Positional Truth; 1
Corinthians 1:4
As Paul looks at
this congregation of Corinthians in light of all of their problems, foul-ups,
divisions, argumentativeness and sexual immorality, the first thing out of his mouth
after he gets past the salutation is verse 4: “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was
given you in Christ Jesus.” We need to take some time to look at the structure
here because this helps us to understand what we should be thanking God for.
Scripture tells us in Ephesians 4 that we ought to give thanks for all things, and in 1 Thessalonians
to give thanks in all things. Notice
that when Paul thanks the Lord here he doesn’t thank Him for the screwed-up
Corinthians and their multiple problems. Thanksgiving is not focusing on the
problem but on the God who provides the solution behind the problem.
He begins with the verb EUCHARISTO [e)uxaristw] in
the present active indicative, which indicates a durative action. This is something
that he is doing at the present time but it also has a retroactive emphasis in
that he has been thanking God. It always indicates that this is something that
began with his arrival in
When Paul says, I thank my God
always, this indicates the continuous state of mind of a mature believer as he
is always looking at what God is doing in a situation and not focusing on the
circumstance. He is not thanking God for all their problems, he thanking God
for who God is and what He has provided. “Concerning you” is usually a
construction in the Greek where it uses the preposition PERI [peri] which is equivalent to the preposition HUPER [u(per]. HUPER plus the genitive indicates substitution, as does PERI. These two
prepositions are substitutionary prepositions, and here when it is talking
about prayer it emphasises intercessory prayer. Paul is indicating intercessory
prayer here that is emphasizing substitution. He is giving thanks concerning
them or as a substitute for them. Then the phrase, “for the
grace of God which was given you.” Here we have another Greek preposition,
EPI
[e)pi], which has causal emphasis. It is not a strong cause
but it is the sense of “in reference to.” He is going to pray because of the
grace of God, so his focus is on God’s grace. That is what he is giving thanks
for. Thanksgiving, again, is grace oriented and has to do with what God has
supplied for us even in the midst of difficulty. The more we understand and
appreciate the grace of God and the dimensions of the grace of God the more we
are moved to gratitude. Grace always emphasizes God’s benevolence and not our
merit.
Paul here is not talking
about pre-salvation grace or about salvation grace, he
is talking about the grace package that God gives at the instant of salvation
to every single believer: “which was given you in Christ Jesus.” Irrespective
of how good they are or what they have done God gives a grace package to every
single believer that includes everything that we need potentially to live the
Christian life. Here we have the aorist passive participle of DIDOMI [didomi]. The aorist tense is a culminative
aorist, which indicates that everything has been completed and it was all given
at some time in the past. The aorist tense indicates past action and the
passive voice indicates that this is something that the subject of the verb
receives and did not give himself. So again it emphasizes grace, that grace is
based on who God is and what He decides to give, and
it is not based on who and what we are. This is a key verb an when we see it we
should always think in terms of God’s grace and benevolence. “Which was given
to you” is a dative of advantage, it is given for
their advantage so that they can advance to spiritual maturity. “In Christ
Jesus” is the key phrase in this section, the Greek preposition EN [e)n] plus the dative of sphere, or dative of association
more specifically. It indicates the doctrine of positional truth.
So at the very beginning of
the introduction to this epistle Paul doesn’t start off and say, Oh it is too
bad you have these divisions, let’s figure out what the personality problems
are, let’s try to get everybody together. He says we are going to start with
who and what we are in Jesus Christ—positional truth. That is the foundation
for being able to understand how to handle the problem. When Paul is going to
address the marriage problem, the morality problem, the behaviour problems in
The doctrine of positional truth
1)
Positional truth
has to do with our legal standing before God. That is why it is called
positional. Therefore the term positional truth is equivalent to the term
positional sanctification. Positional truth is the foundational reality for the
spiritual life. Positional truth is
defined as uniting the believer with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection
and ascension. So there is a legal uniting of the believer with Christ at the
instant of salvation. There is an identification of the believer with Christ’s death,
and because of that identification we are dead to the sin nature. It is still
there but is no longer the tyrant it was before. The burial and resurrection
have to do with the fact that we are given new life in Christ and new abilities
and potentialities in Christ. The ascension is important because that is when
Christ was accepted in heaven and was seated at the right hand of the Father.
So we are accepted by God at the instant of salvation based not on who and what
we are but on who and what Jesus Christ is. That is our starting point.
2)
The mechanics of
how positional truth is accomplished is by the baptism by means of the Holy Spirit. There are two spheres of relationship that
we talk about in the spiritual life. There are eternal realities and there are
temporal realities. The eternal realities are what under gird
the temporal realities of our spiritual life. In order top understand the
temporal realities we have to understand the eternal realities. At the moment
of salvation we are baptized by the Holy Spirit which means that we are placed in Christ, we are identified with Him in
His death, burial and resurrection.
3)
Positional
truth guarantees the believer’s eternal security—Romans 8:38, 39 NASB
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
4)
Positional truth
belongs to all categories of believers—reversionists,
immature believers, spiritually mature believers and carnal believers. It is
the ultimate reality that under girds everything in the spiritual life. There
is noth9ng that you or I can do that can reverse what happened at the point of
salvation with regard to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. People who say that
you can lose your salvation are in effect saying that you can be baptized by
the Holy Spirit, identified with Christ, and then lose it, then get it back,
and then lose it. It shows that they don’t have a clue what baptism by the Holy
Spirit means or what identification with Christ means.
5)
Positional truth
qualifies the believer to live with God forever because the believer’s sins
have been paid for and at the instant of salvation he is given the perfect
righteousness of Christ and eternal life—1 John
6)
Positional truth
creates a new creature in Christ—2 Corinthians
7)
Positional truth
is the basis for spiritual growth. It is the production of divine good as the
result of spiritual growth, and it is a pattern of life that is compatible with
royalty. We are now members of the royal family of God, we are royal priests,
and the basis for that new life comes by our position in Christ—Ephesians
8)
Positional truth,
then, is the basis for grace blessing. It is our position in Christ that is why
we are blessed by grace, not anything that we do. It is the association with
Christ that is the basis for all grace blessing after salvation—Ephesians 1:3-6.