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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:6
We have previously seen how God's salvation is based on righteousness. Now we will see how God makes Christ our righteousness. Righteousness is particularly related to God. If we do not intend to come to God, nothing more needs to be said. But if we want to come to God, we have to take care of the matter of righteousness. If a man does not have righteousness, he will not dare to see God's face. After Adam and Eve fell, they hid themselves among the trees and ran from Jehovah's face when they heard His voice because they were naked. Once a man hears God's voice, even if he has not seen His face, he will immediately feel his nakedness; he will feel that he cannot see God without a covering (Gen. 3:7-8). In the Bible righteousness is signified by a garment. Righteousness is like a garment; we can only see God when we put on this garment.
We have been baptized, and we are in Christ. But we have to pay attention to one question: since the day we belonged to Christ, what has been the means by which we come to God? On what basis do we come before Him? What should we wear when we come to God? Our sins are forgiven and washed away, but we still need a garment. Righteousness is not a negative problem; it is not merely related to sin or to our forgiveness. Righteousness is a positive matter; it is a matter of how we come before God. We must deal thoroughly with the matter of righteousness.
As a Christian, surely you pray. Have you ever wondered if God would answer your prayer? Why do you sometimes doubt that God will answer your prayers? It is because you feel that you are wrong, that you have this and that kind of defect, and that if you come to God, all the defects will be exposed. Either we do not pray at all, or we pray with all these questions coming into our mind. On what basis do we come to God? Either we do not pray at all, or we pray and immediately wonder how we can come to God. We must be covered by something before we can come boldly before God. This is a question of righteousness. It is a question of what we put on when we come before God.
What is the basis for us to come to God? What do we have that will satisfy God? God will not gloss over our sins; He has to examine us to the extent that He Himself is satisfied. Every time we come to God, we need righteousness. When we stand before God, we need to present to Him righteousness. Whether we have boldness before Him and whether we are strong or weak before Him depend on whether or not we have righteousness before Him. If we do not have righteousness, we are afraid of being seen by Him; we are afraid that once He examines us more carefully He will see our lack. If we do not have righteousness, all our boldness is gone, and inwardly we shrivel. But if we have righteousness, and if our righteousness is such that even God can say nothing, we will have boldness to come to Him, and we will dare to pray to Him. We must remember that a basic condition for prayer is boldness. Without boldness we cannot pray. If we are not bold, we cannot come before God. The necessary condition for coming to God is boldness. Boldness is being able to stand before God and being confident that He will not find any fault in us no matter how hard He searches. Without this, we cannot pray to Him with boldness, and we cannot even be a Christian.
The question now is with what kind of righteousness can we come before God. In other words, what kind of righteousness is acceptable to God. We have to be clear that the righteousness we are speaking of is different from the righteousness mentioned in the last chapter. Chapter one speaks of the relationship between righteousness and sins; it speaks of the relationship between God's righteousness and our sin. The righteousness spoken of here is something we offer to God to satisfy Him when we come before Him. This is where the problem of most people lies. Yesterday they prayed before God, and they were bold because they preached the gospel twice, read five chapters of the Bible, and were in an upbeat mood before the Lord. When they felt that they were good and doing well, they thought that they had righteousness, and they were bold. But the strange thing is that their "righteousness" is like malaria; sometimes it is feverish, and sometimes it is chilling. Yesterday it seemed hot, but today it becomes cold. Yesterday their interest in reading the Bible was high, but today their interest is gone. Yesterday there was the zeal to preach the gospel, but today there is no interest in talking to people anymore. Any preaching seems senseless and does not do much good. As a result, when such a person prays today, he does not feel as invigorated as he did yesterday. When he comes to God today, he only considers the fact that he has not studied the Bible well and testified well and that his living is not proper. He feels that something is wrong within himself. He thinks that God will not answer his prayer today. Do you see this? This kind of "righteousness" is fluctuating and vacillating; it is good for two days and not good for two days. It is down for two days and up for two days.
If our righteousness is fluctuating and vacillating, our Christian life before God will also be fluctuating and vacillating. One day we will be very bold before the Lord, and the next day we will become very timid. One day we will feel that God will surely answer us when we pray, and the next day we will feel that God will not answer us. Sometimes we can stand before God with boldness, while at other times we cannot stand before Him with boldness. We fluctuate and vacillate this way because we are coming to God according to our own conduct and our own "righteousness." If our conduct is good, we feel more at ease before God. But if our conduct is not so good, our hearts become cold towards the Lord. Our life before the Lord is like a flickering candle in the face of the wind; sometimes we feel good, and sometimes we feel terrible. Sometimes we can pray, and sometimes we cannot pray. Sometimes we feel invigorated, and sometimes we feel dejected. This is because our conduct is fluctuating. Sometimes it is up, and sometimes it is down. Sometimes it is hot, and sometimes it is cold. Sometimes it is bright, and sometimes it is dark.
What then should be our righteousness? This is a very basic lesson for us as Christians. We have to learn this lesson well, and we have to learn it from its very foundation. What is our righteousness? We have to realize that in giving us salvation, God not only solved the problem of sin, but the problem of righteousness as well. God forgave our sins according to righteousness, and at the same time, He has prepared a righteousness for us so that we can come to Him by this righteousness. Forgiveness is like taking a bath, while righteousness is like putting on clothes. We put on clothes in order to live before men. God gave us righteousness in order to live before Him, that is, so that we can see God. Thank the Lord that God has washed away our sins and clothed us with righteousness so that we can live before Him.
What is our righteousness? God's Word tells us that our righteousness is Christ, that is, the Lord Jesus Himself. First Corinthians 1:30 says, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption." We will not speak of the other aspects; we will only concentrate on one aspect — God has made Christ our righteousness.
Before speaking on Christ being our righteousness, we have to mention the difference between the righteousness of Christ and Christ being our righteousness. These are two entirely different things. It is wrong to take Christ's righteousness as our righteousness. Christ's righteousness cannot become our righteousness. It is Christ Himself who becomes our righteousness.
Second Peter 1:1 says, "The righteousness of our God and Savior." This refers to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Himself. If the Lord Jesus did not have righteousness, He would not be qualified to be our Savior, and we could not be saved. The righteousness of the Lord Jesus was for Himself alone and is not for us. The Bible does not say that the righteousness of the Lord Jesus saved us. The righteousness of the Lord Jesus only qualified Him to save us. His righteousness belongs to Him alone. His righteousness cannot be counted as our righteousness. The righteousness of the Lord Jesus is the righteousness lived out by Him as a man. This is His personal attribute before God. This righteousness is His own conduct; it cannot be given to us. The righteousness of the Lord Jesus is something He did in Himself. It is absolutely His, and it has absolutely nothing to do with us. This is why the Bible never says that we are "in Jesus." When He was Jesus, He was God's only begotten Son. He was not the firstborn Son, and we were not the many sons. We still had nothing to do with Him. We have to remember that our union with Him did not begin while He was on earth, but while He was on the cross. Before the cross, everything that the Lord had was His alone, and we did not have any part in it. After the grain of wheat fell into the ground and died, it bore many grains. After the Lord Jesus died, we the many grains were produced. Our union with the Lord Jesus began from His death, not from His birth. Golgotha is the starting point of our union with Him. We were not joined to Him at Bethlehem. Before Golgotha, men only saw His righteousness, but could not participate in His righteousness. The Bible shows us from the beginning to the end that in God's eyes, we are not saved by the righteousness of Christ; we do not become a righteous man through Christ's righteousness. We become a righteous man through Christ Himself.
Some have asked, "Does not the Bible say that God has given us the Lord Jesus' robe of righteousness?" We have to ask, "Does God's Word say that He has given us the Lord Jesus' robe of righteousness, or does it say that God has given the Lord Jesus to us as a robe of righteousness?" In other words, are we putting on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, or are we putting on the Lord Jesus Himself? If we study God's Word, we will find that it never says that we put on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus; it only says that we put on the Lord Jesus. God has given us the Lord Jesus as a robe of righteousness; we are putting on the Lord Jesus as a person. This is why God's Word says, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 13:14). God's Word does not say that we have to put on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. It says that we have to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, we see a most interesting and special thing: our righteousness before God is not the conduct of the Lord Jesus on earth; our righteousness before God is the Lord Jesus, a living person. We come to God today because we have put on the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is our righteousness. This righteousness is not the righteousness that the Lord Jesus had. It is the Lord Jesus Himself. We can have this righteousness all the time before God because the Lord Jesus lives forever. We can be bold before God all the time, because we have the Lord Jesus as our righteousness.
If our righteousness before God is our conduct, we can never be secure, because our conduct can be good at times and bad at other times. Even if our conduct is good, this goodness is limited and can never come up to God's standard. But thank the Lord that our righteousness before God is not our conduct, but Christ. Therefore, we cannot be shaken before God. We may not be too strong today and may not be too good. Satan will come and say that we are worth nothing and that God does not want us. What should we say? We should say, "Satan, you have forgotten that my righteousness before God is not my good conduct yesterday; neither is it my not-so-good conduct today. My righteousness before God is Christ. If Christ has not changed, my righteousness has not changed either." If we are putting on our own garment, it will be torn and ragged, and we will not see God. But we can put on Christ and have the boldness to come to God. This is salvation, and this is liberation. This is the foundation of all Christian teachings.
If we ask a brother who knows God's Word, "Will your righteousness ever fail?", he will say no. If we ask, "Will your conduct ever fail?", he will say yes. Have you seen this? His righteousness will not fail, but his conduct will fail. His righteousness is not his conduct. If his righteousness is his conduct, his righteousness will surely fail when his conduct fails. Thank the Lord that his righteousness is not his conduct, which can fail; his righteousness is the Christ who can never fail. Thank the Lord that Christ can never fail, and as such, our righteousness will never fail. Our righteousness will never fail inasmuch as Christ will never fail. This seems to be a very bold statement, but this is God's Word. Our righteousness is Christ. He will not fail; therefore, our righteousness will never fail.
Some may then ask, "Does this mean that it no longer matters if our conduct is good or bad?" Certainly not. We see from the Bible that Christians have two garments. One is the Lord Jesus, as mentioned above. The Lord Jesus is our garment; He is our righteousness. The other is the bright and clean fine linen mentioned in Revelation 19:8. This fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints. Note that righteousnesses here is plural; it is individual righteous acts. Of course, all the good conduct and outward righteousness of a Christian come by grace. They are the result of the work of the Holy Spirit in man; they are not things that man possesses by his natural disposition. When we come before God, the Lord Jesus is our garment; He is our righteousness. We are not naked; we come to God by putting on Christ. On the other hand, when we appear before the judgment seat of Christ, we must have our own righteousnesses, which are the righteous acts of the saints (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Cor. 4:5). In this chapter we are speaking of Christ as our righteousness. This does not refer to the righteous acts which believers have in themselves.
There is a precious word in the Old Testament: "Jehovah our righteousness" (Jer. 23:6; 33:16). Jehovah is our righteousness. Hence, our righteousness is not our conduct. May the Lord truly open our eyes to see that this is the gospel; this is the foundation of the gospel. When we come to God, our righteousness is not our conduct; Christ is our righteousness. Jehovah is our righteousness. We come to God by Christ. What can be more secure and unshakable than Christ?
Every time we come to God, we have to remember that Christ is our righteousness. Hallelujah, Christ is our righteousness! If we see that Christ is our righteousness, we can stand boldly before God. When we come to Him, we should say to Him like a child, "I have come to You today with Christ on me. Look." When God looks at us again and again, He will find no fault in us. The more He looks at this garment, the more He will find it perfect. This is because Christ is faultless; He is perfect.
Ephesians 1:6 says, "...His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved." We are accepted in the Beloved. God accepted His Beloved, and we are accepted by God in His Beloved. When we are accepted in the Beloved, we are accepted as the Beloved is accepted. When we are accepted in the Beloved, God accepts us as much as He has accepted His own Son. He accepts those who are in the Beloved in the same way that He has accepted His Beloved. Whatever position the Beloved has, those who are in Him share the same. This is most glorious.
When Balak asked Balaam to curse God's people the Israelites, what did Balaam say when he tried to do so? He said, "He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob;/Nor has He seen trouble in Israel./Jehovah their God is with them,/And the shout of a king is among them" (Num. 23:21). Although Balaam was a greedy prophet, he was not speaking from himself. God made Balaam say that He beheld no iniquity in Jacob or trouble in Israel. Balaam could only speak as God told him to speak. In contrast, when the Israelites heard the bad news from the spies and murmured against God, He told them, "Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were numbered of you, all who were counted, from twenty years old and above, who have murmured against Me, shall by no means come into the land in which I solemnly swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun" (14:29-30). As far as their conduct was concerned, they had definitely sinned. We have also definitely sinned. Do not think that the Israelites were good and without sin because of Balaam's words. God did not say that the Israelites had good conduct. He was merely saying that there was a righteousness with the Israelites. Through the sacrifice that they had offered, and through the righteousness of the sacrifice, God beheld no iniquity in Jacob and no trouble in Israel. We know that the sacrifice typifies the Lord Jesus Christ. We can come boldly to God because we are in Christ and because we are accepted in the Beloved. Our righteousness before God is as perfect as Christ's. Since Christ is our righteousness, God can find no sin in us. When we accept the Lord Jesus as our Savior, God sees us as if we have never sinned. We must never have the thought that we are still a sinner and cannot be sure of our position before God, even though our sins have been forgiven by the Lord. We must not think that we still have a trace of sin and cannot be at peace, even though our past sins have been forgiven through the Lord Jesus. Thank God that He has put us into Christ; we can stand before Him as if we have never sinned. Christ is our righteousness. This is why God could say that He beheld no iniquity in Jacob and no trouble in Israel. If we come to God by Christ, will we not have boldness?
We lose our boldness in coming to God because we have looked at ourselves. We are afraid of seeing God because we have not looked at Christ. If we see only Christ, not ourselves, we will be bold every time we come to God. Christ will never fail; therefore, we can never be wrong before God. Thank God that our righteousness is not vacillating; our righteousness is forever unshakable. Our conduct can fluctuate, and our life can rise and ebb, but our righteousness before God can never fluctuate, vacillate, or rise and ebb. If anyone asks us if Christian conduct, zeal, and love can change, we answer yes. If we say no, we are deceiving ourselves. But our righteousness can never change because our righteousness is Christ. It is impossible for Him to change. God's Word is very clear concerning this.
First Corinthians 1:30 says, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became...to us from God...righteousness." When the Lord resurrected to become the Christ, God put us in Him so that He became our righteousness, and we put Him on as our righteousness. This is why our righteousness before God never changes. Since He is forever perfect and unchanging, we can come to God with boldness daily.
May God open our eyes to see that just as we could not trust in our conduct for salvation, we cannot trust in our conduct for coming to God after we become a Christian. This does not mean that we can be loose in our conduct. We will speak of this in the next chapter. In this chapter, we are dealing with the means by which we come to God. Our means of coming to God is Christ as our righteousness. We come to God by Christ. This is forever unshakable; it is forever sure. Hallelujah! Praise our Lord!
God's Christ, who is my righteousness,
My beauty is, my glorious dress;
Midst flaming worlds, in this arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.
Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
Which, at the mercy seat of God,
Forever doth for sinners plead,
For me, e'en for my soul, was shed.
Lord, I believe were sinners more
Than sands upon the ocean shore,
Thou hast for all a ransom paid,
For all a full redemption made.
Bold can I stand in every way,
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully, by Thee, absolved I am
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.
This spotless robe the same appears,
When ruined nature sinks in years;
No age can change its glorious hue,
Its glory is forever new.
Thou God of power, Thou God of love,
Let all Thy saints Thy mercy prove;
Our beauty this, our glorious dress,
Jesus the Lord, our Righteousness.
[Hymn #295]
