The gospel is the gospel of glory, the gospel of the kingdom, and the gospel of grace; this gospel has a structure that causes us to know that the gospel is solid and firm.
The structure of the gospel of God is clearly stated by Paul in Rom. 1:17, The righteous shall have life and live by faith. The structure of the gospel of God is composed of three main factors: the righteousness of God, the life of Christ, and the faith of the believers.
We need to exercise our spirit and have a clear mind to understand the deep and profound truth concerning the structure of the gospel of God. On the one hand the gospel is rich, wonderful, and life-giving, and on the other hand the gospel is secure, solid, and firm.
A building has steel beams, stones, and wood – all fitted together into a solid structure, giving us the security and peace to be in that house; similarly, the gospel of God is solid and firm, with a secure structure.
Many believers love the Lord, pursue Him, and preach the gospel, but they may believe that if they sin after they believe into the Lord, they may lose their salvation; when they are not sinning, they are saved, but when they sin, they lose their salvation. Such believers don’t have a solid foundation for their salvation.
We need to have a definite understanding of the structure of the gospel of God so that we would be filled with boldness when we preach the gospel, knowing there’s a strong, solid, and firm foundation of the gospel, and being assured that the gospel has a strong structure.
This week we will explore in-depth the structure of the gospel of God – the righteousness of God, the life of Christ, and the faith of the believers.
The righteous, those who are absolutely right before God and before man, shall have life, the divine life. Then, how can we, the vile sinners, have the divine life of the righteous God according to His righteousness? By faith! It is by faith, which is the moving and working God in Christ who puts us into Christ as our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30), that we, the sinners, have the divine life according to God’s righteousness judicially. By this linking faith we are linked to God in Christ to participate in all that the all-inclusive Christ is, has, and has attained to, for the producing of the organic members of Christ to constitute and build up His organic Body, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the enlargement and expression of the eternal Triune God in His unlimited glory in the mysterious mingling of divinity with humanity for eternity (Rev. 21:2—22:5). This is the eternal fulfillment of the gospel in Romans 1:17. (Witness Lee, Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans)
Righteousness is of God, life is of Christ, and faith is of the believers; the gospel of God is built with these three parts. In Romans we first see the righteousness of God judicially, then the life of Christ organically, and finally the faith of the believers practically.
Judicially, God’s righteousness is the base of God’s salvation. Organically, the life of Christ is the purpose of God’s salvation. Practically, the faith of the believers is the substantiation of God’s salvation.
The structure of the gospel of God is clearly revealed in Rom. 1:17, which can also be considered a key word concerning the gospel of God in Romans, and the banner of God’s eternal economy, “The righteous shall have life and live by faith”.
Christ was Judged by God on our Behalf to make us God’s Righteousness in Him
God’s gospel is for us to be brought into God’s salvation; God chose us before the foundation of the world in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth unto salvation (2 Thes 2:13). God’s eternal plan is for us, the believers in Christ, to receive His salvation, and the procedure of God’s salvation is the righteousness of God.
God loves us, but at the same time, God is righteous. Because of our fall, we cannot receive God’s salvation and His life unless God’s righteousness is satisfied. Because He is righteous, God bases His salvation on His righteousness: God cannot forgive sinful people without meeting the demands of His righteousness (see Psa. 103:6-7).
According to God’s righteousness, the soul who sins shall die (Ezek. 18:4), and the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). According to God’s righteous requirements, we should die, because our sin has violated God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory.
On the one hand, God loves us, but He cannot do anything unless His righteousness is satisfied: we need to pay the wages of sin. Christ, the embodied God, died a vicarious death as our substitute on the cross, a death that was legal according to God’s law and was recognized and approved by God according to the law (see Isa. 53:5-6; 2 Cor. 5:21; Matt. 27:45-46).
God’s arrangement is that He caused Christ to be the substitute for sinners to accomplish a vicarious death for us; Christ didn’t die as a martyr or for Himself, but for all men, for all sinners – for you and me. He was wounded because of our transgressions and crushed because of our iniquities; instead of us being put to death for our sins, Christ bore our iniquities and received the crushing and chastening.
Christ, the righteous One, was judged on behalf of us, the unrighteous, by the righteous God according to His righteousness so that Christ might remove the barrier of our sins and bring us to God, making us the righteousness of God in Him (see 1 Pet. 3:18; 2 Cor. 5:21).
Through His death on the cross Christ bore all of our sins and was even made sin for us, becoming our Substitute before God, and now when we repent and believe into Him we receive Him as our righteousness and we even become the righteousness of God in Him.
The procedure of God’s salvation judicially is God’s righteousness, which Christ came to fulfill, become for us, and even make us through our faith into Him.
Lord Jesus, thank You for not only loving us but also dying for us to be judged by the righteous God according to His righteousness so that the barrier of our sins may be removed and we may be brought to God! Thank You for dying a vicarious death on the cross, being our Substitute before God and bearing God’s judgement on our behalf. Lord, how we appreciate the procedure of God’s salvation: God’s righteousness, which once used to condemn us, and now is our enjoyment and experience through Christ’s death on the cross and our faith in Him!
Christ Died on our Behalf to Fulfill God’s Righteousness: now God Must Forgive us!
When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He who did not sin or know sin was made sin on our behalf, and He condemned sin in the flesh; by dying on our behalf, Christ fulfilled all of God’s righteousness (John 19:30; Rom. 8:3, 10). Now, for the sake of His righteousness, God must forgive us!
The righteous God judged the righteous One, Christ, because this One fulfilled all of God’s righteous requirements, and through this we the unrighteous ones were released of our sins to be made righteous before God.
This righteous One, Christ, after passing through death and resurrection, now has come into us to live in us His righteous life so that we may live Him out and so that we, the unrighteous Ones, may become the righteousness of God in Him!
Today we who believe into Christ are not only justified by God but this Righteous One is in us with His life so that we, the unrighteous ones, would become God’s righteousness in Him. Hallelujah!
Now when people see us they can see God’s righteousness lived out of us – we become the manifestation and expression of God’s righteousness. This is all because, first of all, Christ as the righteous God-man became sin on our behalf. In God’s eyes Christ on the cross was considered as sin.
Sin came from Satan, who rebelled against God (Isa. 14:12-14). This sin, which came out of the evil one, entered into man (Rom. 5:12) and made man not only a sinner but sin itself under God’s judgment. Hence, when Christ became a man in the flesh (John 1:14), He was made sin (not sinful) on our behalf to be judged by God (Rom. 8:3) that we might become God’s righteousness in Him. (2 Cor. 5:21, footnote 2, Recovery Version Bible)
This is a very profound matter in the Bible; we may not comprehend all its details and implications, but God went through a process so that He who didn’t know sin would become sin for us on the cross, and He bore all of our sins to become our Substitute on the cross so that we, the unrighteous sinners, would be released from our sins.
Because Christ satisfied all the requirements of God’s righteousness on the cross, God is satisfied with Christ’s sacrifice; now God must forgive us! It’s not a matter of whether He will do it or not: He MUST forgive our sins, based on Christ’s vicarious death on the cross.
Because the righteous One was judged on our behalf and God’s righteousness has been fulfilled, we the sinners have the assurance that we are released of our sins and God must forgive our sins!
God now can no longer require the price for our sins because Christ paid the price for us, and He said, It is finished (John 19:30) – the redemptive work has been finished, done! Through the eternal Spirit Christ has accomplished once for all His eternal salvation, and through our faith into Him we are saved based on God’s righteousness!
Thank You Lord for dying on the cross for us. You who did not know sin were made sin for us to condemn sin in the flesh, and You died on our behalf to fulfill all of God’s righteousness. Hallelujah, now for the sake of His righteousness, God must forgive us based on Christ’s vicarious death on the cross! Lord, our trust and foundation is not on our merit or good deeds: we trust in You, we look to You, we believe into You, and we take You as our Substitute for our sins. Thank You Lord for paying the price for our sins so that we may be released from our sins!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans, msg. 5 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Gospel (2016 International Chinese-speaking Conference), week 3 / msg. 3, The Structure of the Gospel of God—the Righteousness of God, the Life of Christ, and the Faith of the Believers.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God has not overlooked our sin, / But judged it once for all; / His righteous fury, not on us, / But on His Lamb did fall. / A new and living way is made— / We stand on legal ground; / Our Surety and our Substitute / Has pardon for us found. (Hymns #1126)
# God’s righteousness is satisfied / By Christ’s return, this fact’s made known. / From God’s great love, His mercy’s shown, / The Lord’s redeeming work is done. (Song on Christ dying on our behalf)
# Father God, Thou hast accepted / Jesus as our Substitute; / Judged the Just One for the unjust, / Couldst Thou change Thy attitude? / As a proof of perfect justice, / At Thine own right hand He sits; / He, as Thy full satisfaction, / Righteously Thy need befits. (Hymns #20)
In order that God might be able to forgive us, Christ, the Son of God, became flesh. As Romans 8:3 says, God sent His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin. By incarnation, the Lord took upon Himself the likeness of the flesh of sin and became identified with sinners in the flesh. For the sake of God’s righteousness, the Lord Jesus was put to death on the cross. There, on the cross, He was made sin for us, and God condemned sin in the flesh. By dying on our behalf the Lord accomplished redemption and fulfilled all of God’s righteous requirements. Now God has the position righteously to forgive us. In fact, He not only can forgive us, but, for the sake of His righteousness, He must forgive us. God forgives not primarily because He loves us, but because He is bound by His righteousness to do so. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Romans, pp. 597-598)