One of the most absurd doctrines I’ve ever encountered is “positional sanctification.” A friend, supposedly a Christian, described it to me: We live in this world, as in a deep, narrow channel, with our sins. God looks down from above and does not see our sins but only the righteousness he has given us through Jesus.

This piece of fiction is blasphemous: God sees everything, and it’s beyond absurdity to contend that he doesn’t. When I heard this nonsense from my friend, I concluded that his was a case of willful blindness.

The website I visited to learn more about this quoted Eph. 2:4-10 to support it: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

But actually there isn’t anything in this passage that argues for being stuck in sin for term of life. George Fox and the other early Quakers knew that “when we were dead in trespasses” didn’t mean we are to remain dead during all our time on this earth.

Equally, the reference to works, while misused by the contenders for “positional sanctification,” can also be interpreted to mean that the good behavior God expects of us arises from “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” When we listen, he gives us the power to obey.

It’s a cautionary tale about how Scripture can be twisted to support almost any lie, no matter how far-fetched.