Take a seat: Discovering your position in Christ

In our last post, we reflected on some of the core truths about our identity in Christ. In this post, I'd like to draw your attention to an old (but powerful) little book by Watchman Nee, it is called Sit, Walk, Stand. 

I was first introduced to this Bible teacher, and this book, through a sermon preached by pastor John Fletcher (Living Word Church, Paisley) when he was a guest speaker at Living Waters Church, Paisley. The message made such an impact upon me, that I devoured any of Nee's books whenever I got the chance (this was in the days before one-click purchase Amazon was available -- even the internet wasn't really a widespread thing. 

Nee's books helped me a lot as a young believer because they helped me grasp something of the power and simplicity of God's grace. I saw that faith in God's grace was they key, not only to walking with a clear conscience, but also the key to overcoming sin. 

If you are interested, you can buy the book here, or you can even read it online for free, here. 

Here is the opening section for chapter one. 

THE GOD of our Lord Jesus Christ, . . . raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above 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 ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory” (2:6–9).

God . . . made him to sit . . . and made us to sit with him.” Let us first consider the implications of this word “sit.” As we have said, it reveals the secret of a heavenly life. Christianity does not begin with walking; it begins with sitting. The Christian era began with Christ, of whom we are told that, 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 that is a reversal of the true order. Our natural reason says, If we do not walk, how can we ever reach the goal? What can we attain without effort? How can we ever get anywhere if we do not move?

But Christianity is a queer business! If at the outset 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. Thus, Ephesians 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 at the very outset to sit down and enjoy what God has done for us—not to set out to try and attain it for ourselves.