Living an Overcoming Life by Living out Christ is to Prepare our Wedding Garment

The bride of the Lamb was given to be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints; we have Christ as our righteousness before God, our first garment, but we need Him to be lived out of us as our overcoming life to be our second garment, the righteousnesses of the saints! Amen!

The Lord is working today to obtain His bride. He is building up the church as the Body of Christ so that He may gain His bride, the corporate group of overcoming saints who are prepared and ripened early for Him to return and rapture them.

Just as a freshly engaged man is eagerly waiting for his wedding day, doing everything necessary to prepare for this wedding day to come soon and consummate, so Christ is eagerly waiting for His wife to make herself ready.

It has been almost two thousand years since the Lord Jesus was resurrected and ascended, and the Lord is still working to prepare His bride.

He is waiting for a group of people who cooperate with Him unreservedly, without any hindrance, so that He can work Himself into them and build Himself into them.

May we be the believers in Christ who give the Lord our best cooperation today, wherever we are and whatever we do.

May we not hinder the Lord in our being and through our doing from what He intends to do in us and through us.

God is not after Christians who do mighty works for Him, nor does He desire to gain spiritual giants who do amazing works and speak eloquently for Him.

He is looking for overcomers, those who overcome in their situations by the living Christ in them. He wants to reproduce Himself as the unique Overcomer in us, in each one of us.

The Lord is calling for the overcoming believers to have an ear to hear what the Spirit speaks to the churches. Oh, may we be those who cooperate with the Lord today in His economy!

May we be part of the wife who makes herself ready for the Lord’s imminent return!

When He returns, the Lord will NOT rapture ALL the believers; rather, He will first rapture the overcoming saints, the living overcomers who overcome one with the Lord, for they are the components of the bride.

When the Lord returns, the great tribulation will start, and most Christians will remain and go through it.

May we be those who open to the Lord today to live out and work out the New Jerusalem today, living an overcoming life today by allowing Christ to live in us and work Himself into us in all the details of our daily life.

Christ is our First Garment, our Objective Righteousness, and Christ Lived out in us is our Second Garment, the Wedding Garment, the Righteousnesses of the Saints

Revelation 19:8 says, And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints.

Here, the word righteousnesses is in plural; it is not just righteousness but righteousnesses, referring to the righteousnesses of the saints, the righteous deeds of the saints.

These righteousnesses refer to the Christ lived out of us in our daily life. On the one hand, when we believed into the Lord Jesus, God clothed us with Christ as our righteousness; Christ is our objective righteousness covering us before God (1 Cor. 1:30).

Without Christ as our righteousness, which we receive by faith in Christ, we cannot be approved before God. God is righteous, and only those who are as righteous as He is can come to fellowship with God, enjoy God, and partake of the riches of God.

So Christ died for us on the cross and fulfilled all the righteous requirements of God. Now, through faith in Christ and His redemptive work on the cross, we receive Christ as our righteousness before God.

It is truly amazing to realise that, when we believe in Christ, He becomes our righteousness before God.

This is what we see in a picture in Luke 15, where the prodigal son considered himself unworthy as his father’s son, so he prepared a speech to tell his father to receive him back as one of his father’s servants.

But the father said to his servants, Bring out quickly the best robe and put it on him (v. 22).

When we repent and come back to God, believing in the Lord Jesus and confessing our sins before Him, God clothes us with Christ as our righteousness.

This Christ, God’s righteousness becoming our righteousness, justifies us before God and enables us to stand before the righteous God. This is by faith, and it is objective before God.

But how about our daily living? Paul said in Philippians 3:9 that he wanted to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness which is out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith.

This is the subjective righteousness, even the righteousnesses of the saints, which is Christ lived out of us.

We have received the objective righteousness from God by faith for our salvation, and this enables us to meet the requirements of the righteous God.

But now we need to have the righteousnesses, which are the subjective experiences of Christ lived out of us in our daily living to enable us to meet the requirements of the overcoming Christ.

It is not enough for us to merely have Christ as our righteousness before God; we also need to have the subjective righteousnesses, the living out of Christ.

This is illustrated by the wedding garment in Matthew 22:11-12, where we see that, without this wedding garment, we cannot enter the wedding feast of the Lamb. In ancient times, there was a special garment, the wedding garment, without which one could not enter the wedding feast.

If we want to be qualified to attend the wedding feast of Christ, we need to have the wedding garment, the righteousnesses of the saints, Christ lived out in us in our daily life.

Many Christians today live their daily life the way they want, not allowing Christ to live in them. Christ is in them, but He does not live in them.

Only when Christ lives in us and is expressed through us can we have the subjective righteousness, the righteousnesses of the saints.

Only when Christ is expressed in our daily living do we cooperate with the Lord to work out our own salvation and prepare our wedding garment.

Salvation is not by works, but the reward will be given to us if Christ lives in us and we live Christ in our daily living. It is good to bring this matter to the Lord and tell Him,

Lord Jesus, thank You for being our righteousness before God. Hallelujah, God made Christ our righteousness, and through faith in Christ, we are covered by Christ as our righteousness! Lord Jesus, we believe into You and we repent before You; we take You as our righteousness. We receive You as our objective righteousness before God to enable us to meet the requirements of the righteous God. We stand not on our righteousness but on Christ, our righteousness. Oh Lord, we want to live one spirit with You today. May Christ live in us in all the situations of our daily life. May we live an overcoming life today so that we may have the second garment, the righteousnesses of the saints! Oh Lord Jesus, we give You our daily living! Keep us turning to You. May we allow You to live in us and be expressed through us. May our daily living express You and not ourselves. Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with You to prepare our wedding garment by living an overcoming life today!

Living an Overcoming Life by Living out Christ as our Subjective Righteousness Today

How we thank and praise the Lord Jesus for dying for us on the cross to meet all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory!

He died for us, He obtained an eternal redemption, and now by faith in Him and in His redemptive work, we can receive and take Christ as our objective righteousness before God!

Day by day we need to start here by coming to the Lord and taking Him as our righteousness; we lay our hands on Him, we identify with Him in spirit, and we take Him as our objective righteousness for our fellowship with God.

Then, we need to go on to allow this Christ to live in us. We need to cooperate with the Lord to prepare our wedding garment by having “the righteousnesses of the saints”.

It is not enough for us to be spotless and clean before God by faith in Christ; we need to have a spotless and clean living.

Our garments, our daily living, need to be constantly washed in the blood of the Lamb, and we need to partake of Christ as the tree of life and live by Christ, even live out Christ.

The question is, Who lives today – is it us or is it Christ? Who is the one making decisions, going places, saying things, and doing things in our daily living? Who is expressed through us and who lives in us today, is it our natural man or is it Christ?

We need to come to the Lord regarding our daily living. The fine linen of the bride indicates our overcoming life, our overcoming living.

We need to live an overcoming life day by day. We do this not by trying our best to overcome or by perfecting ourselves so that we become better at overcoming.

We live an overcoming life by living out Christ as our subjective righteousness day by day. It is the Christ whom we live out of our being who is the righteousnesses of the saints.

God desires that we would be covered not only by Christ as our objective righteousness but even more by the lived-out Christ as our subjective righteousness, so we can open to Him and ask the Lord to live in us.

We need to come to the Lord again and again throughout the day, contacting Him and remaining in the organic union with Him so that He may spontaneously live in us.

Christ is the Overcomer; He has overcome (John 16:33), and we can come to Him, have peace in our heart, and let Him live in us.

Especially in this troubled world today, a world that is becoming increasingly anti-God and anti-anything that is good and moral, we need to be an anti-testimony by living out Christ today.

Our normal living should be an overcoming living; we don’t seek to “win at life” or do the right thing by rejecting the wrong thing, but we let Christ live in us.

We believers in Christ have the Lord Jesus as a living person in us; we are created to be one with Christ and to live Christ, and the living Christ is within us.

May we pay attention to the living Christ within, and may we cooperate with Him by not having our own righteousness, which is out of the law but Christ lived out of us.

May we be those who have an overcoming life day by day and may our living be an overcoming living.

May we give the overcoming Christ the room in us to live in us and through us day by day. When Christ lives in us, though we may not realise it for we live in the organic union with Him, we have the righteousnesses of the saints, having an overcoming living.

Our living is based on what we are; by nature, we believers in Christ are God-men, men mingled with God.

This is why we need to eat Christ as the bread of life and drink the Spirit as the living water day by day so that we may be constituted with Christ and live because of Him (John 6:57).

We are what we eat. We live by what we eat. We should not try to deliberately live Christ by living in a certain way which we think is the expression of Christ.

Oh, may we be those who humble ourselves before the Lord and allow Him to live in us!

Even though we may know much about the Lord and we may love Him so much, may we allow Him to break through in us and live Himself out of us! May we have an overcoming life by allowing Christ to live in us!

Even in such small things as sending a text message or an email, we need to follow the sense of life within.

The Lord may touch us concerning the way we express ourselves, the words we use, and our attitude toward others; may we listen to His inner speaking.

Overcoming is not only in big things but in the small things, even in things that others don’t see, don’t know, and will never find out about.

May we live an overcoming life today, cooperating with the Lord in all things so that He may live in us and we may have the righteousnesses of the saints, the wedding garment that qualifies us to be at the wedding feast of the Lamb!

Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to be with You at the wedding feast! Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with You today to prepare our wedding garment. May we live an overcoming life today. May we allow You to live in us today. Amen, Lord, live in us today and be expressed through us. We want to have the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith, not the righteousness which is out of works by law. We turn to You, dear Lord. We want to follow the leading of the inner sense of life. We pray for the outworking of the inner life for the producing and preparing of the white linen wedding garment. May we learn to live out Christ today. Oh Lord, You are the Overcoming One in us. You have overcome the world. We come to You. Overcome in us. Live in us. Be expressed through us in all the aspects and details of our daily living. We want to have an overcoming life by having the Overcoming One living in us today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brother Ron Kangas in this conference, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 4325-4327, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Preparation of the Bride (2025 Memorial Day Blending Conference), week 1, The Bride—the Goal of the Lord’s Recovery – day 5.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The Readiness of the Bride – Christ Lived out of the Saints as Their Subjective Righteousness, a portion from, Life-Study of Revelation, Chapter 54.
  – Podcast #96 – A Man of God with the Breath of God to Counter the Worsening of the Decline, via, Age Turners.
  – Our need to know Christ subjectively, a portion from, The Centrality and Universality of Christ, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – Dispensational Discipline, via, Shepherding Words.
  – The marriage garment, a portion from, The Kingdom, Chapter 30, by Witness Lee.
  – Justification by Faith – What it is and How to Experience it, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – What is the Second Garment? More via, The Hearing of Faith.
  – The Vital Groups in Perspective, via, Living to Him.
  – The word of righteousness – the righteousness of God, via, Affirmation and Critique.
  – It was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints – sharing by brother Ron K.
  – Two Garments Prepare the Bride, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Revelation (Program #54) – The Marriage of the Lamb and the Wedding Feast, via, Bible study radio.
  – 7 Wonderful Aspects of the Church in Ephesians, via, Bibles for America blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – We praise Thee for Thy righteousness; / Thy justice, Father, we confess, / And fully testify. / Thou art the judge of all mankind, / In Thee injustice none can find, / Nor wrong to Thee apply. / O holy Father, righteous One, / Thy righteousness upholds Thy throne, / ’Tis a foundation sure. / ’Tis through this righteousness of Thine / That reigns in Christ the grace divine, / And peace we thus secure. (Hymns #21 stanzas 1-2)
  – Oh, that fine linen garment / Which on that day we’ll wear / E’en now, Lord, work within us / And stitch by stitch prepare. / For this we would redeem / Every moment opportune / For the wedding day that’s coming / Very soon. / Lord, may Your portion in us / Continually increase / That we may be invited / Unto that wedding feast. / And keep us always watching— / At morning, night, or noon— / For the wedding day that’s coming / Very soon. (Hymns #1316 stanzas 2-3)
  – Christ comes quickly for His Bride, / Wedding feast He will provide, / Garments bright and pure supplied— / Dress in time! / Taking Christ as life she’s dressed, / By much suffering stitched and pressed; / Righteous acts are thus possessed— / Dress in time! / Be in time! Be in time! / For the marriage feast of Jesus / Be in time! / If your soul life you deny / And the Spirit you apply, / Then you’ll fully qualify— / Be in time! (Hymns #1304 stanza 1 and chorus)