life and ways with what he is in Christ, is in a sad and lamentable condition indeed, and one that would lead to doubt as to his being a Christian at all.
Let us furnish a Scriptural illustration. In 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52. we read, “Behold I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.” There is a class of Bible expositors, who are not clear as to the grace of God, and who teach that only believers, who have attained to a certain fitness, will be caught up when the Lord comes, and that the unfaithful believers will be left behind. This one verse is amply sufficient to contradict this mistaken idea. Our passage says that ALL will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. Could anything be clearer than this?
Now what kind of believers constituted the assembly at Corinth? Chapter 1 tells us of contentious believers, leading to divisions among them. Chapters 3 tells us that they were not spiritual but carnal — stunted in their spiritual growth. Chapters 5 tells us of the incestuous brother in their midst, and of the carelessness of the assembly as to this shocking sin in that they were “puffed up” and had not mourned. Chapters 6 tells of their shame in brother going to law with brother and that before unbelievers. Chapters 11 tells us of the degrading of the solemn occasion of the Lord’s supper, and its being turned with a mere social feast, where the rich flaunted their opulence before their poor brethren, and one was hungry and another drunken.
Surely if it were a question of a degree of saintship being the necessary qualification for translation at the second coming of the Lord, a good many of the Corinthian saints would not have been eligible. But does the inspired apostle make any distinction in this matter? No; knowing full well how he would have to deal with the serious faults in the assembly, he begins by addressing them as saints by calling, he thanks God for the grace of God given to them in Christ Jesus, he speaks of his confidence of their being confirmed unto the end, and being found blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then when he comes to chapters 15, he tells them they will all be changed, whether sleeping in Jesus, or alive on the earth — ALL changed “in a moment, in the twining of an eye, at the last trump.”
Was the apostle condoning their condition? Far from that. He instructed the assembly to put out from among themselves the incestuous brother, this discipline happily leading to true restoration, as the second chapter of the second epistle shows. He sharply rebuked divisive tendencies, and condemned strongly brother going to law with brother before unbelievers.
Finally let us see what happened as to the despising of the Lord’s supper, turning it into an occasion of gluttony and drunkenness. We are told because of the sad and extreme divergence between position and practice that the discipline of the Lord came in. The way of recovery was by self-judgment for we read, “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (chapter 11:31). But if self-judgment was refused, and the saint went on in this sad way, what then? Did they lose their position in Christ? Surely not! But did God condone their backsliding and self-will? Surely not! What happened then? The holy discipline of the Lord came in. “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep” (verse 30). Pretty serious discipline this! Many weak and sickly, many sleeping. Here is a brother weak and sickly, under the Lord’s hand of discipline. He fails to respond to it. He refuses to judge himself. He grows worse. At last he dies — falls asleep, fit for heaven by virtue of the atoning work of Christ and by the grace of God; not fit for earth by virtue of his lack of exercise that practice should approximate to position.
Take the case of the saints put to sleep because of their evil deeds. They would form part of the first resurrection when “ALL should be changed.” But see how God by His Spirit labors to bring practice into accord with position and how eventually He will accomplish this. We are told, “When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (verse 32).
Put the two verses alongside each other. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). “When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”
Between a perfect, inalienable position and our practice there comes in the holy discipline of the Lord to our help, a discipline that in tender love will not hesitate to remove the believer from this world, if nothing short of that will effect the divine purpose in, discipline.
We are in safe and blessed hands. On our part we shall be wise to walk continually in self-judgment, and seek in dependence on God’s Holy Spirit to answer to what we are “in Christ” by a corresponding carefulness of walk, so that we may be indeed in practice what we are in position before God on the ground of what Christ is and has done. Every believer will eventually arrive at this. May we have grace to seek this blessing now.
A. J. Pollock.