CONDITION –Miles Stanford

(Fact pertaining to conditional truth is that it cannot affect positional truth. Fact pertaining to positional truth is that it can affect conditional truth.)

First of all, we must consider the area in which we are not accepted by God, nor ever can be (Rom 8:7: verse insert mine). It is only natural for us to feel that our spiritual walk and service make us acceptable to our Father. We imagine that it is our responsibility (with His help) to live and serve so faithfully and fruitfully that He will approve of us, and therefore continually an abundantly bless us. We are making the natural mistake of depending on condition, instead of position, for our acceptance.

Important as it is, service is often a condition-centered detriment in the lives of many zealous believers. When service is given predominance over fellowship with and growth in the Lord Jesus, doing, instead of being, takes over the life. Fellowship and growth must ever take precedence over service and activity, otherwise spiritual declension sets in.

In this reversal of God’s order for us, the heart seeks satisfaction and a sense of acceptance through production (law), instead of reception (grace). Bible study and prayer, as well as one’s outlook, become almost exclusively service-centered. Instead of life bringing forth service, service becomes the life. Thus, as long as the service goes well, the servant is happy and feels accepted. But once the service wanes or fails to produce results, all else falls with it. We are to be sons, not servants. “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son . . .” (Gal. 4:7).

In time, we begin to realize that there is something very wrong with this entire concept. We become aware that our walk and service are less and less acceptable, even to ourselves. In seeking to do rather that to be, in attempting to give out more than we take in, our condition becomes barren and carnal. We have been depending on self to do what only Christ our life can do; the farther we move on this tangent, the more active and malignant the self-life appears to be.

What the condition-centered believer does not realize is that God Himself is causing this shattering revelation of self. He takes us into situations and relationships that finally cause us to face up to the fact of our failure as Christians ---our nothingness, our total unacceptability in ourselves. Not until we understand we understand that in our flesh (carnal nature: insert mine) there “dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:18), can we rest in our position of complete acceptance in the Lord Jesus, just as we are. To abide in Christ, and consent to be loved while unworthy, is the believer’s positional privilege and responsibility. Love functions according to its nature, not according to the quality of its object.