Martin Luther understood righteousness (the disciple’s right standing before God) as something God conferred upon the disciple. It was passive righteousness in that the disciple was a passive recipient. Other than belief nothing was required for its activation. Luther based this belief on the story of how Abraham believed God and God reckoned or accounted that (i.e. belief / faith / trust) to him as righteousness (see Genesis 15:6).
The recognition that the grace in which we stand (see Romans 5:1-2) is different from the “stance” we take is important. When we take up a stance or even “take a stand” there can be a sense in which we are trying to position ourselves in such a way that we can gain favor with God or others.
So our discipleship “stance” is really a representation of all the ways we try to activate or earn a right standing before God & others. Here is a brief look at what this looks like within each stance as far as how each disciple seeks to activate righteousness: ONE: by being a good person; TWO: by being a helpful person; THREE: by being a successful person; FOUR: by being a person of depth and distinction; FIVE: by being a knowledgeable person, SIX: by being a vigilant person; SEVEN: by being a joyful person; EIGHT: by being a strong person and NINE: by being a peaceful person.
To be clear it’s not that any one of these ways of being in the world is a bad thing. It’s that the disciple’s unconscious belief that he or she should or must be this way then shapes their thought, feeling or behavior patterns (that are also unconscious). This explains why a disciple holding stance NINE is uncomfortable with being confrontational where as a disciple holding stance EIGHT (perhaps drawing on John 2:15-16; Matthew 10:34 or Luke 12:51) is totally comfortable with confrontation or why a disciple holding stance ONE might be confrontational but because of an internal belief that that’s not what “good” disciples do, feels bad about it.
Each stance is a dance between a vice and a virtue. The God who actives the virtue is ever dancing with us to invite us back to what enneagram teacher Russ Hudson calls “radical surrender to the moment”. So within discipleship stance TWO the vice is pride. Pride is fighting against the moment, the taking up of a “stance” rather than simply standing in grace...in the moment...in presence. Humility is a radical surrender into the grip of God’ grace, the grace in which we stand. God dances with each of us in similar yet uniquely different ways.
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