THE PRINCIPLE OF POSITION
Miles J. Stanford
All spiritual life and growth is based upon the principle of position.
It can be summed up in one word: SOURCE.
Through physical birth we entered our human family position, from which source we derive certain characteristics. We are the product of our position. Just so in our spiritual birth. When we are born again, the risen Lord Jesus is the source of our Christian life; in Him we are positioned before our Father, in whom
“we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28),
“for we are His workmanship created [born anew] in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:10).
Our Father, in redeeming and recreating us,
“raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6, ASV).
OUR POSITION, the source of our Christian life, is perfect. It is eternally established in the Father’s presence. When we received the Lord Jesus as our personal Savior, the Holy Spirit caused us to be born into Him. He created us in the position that was established through His work at Calvary.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [creation]” (2 Cor. 5:17).
This is the eternal position in which every believer has been placed, whether he is aware of it or not. The Christian who comes to see his position in the Lord Jesus begins to experience the benefit of all that he is in Him. His daily state is developed from the source of his eternal standing.
OUR CONDITION is what we are in our Christian walk, in which we develop from infancy to maturity. Although our position remains immutable, our condition is variable. Through the exercise of faith, our eternal position (source) affects our daily condition, but in no way does our condition affect that heavenly position.
“If [since] ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1).
“Be strong in the Lord—be empowered through your union with Him; draw your strength from Him” (Eph. 6:10, Amp.).
When we concentrate upon our condition, we are not living by faith but by feelings and appearances. The inevitable result is that we become increasingly self-conscious and self-centered. Our prime responsibility is to pay attention to the Lord Jesus, to rest (abided) in Him as our position. There will then be growth, and He will be more and more manifested in our condition.
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).
If the believer does not know of his position in the Lord Jesus. and how to abide in Him as his very life, there will be but one result. He will struggle in his un-Christlike condition rather than rest in his Christ-centered position.
In most cases, a believer is more aware of his condition than of his position. This is the reason for so much failure and stagnation. If we are to grow and become fruitful, our faith must be anchored in the finished work of our position—in Christ. There is no basis for faith in our changeable, unfinished condition.
“…Your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:5).
Scriptural, fact-centered faith in the Lord Jesus as our position before the Father is the one means of experiencing that finished work in the growth of our daily condition. Spiritual birth placed us in our accepted position, from which our spiritual condition is being completed, by faith.
“…Created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
Every Christian has been positioned forever in the risen Lord by spiritual birth. But only the believer who knows, grows. It is faith in the facts of our position that gives us the daily benefits of growth in our condition. If the believer is not clearly aware of the specific truths of the Word, he cannot exercise the necessary faith for growth and service. He can only seek his resources in the realm of self. Some of the wonderful positional truths are set forth for our faith in the scriptural illustrations of the grain of wheat, and the vine and the branch.
The Grain of Wheat
In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus said,
“Except a corn (grain) of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
This principle of life out of death was then established at Calvary’s Cross, where He, as the Grain of Wheat, died and rose again. In His resurrection He brought forth the “much fruit” out of His death.
Everyone who would ever place his trust in Christ as Savior, every grain of wheat, was resident in (identified with) the Grain of Wheat, the Head of the new spiritual harvest.
Every believer is included in the “much fruit” of His death and resurrection.
“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Rom. 6:5).
The Principle of Reproduction
There is another wonderful principle involved here: like produces like.
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind” (Gen. 1:11, italics mine).
Our Lord Jesus, as the Grain of Wheat having fallen into the ground in death, and having risen again unto life eternal, is still bringing forth the “much fruit,” “after his kind.”
“For whom he [God] did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29, italics mine).
The Lord Jesus is our life; therefore, as we grow spiritually, the family likeness is manifested. We are gradually conformed to His image, who Himself is the
“express image of his [God’s] person” (Heb. 1:3). And,
“when he shall appear, we shall be [completely] like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
In the natural realm, the first grain of wheat contained, complete and perfect, the life of every subsequent grain of wheat to this day. It did not abide alone, retaining all, but fell into the ground and died, finding resurrection in the “much fruit” of life out of death. This same principle applies in the spiritual realm. The position, the source of life, of every believer as a grain of wheat, is God’s firstborn Grain of Wheat, our Lord Jesus Christ. Each of us is “after his kind”; we have His life. Thus, when we speak of our position, we refer to our place in the risen Lord—our
“life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).
The principle of position, therefore, both natural and spiritual, is that life in its fullness and completeness is resident in the source, and is transmitted through birth and growth. Resurrection life is explicitly after its kind; it is “conformed to the image” of its positional source. The Lord Jesus Christ as the Father’s Grain of Wheat took our place at Calvary, and His death and resurrection brought forth the “much fruit” of similar grains of wheat, believers predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s Son.
- There is a stillness in the Christian’s life:
- The grain of wheat must fall into the ground
- And die, then, if it die out of that death
- Life, fullest life, will blessedly abound.
- It is a mystery no words can tell,
- But known to those who in this stillness rest;
- Something divinely incomprehensible:
- That for my nothingness, I get God’s best!
—Selected
The Vine and the Branch
Consistent with the principle of position and the principle of reproduction, our risen Lord Jesus is the Vine. As such, He brings forth fruit “after his kind.”
“I am the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for
without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).
In the natural realm, the life that is already complete in the vine is increasingly supplied to the growing branches. The healthy condition of the branches is contingent upon their abiding in their position in the vine. The branch is not only a product and a living part of the vine, but that which is produced in the branch is also the fruit of the vine. Actually, the branch produces nothing, either for the vine, for others, or for itself. The vine, the positional source, has everything to do with the development and fruitfulness of all its branches. The chief responsibility of the branch is to rest just where it was born, to abide in its living position in its living source.
As the believer rests in his position, the life of the Vine (the “fruit of the Spirit”) is manifested in his condition—
“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22, 23, NASB).
The life of the Vine is the life of the branch. The True Vine is established at the right hand of our Father in glory and is the source from which our Christian life flows. The indwelling Spirit of Christ is the living link between Him in heaven and our spirit here on earth.
“…He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17).
Taking Our Position
We take our position, not by attempting to get into it, but simply by seeing that we are already positioned in the Lord Jesus. We abide in Him by resting in the fact. We have been in this risen position ever since our new birth. As we come to realize this truth and to “stand in our standing” in Him, we begin to experience the daily benefits of our life that is hid with Christ in God. Our attitude becomes, “I see my position in the Lord Jesus, and I abide there; I rest in Him, not only as my Savior, but as my life.” Faith in our position will bring growth in our condition.
Paul prayed for believers,
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:17, 18).
He also said,
“Blessed be … God … who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3, ASV, italics mine).
Our Father intends us to know and understand that He has already provided, in Christ our life, everything required for our Christian life both in time and eternity. He is patiently teaching us to have no faith in the old man (self), and to exercise all of our faith in the new Man (Christ). We are told to do in faith what our Father has already done in fact.
At the cross He freed us from the reign of sin and self; in the resurrection He united us to the risen Lord Jesus. By faith in the work of the cross, the old man is put off; by faith in our heavenly position in Christ, the new man is put on. Hence we are free to dwell within the very Source of every spiritual blessing with which our Father has blessed us.
By reckoning the old man to have been crucified at Calvary, he is “put off’ daily (Rom. 6:11a). By reckoning ourselves as newly created in the risen Lord Jesus, we “put on” the new man (Rom. 6:11b). As we escape self’s reign of death, we enter into Christ’s reign of life.
1. Put off the Old
a. Fact
“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him” (Rom. 6:6, ASV). “…seeing that ye have put off the old man” (Col. 3:9). Positionally, we were separated from the old Adamic nature in our identification with Christ on the Cross.
b. Faith
“That ye put off concerning the former conversation (manner of life) the old man” (Eph. 4:22). By faith in our new, sanctified position, we turn from, we reckon as crucified, the principle of sin and self within. We count ourselves to be new creations in Christ, having died to sin and self. That is our part in putting off the old man that God put off from us at the Cross.
2. Put On the New
Also see: Position-Condition, Chapter 1 of THE RED LETTERS.a. Fact
“For as many of you as have been baptized [spiritually] into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Col. 3:10). At our new birth we were recreated in Christ, and our Christian life is now hid with Him in God (Col. 3:3, 4).
b. Faith
“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:14). “…Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:24). By faith in the positional fact that our Father has placed us in His Son, we abide in Him, we acknowledge our place in Him. By faith, we stand in the position He has already given us. “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth” (Eph. 6:14).