Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
5/17/2022
You need not plead with God for this gift.
We live in a world where everything seems to center around what we do…what we achieve…how we can improve and succeed. It makes it impossible to get our head around the fact that life with Jesus Christ as Lord doesn’t mean that. And sadly it cripples our testimony, our faith, and our victories.
I reread a very old book by Watchman Nee on the powerful book of Epistles.
I want to touch on the 1st of the three subdivisions. Ep 1:1 – 3:21 Setting forth the believer’s position in Christ.
"The God of our Lord Jesus Christ raised him from the dead and made him to SIT at his right hand in the heavenly place, far about all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come". Eph 1:17-21
"And raised US up WITH him and MADE us to SIT with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus… for by grace have you been saved through faith; for by grace have you been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: It is the gift of God: not of works, that no man should glory.”
Eph 2:6-9
I want to go a little deeper today, but this is so critical that we understand our position in Christ. So stay with me. “God the father…made him to Sit – (Jesus)… and made us to Sit with him.”
Let’s consider the implications of the word “Sit”. It reveals the secret of a heavenly life. He said, Christianity doesn’t begin with walking; it begins with sitting. The Christian era began with Christ, when he had made purification of sins, he “SAT down on the right hand of the Majesty on High” Heb 1:3
With equal truth, we can say that the individual Christian life begins with a man “in Christ – that is to say when by faith we see ourselves Seated Together with him in the heavens.
Most Christians make the mistake of trying to walk in order to be able to sit. But when you stop to think of what was just said, that is not so. Our natural reason says if we do not walk, how can we reach our goal? What, can we attain without effort? But here is the trap for all of us. Christianity is so hard to comprehend because it defy ’s logic and reason in this area.
Consider this, if at the onset we try to do anything, we get nothing:
If we seek to attain something, we miss everything.
For Christianity begins not with a big DO, but with a big DONE.
Please, please let that sink in or you will miss the basis of our life here. Ephesian opens with the statement that God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (1:3) AND we are invited from the outset to SIT DOWN and enjoy what God has done for us:
Not to set out to try and attain it for ourselves.
Walking,… doing…implies effort, whereas God says that we are saved, not by works, but “by grace”…through faith. (2:8) But what exactly does that mean?
Well, we did nothing, whatsoever, to save ourselves; we simply laid upon him the burden of our sin-sick souls. We began our Christian life by depending NOT upon our own doing, of walking and striving and earning through some sense of goodness…NO, but upon what He has done!
Understand this…until a person does this… they are no Christian. We must know, and understand that by saying; "I can do nothing to save myself; but by his grace, God has done everything for me in Christ” Is to take the first step in the life of Faith. Our life as a Christian from start to finish is based upon his principle of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus.
Lastly, there is no limit to the grace God is willing to bestow on us. He has given us everything, be we can receive none of it, except as we rest in him. “Sitting” is an attitude of rest. It is Finished! … Past tense…it is already done… work stops, and we sit. It is paradoxical, but true, that we only advance in the Christan life as we learn first of all to sit down. Meaning to place our whole weight, our load, ourselves, our future…everything-upon the Lord. We let him bear the responsibility and cease to carry it ourselves.
This is the Gospel… the redemption story and we can do nothing whatever to merit it but can only enter by faith directly into the values of his finished work. HIS FINISHED WORK.
Our Christian life begins with the discovery of what God has provided.
Tomorrow we will pursue this thinking further and see the range of His finished work.
Loren Daigle Rescue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYR0xP1j4PY
Excerpts taken from Watchman Nee's book Sit Walk Stand 1957
