Sit, Walk, Stand: The Process of Christian Maturity by Watchman Nee Page A
Authors: Watchman Nee
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” (2:6)
2. Our Life in the World—“W ALK ” (4:1)
3. Our Attitude to the Enemy—“S TAND ” (6:11)
The life of the believer always presents these three aspects—to God, to man and to the Satanic powers. To be useful in God’s hand, a man must be properly adjusted with respect to all three: his position, his life and his warfare. He falls short of God’s requirements if he underestimates the importance of any one of them, for each is a sphere in which God would express “the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (1:6).
We will take, then, these three words—“Sit,” “Walk,” “Stand”—as guides to the teaching of the epistle and as the text for its present message to our hearts. We shall find it most instructive to note both the order and the connection in which they come.
1
Sit
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).
G od . . . 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 aman “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.
Walking implies effort, whereas God says that we are saved, not by works, but “by grace . . . through faith” (2:8). We constantly speak of being “saved through faith,” but what do we mean by it? We mean this: that we are saved by reposing in the Lord Jesus. We did nothing whatever 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, but upon what He had done. Until a man does this, he is no Christian. For to say, “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.
The Christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus. There is no limit to the grace God is willing to bestow upon us. He will give us everything, but we can receive none of it except as we rest in Him. “Sitting” is an attitude of rest. Something has been finished, work stops and we sit. It is paradoxical, but true, that we only advance in the Christian life as we learn first of all to sit down.
What does it really mean
2. Our Life in the World—“W ALK ” (4:1)
3. Our Attitude to the Enemy—“S TAND ” (6:11)
The life of the believer always presents these three aspects—to God, to man and to the Satanic powers. To be useful in God’s hand, a man must be properly adjusted with respect to all three: his position, his life and his warfare. He falls short of God’s requirements if he underestimates the importance of any one of them, for each is a sphere in which God would express “the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (1:6).
We will take, then, these three words—“Sit,” “Walk,” “Stand”—as guides to the teaching of the epistle and as the text for its present message to our hearts. We shall find it most instructive to note both the order and the connection in which they come.
1
Sit
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).
G od . . . 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 aman “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.
Walking implies effort, whereas God says that we are saved, not by works, but “by grace . . . through faith” (2:8). We constantly speak of being “saved through faith,” but what do we mean by it? We mean this: that we are saved by reposing in the Lord Jesus. We did nothing whatever 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, but upon what He had done. Until a man does this, he is no Christian. For to say, “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.
The Christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus. There is no limit to the grace God is willing to bestow upon us. He will give us everything, but we can receive none of it except as we rest in Him. “Sitting” is an attitude of rest. Something has been finished, work stops and we sit. It is paradoxical, but true, that we only advance in the Christian life as we learn first of all to sit down.
What does it really mean
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