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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 3:8-9, 18; 5:21; Col. 3:10; 1 Cor. 1:30; 15:34; Rom. 8:2, 4; 14:17; Phil. 1:19; 3:9; Rev. 19:7-8; Eph. 4:24; Matt. 5:6, 10, 20
We need to have a proper definition of righteousness. Unbelievers, of course, do not know the meaning of righteousness in the Bible. But many believers in Christ also do not have a full understanding of the significance of righteousness. Strictly speaking, in the Bible righteousness signifies the expression of God’s image. This means that, according to the Bible, righteousness is God expressed.
How can we say that righteousness in the Bible signifies the expression of God? In order to answer this question, we need to see that in the Word righteousness refers in the first place to the fulfilling of the law. If we keep the law and fulfill it, we are right. We have righteousness. But if we break the law, or if we offend others by breaking the law, we are not right. We do not have righteousness. Hence, the first meaning of righteousness in the Bible is that righteousness is the fulfillment of the law.
The law denotes the Ten Commandments. But what is the significance of the Ten Commandments? The Old Testament indicates clearly that the Ten Commandments are the testimony of God. The ark was called the ark of the testimony (Exo. 25:16), and the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony (Exo. 38:21). The testimony here refers to the law. The law, therefore, is God’s testimony.
As a testimony of God, the Ten Commandments were a picture of God, a description of Him. This means that the law is a clear description, definition, and explanation of God. It reveals what kind of God our God is.
If you study the Ten Commandments, you will see that our God is holy. He is not common. He is separate, different from everything outside of Himself. Therefore, one of the commandments declares that we should have only one God and not make any images or worship idols. Furthermore, we should not take the Lord’s name in vain, and we should recognize that the Sabbath is a day of memorial of God as the unique Creator.
By studying carefully the first four commandments, we see that these commandments indicate that God is jealous. He is jealous because He is holy and unique. The Bible uses the marriage relationship to illustrate God’s uniqueness. Just as a wife has a unique husband, so we, the people of God, should not have any other God. God is our unique Husband, and we should not have another husband besides Him. Just as a woman’s husband is separate from all other men and thus is not common, so God is separate from everything else and is not common. This means that our God is holy.
If we read the last six commandments, we shall see that God is righteous. He is a just God, a God of justice. Furthermore, He is a God of love and of light. Therefore, according to the description of God contained in the Ten Commandments, God is holy and righteous and He is a God of love and light. This is our God.
The last six commandments definitely reveal that God is righteous and a God of love and light. To honor our parents is surely right. It is right not to murder, not to commit fornication, not to steal, not to bear false witness, and not to covet. If we fulfill these commandments, we shall be right with others in society. Moreover, fulfilling these six commandments is also a matter of love. Certainly someone who commits murder does not have love. If you love others, you would not commit fornication, steal, or bear false witness. Neither would you covet others’ possessions. Therefore, the Ten Commandments present a God who is holy and righteous and full of love and light.
If we keep the Ten Commandments, we have righteousness. This righteousness is the expression of God, that is, the image of God. Hence, according to the biblical meaning, righteousness is the keeping of the law to present to others an image, an expression, of God. In this way we make known what kind of God we worship. If we are righteous, full of righteousness, this righteousness becomes the expression of the God we worship and serve.
Suppose someone claims to be of God and says that he worships God and serves Him. However, this person steals, lies, and covets. This would cause others to say that they would never believe in that man’s God. Such a person would give others the wrong impression of God. But suppose we worship God, serve Him, and claim to be of Him. Suppose we also live a life that is holy, separated unto God, and a life that is righteous and full of love and light, a life that is considerate of others. We honor our parents, we do not steal, we do not bear false witness, and we do not covet. In other words, we serve God and worship God and we are also righteous. As a result, we have the expression, the image, of God. Then others will realize that our God is surely the true God. They will have the desire to take this God as their God.
Christ, our precious Redeemer, now dwells within us as the life-giving Spirit to be our life and life supply. Now we have a wonderful motivation and supply in us. As the Spirit, Christ supplies us, motivates us, and even carries us all day long. If we live by Him and live Him out, our living will be genuine righteousness. This righteousness is the living image, the living expression, of God. This is the reason we say that the Spirit is within us as life and that righteousness is the expression outwardly.
The purpose of the ministry of the new covenant is to minister into the saints the life-giving Spirit and righteousness. Both the Spirit and righteousness are actually Christ Himself. Christ living within us is the life-giving Spirit, and Christ expressed through us is righteousness as the image of God. How wonderful!
In 3:8 and 9 Paul speaks first of the Spirit and then of righteousness. In verse 8 he says, “How shall not rather the ministry of the Spirit be in glory?” Here we read of the ministry of the Spirit. In verse 9 Paul goes on to say, “For if the ministry of condemnation came in glory, much rather the ministry of righteousness abounds in glory.” Here we have the ministry of righteousness. This is our reason for saying that the ministry of the new covenant is a ministry of the Spirit and of righteousness.
In 3:18 Paul uses a word which is a synonym of righteousness in 3:9. This word is image. In 3:18 Paul says, “And we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” As we behold and reflect the Lord, we are transformed into His image. This image is synonymous with righteousness in verse 9. Thus, the ministry of righteousness is a ministry of the Lord’s image.
How can we have this image? How can we have a living righteousness which is the image of the Lord? We can have this image, this righteousness, only by the Spirit. According to verse 18, we are transformed into the Lord’s image from glory to glory even as from the Spirit. This means that the source and the substance for this image, this righteousness, is the Spirit. The Spirit within us is the factor that produces the image of God, the righteousness of God as His expression.
I did not arrive at this understanding of the Spirit, righteousness, and the image merely by study. In addition to many years of study, there have also been many years of experience. Through my experience I began to realize that when I am infused with the life-giving Spirit, I spontaneously have a living which is righteous in every way. I do the will of God, and I do not offend others, and I am not wrong with them. When I am saturated with the Spirit, my living becomes the expression of the indwelling Christ. The indwelling Christ lived out by me is righteousness as the expression of God, and this expression is God’s image.
This understanding of righteousness being the image of God is confirmed by Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10. Ephesians 4:24 says, “And have put on the new man, which according to God was created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” Here Paul speaks of righteousness in relation to the new man. In Colossians 3:10 he says, “And having put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him Who created him.” If we put these verses together, we see that the new man is created in the image of God and that with this image there is righteousness. By these verses we realize that the living righteousness is God’s image, God’s expression. This image, this expression, is Christ lived out of us as the life-giving Spirit.
Do you know what the new covenant ministry is? Is this a ministry or service that teaches others to speak in tongues or instructs them to be baptized in a certain way? No, in every aspect and in every way, the new covenant ministry dispenses Christ into us as the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit then becomes the bountiful supply within us. Simultaneously, the new covenant ministry presents Christ to us as righteousness, as the living image of God to be His expression.
We know from the book of Philippians that Paul’s aspiration was to be found in Christ. In Philippians 3:9 Paul declares, “And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God based on faith.” According to this verse, the very Christ in whom Paul desired to be found is the righteousness of God. Paul desired to be found in Christ, not having anything of himself as righteousness, but having Christ as the righteousness of God.
We may illustrate the matter of being found in Christ by the wearing of a certain suit of clothes and being found by others wearing that suit. Suppose I am wearing a gray suit. In the meeting you find me in this suit, and at home you would also find me wearing the same suit of clothing. Because I wear it, wherever you find me, you find me in this suit of clothes. In like manner, if we would be found in Christ, we need to wear the living Christ as our clothing, as our righteousness. This is to be found in Him as the expression of God, His image.
The goal of the new covenant ministry is nothing other than to minister Christ as the life-giving Spirit inwardly and as the living righteousness outwardly. Even though our experience may be somewhat limited, I believe that in the Lord’s recovery the Spirit and the living righteousness have been ministered to us at least on a small scale through the ministry of the new covenant.
Before I came into the church life, I often ministered on such matters as the ten horns, the ten toes, and the seventy weeks. I was fully preoccupied with these matters. In a sense, I was in a spiritual stupor. I certainly needed to “become sober righteously,” as Paul charges the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15:34. When I met other Christians, I would ask them if they knew what the Bible teaches concerning the seventy weeks. If they did not know this, I would take the opportunity to explain it to them. I would also talk a great deal about the rapture. But, thank the Lord, one day I woke up righteously from my stupor, from my drugged condition. Instead of emphasizing things such as the ten horns, the seventy weeks, and the method of baptism, I began to care only for Christ with the church. Now my Bible dictionary consists only of one word — Christ. Along with this unique word, there is a footnote saying “with the church.” Therefore, my Bible dictionary is a dictionary of Christ with the church. I can testify that during all the years I have been in this country, I have not taught anything except Christ with the church. This is the New Testament ministry.
The new covenant ministry is a ministry of Christ. The old covenant ministry, on the contrary, was a ministry of the law. The priests, the kings, and the prophets all ministered the law to the people. Since the law kills, that ministry was a ministry of death. Furthermore, it was also a ministry of condemnation, for anything that is dead is also condemned. Thus, the unique ministry of the old covenant was a ministry of death and condemnation. But today there is also a unique ministry, the ministry of the new covenant. This ministry is a ministry of the Spirit and of righteousness. It is vital that we all see this. Our ministry is not focused on matters such as baptism or speaking in tongues. Our ministry, the ministry of the new covenant, ministers one thing, one matter, one Person — the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit as our life supply inwardly and as our righteousness outwardly. When Christ lives in us, He is our life and life supply. But when we live Him out, He becomes our righteousness. He was made sin for us, and now we are becoming the righteousness of God in Him. This is the ministry of the new covenant.
