Scripture Reading: Isa. 42:5-7; 49:6, 8-9a; Rom. 10:3; 3:21-22; Gal. 2:16, 21; 12, Rom. 5:16, 18, 21a; John 5:24; Rom. 5:18; 8:17a; Gal. 3:29b; Acts 26:18; Eph. 2:5; John 1:12-13; Rom. 8:15; Titus 3:5; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29, 30b; Matt. 26:28; Heb. 7:22; 9:15-17; John 9:5; 1:4, 9; 8:12; Heb. 7:16b; 2 Tim. 1:10b; 12, 1 Tim. 6:19; Rev. 21:2-3, 9-11, 18-23; 22:1-5; Zech. 12:1; Rom. 8:4b; Rev. 1:10a; 2 Tim. 4:22; Isa. 12:3-4
In this message I would like to say more concerning Christ as the covenant and the light to God's chosen people. Why did Christ need to be given to us by God as a covenant? What is the significance of this? Apparently, it is not difficult to grasp logically the thought that Christ is the light given by God to the nations. But the thought that God has given Christ to us as a covenant is difficult to grasp. Nevertheless, we need to realize that in these two matters, the covenant and the light, the entire Bible is embodied. The entire Scripture of sixty-six books is embodied in these two things — in Christ being the covenant and in Christ being the light.
There is a clear word in two portions of the Bible that says that Christ has been given to us, God's chosen people, first as the covenant and, second, as the light (Isa. 42:5-7; 49:6, 8b-9a). Isaiah 42:6b says, "I have kept You [Christ] and I have given You / As a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations," and Isaiah 49:6b and 8b say, "I will also set You as a light of the nations / That you may be My salvation to the ends of the earth....And I will preserve You and give You for a covenant of the people."
We should be deeply impressed when we read such a word. Many Christians, when they come to the Word of God, see only the shallow things. When they read a chapter such as Ephesians 5, they prefer to see that wives should submit to their husbands and that husbands should love their wives. This is according to their taste, their preference. Although the Bible does teach that wives should submit to their husbands and that husbands should love their wives, this is a very small item in the teaching of the Bible. The principal item unveiled in the Bible is God's economy. God's economy is to dispense Himself into us as our life, our person, and our everything. This is what the Bible teaches, and this is what the Old Testament and the New Testament unveil to us. But, sorry to say, nearly all the readers of the Bible have their eyes covered concerning this matter, and thus they cannot see this.
The Bible shows us that God has an economy, an eternal plan, to dispense Himself into us as our life, our person, and our everything. Unfortunately, however, after man was created, he became fallen. In man's fall, man broke the requirements of God's righteousness. As a result, man was condemned by the righteousness of God. Now, between us, the fallen sinners, and God there is the problem of condemnation. All the sinners, all the descendents of Adam, are under God's condemnation because of the breaching of God's righteousness. Thus, we need God's justification to erase God's condemnation. There is no other way for God to erase our condemnation but by God's justification.
The Israelites, the people of God under the old testament, tried their best to establish their own righteousness so that they might be justified by God based on their own righteousness. But their righteousness was not up to the standard of God's justification (Rom. 9:31; 10:3). God's justification is according to the highest standard, the standard of His righteousness. Paul told us clearly that for this purpose God has given Christ to us as the righteousness of God. First Corinthians 1:30 says that God first put us into Christ and then made Christ His righteousness to us. Thus, the first item that Christ is to us is the righteousness of God. We do not need to establish our own righteousness. Needless to say, it is impossible for us to do this. Even if we were able to establish our own righteousness, that righteousness would not measure up to the standard of God's righteousness.
Our righteousness is like yellow dust, whereas God's righteousness is like bright yellow gold. The standard of our righteousness is far too low. Thus, if we bring our own righteousness to God, this means nothing. This is why the Bible says that no flesh, that is, no fallen man, shall be justified by God through his own works of keeping the law (Rom. 3:20). Whatever we do, regardless of how much we can accomplish according to the law, does not match God's requirement and thus does not measure up to the standard of God's justification. Only the righteousness of God is able to match such a standard.
The Old Testament gives us a good illustration, the illustration of Abraham's gaining a son, to show that man's righteousness cannot meet the standard of God's justification. In a very real sense, Abraham's son Isaac signifies God's righteousness. God promised Abraham that he would have a son from God and that this son would be a blessing to all the nations of the earth (Gen. 15:3-5; 18:10, 14; 22:18). But Sarah, Abraham's wife, proposed that he bear a son through her maidservant, Hagar, and Abraham accepted that proposal (Gen. 16:1-4a, 15). What Abraham produced by that means was Ishmael, who was rejected by God. God told Abraham to send Ishmael away (Gen. 21:10-12). Hence, what Abraham produced did not count. Only what God gave counted. Genesis 15:6 says that after hearing God's word, Abraham believed God, and his believing was counted by God as righteousness.
Hence, God's righteousness can be seen in the comparison between these two boys, Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael surely did not match God's righteousness. Only Isaac matched God's righteousness. The unique way in which Abraham could receive such a son that equaled God's righteousness was by faith. The apostle Paul said the same thing. He said that we should not endeavor to establish our own righteousness (Rom. 10:3; Phil. 3:9). That would produce Ishmael, and it would never be counted by God as what He desires. We must believe God; then we will receive something from Him, and that something is Christ as today's Isaac. This Christ is the righteousness of God given to us as our righteousness, our acceptance by God, and this eventually becomes the blessing. Today God's intention is to give Himself, embodied in Christ, as everything to us. So we need to receive Him first as our righteousness, then as our life, then as our person, then as our everything, and finally as our inheritance.
Now we need to consider how this Christ could be our righteousness given to us by God. First, as the righteousness of God and as our Substitute, Christ had to die. God's righteousness required Christ to die a vicarious death for us, and Christ did this. In the evening before His death, He established a table for His disciples that they might remember Him and enjoy Him. In that establishing of the Lord's table, He took the cup and said to His disciples, "This cup is the new covenant established in My blood, which is being poured out for you" (Luke 22:20). This word connects the thought of God's righteousness with Christ's blood. It is through Christ's blood that we can receive and gain God's forgiveness, and God's forgiveness equals God's justification. When God justifies us, He forgives us, and when God forgives us, He justifies us. According to the word of the Lord Jesus, this forgiveness, or this justification, is fully based on Christ's death, which has fulfilled all the requirements of God's righteousness.
In the new covenant it seems that we have received many things, but actually we have gained only one thing — Christ. The old testament established through Moses gave people only a law. But the new testament, the new covenant, established by Christ through His death, gives us Christ. First, this Christ died for our sins to solve all the problems related to God's righteousness. Then, after this death Christ entered into resurrection. In His resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit that He might enter into us to enliven us, to germinate us, to animate us, to make us alive. Although Christ's death justifies us, we are still dead persons. By itself, Christ's death cannot impart life to us to make us alive that we may enjoy all the issues of God's justification. After God justified us, He desired to give us many blessings; but if we were still dead persons, it would be impossible for us to enjoy all His blessings as our inheritance. Hence, Christ needed to take a further step, the step of resurrection. In the resurrection that followed His death, Christ became a life-giving Spirit. It is altogether right for us to say that He became a life-imparting Spirit, even a life-dispensing Spirit, because the giving of life is the impartation of life, and the impartation of life is the dispensing of life. As such a Spirit, Christ entered into us to enliven us, to bring life into us, to impart the divine life into us to make us alive. In this way we were regenerated to be God's children, to be no longer merely justified sinners but children of God.
Initially, life was in God, having nothing to do with us. But through Christ's death, we were cleansed; we were justified; we were forgiven. Yet we were still dead persons. Then Christ became a life-giving Spirit in resurrection to impart, to dispense, the very life which was in God into us, to enliven us, to regenerate us, to make us children of God, to make us those who are born of God and are no longer merely a justified corpse. We were enlivened; we were regenerated; we were born again to be the children of God.
Romans 8:17 says that as children of God, we are also heirs of God to inherit God as our everything. This means that we will inherit God as our inheritance. Many times the Old Testament, especially the book of Jeremiah, says that Israel will be God's people and He will be their God. The New Testament, in 2 Corinthians 6:16, quotes this word. For us to be God's people means that we are God's inheritance, and for God to be our God means that He is our inheritance. Before this mutual inheritance existed, both God and we, we and God, were poor. Before we had God, we had nothing, and before God had us, He was childless. That was the reason that He desired to dispense Himself into us, to make us all His children; and all His children are now His inheritance. Now God is rich. By this we can understand the significance of this simple word: "I will be your God, and you will be My people." Today, as the children of God, we have Christ, and Christ is the embodiment of God. This God who is embodied in Christ is our life, our person, and our inheritance. Likewise, God also has an inheritance. We are His inheritance.
This is all due to two things: Christ as our covenant and Christ as our light. Christ as our covenant takes care of God's righteousness, and Christ as our light releases God's life into us. We have Christ as our covenant; thus, we have no problem with God's righteousness. We also have Christ as our light; hence, we are rich in the divine life. Now, based on the righteousness of God and in the life of God, we enjoy God as our inheritance. This, in totality, is God's full salvation to us.
The sixty-six books of the entire Bible reveal many things to us. When all these things are embodied together as one entity, that is the New Jerusalem. The sixty-six books of the Bible consummate in the New Jerusalem. The totality of all the positive things recorded in the sixty-six books of the Bible is the New Jerusalem. On the one hand, we may say that the Bible unveils to us the central line of the divine revelation, which is God's economy and God's dispensing. On the other hand, we may say in brief that the totality of what the Bible reveals to us is the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the total composition of the entire revelation of the Bible.
The foundation of the New Jerusalem consists of twelve layers of precious stones (Rev. 21:14, 19-20). Some fundamental books written on the foundation of the New Jerusalem have pointed out that the colors of the twelve layers of precious stones in the foundation of the New Jerusalem look like a rainbow. According to Genesis 9:8-17, the rainbow is a sign that reminds us of God's faithfulness in keeping His word. God's faithfulness is based on His righteousness. If there were no righteousness, there would be no faithfulness. Thus, the foundation of the New Jerusalem is the righteousness of God with God's faithfulness.
Within the New Jerusalem there is a river of life, which flows, or spirals, from the top of the city to the bottom, to reach all the twelve gates (Rev. 22:1). That flowing of the river of life saturates the entire city. On the two sides of the river the tree of life grows. Thus, the content of the New Jerusalem is life. Within the city the river of life flows and the tree of life grows as a vine along the two banks of the river, to supply the entire city. This indicates that the entire New Jerusalem is a matter of life built on the foundation of righteousness. Life is the consummation of righteousness, and righteousness is the base, the foundation, of life.
In the New Jerusalem, life issues from light. According to Revelation 21:23, in the New Jerusalem there is no need of the shining of the sun or the moon, for the glory of God illumines it, and its lamp is the Lamb. This means that Christ is the lamp, and the very God embodied in Christ is the light. Hence, in the foundation of the New Jerusalem we can see faithfulness based upon righteousness. We can also see that the light in the New Jerusalem issues in life. Thus, the New Jerusalem is the embodiment of God's full salvation, and God's full salvation is a composition of God's righteousness as the base and God's life as the consummation. This is the revelation of the Bible.
Ultimately, God's full salvation is Christ as the covenant plus Christ as the light, and this is the composition of the New Jerusalem. God's full salvation is based on His righteousness and is consummated in His life. Christ as the covenant takes care of God's righteousness. Hence, that covenant is the foundation of God's salvation. Then Christ as the light carries out God's salvation to consummate God's salvation in life. Thus, Christ as the covenant and Christ as the light, added together, equal God's full salvation.
God's righteousness justifies us through the death of Christ (Rom. 10:3; 3:21-22; Gal. 2:16, 21). This is to save us, the sinners, from God's condemnation (Rom. 5:16b, 18a) and also from Satan's death (Rom. 5:12, 21a; John 5:24). As sinners, we have condemnation over us from God and also death within us from Satan. The condemnation of God is dissolved by Christ as the covenant, and the death that comes from Satan is annulled by Christ as the light that issues in life (John 8:12). This is to bring us, the believers, into the divine life that we may become God's heirs to inherit God with all His riches as our divine inheritance (Rom. 5:18b; 8:17a; Gal. 3:29b; Acts 26:18b). These items constitute the substance of the gospel according to the ministry of the apostle Paul in the three books of Romans, Galatians, and 1 Corinthians.
God's life germinates us by Christ as the life-giving Spirit (Eph. 2:5; 1 Cor. 15:45b). This is to beget us unto the divine sonship, that we may have the sonship of God and be the sons of God (John 1:12-13; Rom. 8:15). As sons of God, we are also heirs who will inherit God (Rom. 8:17a; Eph. 1:13-14a). For us to inherit God as our inheritance, we need Christ to satisfy the requirements of God's righteousness. Also, we need Christ to be the light that issues in the divine life so that we can be regenerated to be God's heirs to inherit Him as our inheritance.
God's life also germinates us to renew us, the old man (Titus 3:5). We were not only sinful and dead, but also old. So, we need to be renewed. We need to be renewed not merely by being washed but by being germinated with God's life.
God's life also germinates us to transform and conform us into the glorious image of God's firstborn Son, making us, the many sons of God, like the Firstborn. This is accomplished by life. Begetting, renewing, transformation, and conformation are all carried out by life.
Finally, God's life germinates us to glorify us with the divine glory (Rom. 8:30b). The divine glory is the expression of God's divine life. When God's life is expressed, it becomes the shining glory.
The above matters are the substance of the gospel according to the ministries of the apostles John and Paul. First, John ministered on life, and then Paul ministered on righteousness and life. In his Gospel and in the beginning of his first Epistle, the apostle John did not touch the matter of righteousness. Later in 1 John, he did touch God's righteousness (2:28—3:10). But Paul was different. Paul touched God's righteousness first, then God's life. Romans 5:18 says that God justifies us unto life. Thus, justification brings us into life. When we receive God's justification according to Christ as God's righteousness, the issue in us of this justification is the divine life. Therefore, justification is unto life.
Christ as the Servant of Jehovah serves God by being a covenant and a light to God's chosen people that He may be the full salvation of God (Isa. 42:5-7; 49:6, 8b-9a).
The concept of many Christians is that Christ serves God by love, by gentleness, by humility, or by kindness. However, Isaiah was different. Isaiah said that this Servant of Jehovah serves God by being a covenant. The Lord Jesus said that He would serve us by giving up His life (Mark 10:45), that is, by His death. Christ served us by dying for us, and that was to serve us by being a covenant. He said that He was the good Shepherd who would lay down His soulish life for the sheep that He might minister the divine life to them (John 10:10-11). Christ died for us that He might be life to us. These are the two things by which He serves God. He serves God by ministering life to us through His death and resurrection.
First, Christ established the new covenant according to God's righteousness through His redeeming death (Matt. 26:28). Then, Christ is the righteousness of God to us for our justification (Rom. 3:22; Gal. 2:16). Christ also has become the bequests, the reality, the surety, the Mediator, and the Executor of this new covenant, the new testament, in His resurrection, for our inheritance of the promise (Heb. 7:22; 9:15-17). In the new testament as a will, there are many promises. All these promises are the bequests of that will. Christ is everything for that will, and He is every item of that will. Eventually, He is the will. We have often said that without Christ the Bible is empty. Christ is the reality of the Bible. This means that Christ is the Bible. Without Christ, the new covenant, the new testament, is empty. Christ is the reality of the new testament; therefore, Christ is the new testament. It is impossible to separate Christ from the new testament. Now we can understand the logic by which God considers Christ to be a covenant given to us. Hence, Christ has become the new covenant as the new testament according to God's righteousness to be the base of God's full salvation, through His death and in His resurrection.
Christ is also the light to be the salvation of God (Isa. 42:6b; 49:6b). Isaiah 49:6b says, "I will also set You as a light of the nations / That You may be My salvation unto the ends of the earth." Thus, God gave Christ as a light to the nations that He might be God's salvation to all the world. This light issues in Christ as the divine life to us (John 9:5; 1:4, 9; 8:12). John 1:4 says, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." In reading such a verse, we might ask whether light came first, or life. It is difficult to answer such a question. Verses such as John 1:4 and 1 John 1:1-7 indicate that life issues in light. But, based on Genesis 1, it is also possible to say that light issues in life. First, God said, "Let there be light" (v. 3). Then, there was light, and after that, the different kinds of life — the vegetable life, the animal life, and the human life — came out of the light (vv. 4-28). In the experience of a sinner, the first thing that comes in is not life but light. When we heard the preaching of the gospel, light came to us and shined over us (2 Cor. 4:4-6). Then, when we received this light, it issued in life, and we were regenerated. After our regeneration, light comes out of life. Therefore, first we receive light, and then we receive life. Then we live by this life, and this life issues in light.
The life of this light becomes God's salvation to us in His righteousness (Isa. 49:6b). We have seen that life is the consummation of God's salvation. But God's salvation still needs a foundation. The foundation, the base, of God's salvation is righteousness. Thus, the life of this light becomes God's salvation to us in His righteousness.
The life of this light also ensures us, guarantees us, the heirs of God in His life, the right to inherit God with all His riches as our eternal inheritance (Acts 26:18). If we do not have such a life, which is of the light, we do not have the assurance that we will be able to inherit God as our inheritance. Since we have such a life, this life is our assurance that ensures our right to inherit God as our inheritance in life.
The life of this light, as the indestructible life (Heb. 7:16b), the incorruptible life (2 Tim. 1:10b), and the real and eternal life that we should lay hold on (12, 1 Tim. 6:19), grows in us all the time, issuing in our church life today and consummating in the New Jerusalem in eternity (Rev. 21:2-3, 9b-11, 18-23; 22:1-5). Today we are living the church life by this life, and we will also enjoy the New Jerusalem by this life. This is the consummation of God's full salvation.
The way to receive and enjoy such a full salvation of God, constituted of Christ, the Servant of Jehovah, as the covenant and the light to us, God's elect, is to exercise our spirit, to live according to our spirit, and to remain in our spirit, with which is the very Christ, by calling on Christ our Lord's name (Isa. 42:5; Zech. 12:1; Rom. 8:4b; Rev. 1:10a; 2 Tim. 4:22; Isa. 12:3-4). Isaiah 42:5-6 says, "Thus says God Jehovah, / Who created the heavens and stretched them out, / Who spread forth the earth and what springs up from it, / Who gives breath to the people upon it / And spirit to those who walk on it. / I am Jehovah; I have called You in righteousness; / I have held You by the hand; / I have kept You and I have given You / As a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations." Before God spoke in verse 6 of giving Christ as a covenant for the people and as a light for the nations, He declared that He gave us a spirit (v. 5). First, He told us that He had prepared a "stomach" (a spirit) within us; then He told us what the "foodstuffs" (Christ as the covenant and the light) are. Our spiritual stomach is our spirit, and Christ is the food that we are to receive into our spiritual stomach. Thus, the way to receive and enjoy Christ is to exercise our spirit, to live according to our spirit, and to remain in our spirit, with which is the very Christ. Second Timothy 4:22 says, "The Lord be with your spirit." Since Christ is with our spirit, we must exercise our spirit, live according to our spirit, and remain in our spirit in order to receive and enjoy Him.
Every day I practice this. First, I exercise my spirit by calling, "O Lord Jesus." If we merely shut our eyes and meditate, we may "wander" all over the world. But if we call, "O Lord Jesus," for ten minutes, we will be in the third heavens; that is, we will be in our spirit. Today our spirit is our third heavens, the Holy of Holies, the place where we meet the Lord.
We should walk, live, and have our being according to this spirit. Sometimes as I am about to speak to certain people, I am checked: "Will you say this from yourself or from Him who is with you in your spirit. Who is your person, Witness Lee or Jesus Christ?" We may say the right thing, but we may say it by the wrong person, that is, by our self. We must say the right thing by the right person, and we must also do the right thing by the right person. Quite often we speak of loving the saints. However, we must be careful by what person we love others — by our self or by Christ. We should not forget that as believers in Christ, we have two persons: we have our self, the old person, and we have the Lord Jesus, the new person. We surely need to do the right thing, the good thing, the excellent thing, but we must go further to check by what person we do things — by our self as our person, or by our dear Savior, Jesus Christ, as our person. We should not live in our own person; rather, we need to live according to the spirit and remain in our spirit.
At times we may laugh, but if we laugh too much, we get out of our spirit. Then, after laughing for quite a time, we may silence ourself and go to our bedroom to pray, "Lord, forgive me; I have laughed too much. I want to come back to my spirit to be with You." We need to remain in the spirit continuously. First, we need to call on Him, to exercise our spirit; then we need to live according to our spirit, and then remain in our spirit. In Revelation 1:10 the apostle John said that he was in spirit on the Lord's Day; that is, he was remaining in his spirit. Isaiah 12:3-4a says, "Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing / From the springs of salvation, / And you will say in that day, / Praise Jehovah; call upon His name!" These verses in Isaiah tell us that there is a salvation that is full of springs and that we need to draw water from this salvation by praising Jehovah and calling upon His name. This is not my teaching but the divine revelation. God's full salvation is constituted of Christ as the covenant and as the light, and this full salvation is full of springs. We need to learn to come to draw water out of these springs by calling on His name. This corresponds exactly with the New Testament teaching (Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:12-13). All Jesus' followers should be His callers. This is the way to enjoy Him as our covenant and as our light that we may enjoy God's full salvation.
