It is all-important that the believer should be clear as to his standing before God. As long as I make it in any way depend upon my practical condition and ways, it is reversing the order of the truth, and is not possible for me to apprehend it. As a sinner, I am in Adam, under judgment; as a believer, I am in Christ, delivered from judgment, and Christ glorified is the measure of my standing before God.
Now His standing, as the accepted man, can never change, and the Christian is in Him, where He is, a new creation (2 Cor. 5:1717Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)). God has made us accepted in Him, the Beloved (Eph. 1:66To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)). As we have already seen, we are quickened, raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:5, 65Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:5‑6)). And therefore neither our standing nor acceptance before God can ever change.
Further, in 1 John 4:1717Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17), we read, “Herein is our love made perfect” (or, has love been perfected with us), “that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world.”
Knowing these things, what manner of persons ought we to be?
“O!” responds the soul, who is living in the enjoyment of this wondrous portion, “I want to be like Christ now.” This is the natural result. The more simple our faith, and the firmer our grasp of these things, the more earnest will be the soul’s desire that our practical condition and ways should correspond to them. The assurance of them does not lead to license, but rather to purify ourselves, even as Christ is pure.