Christ as our objective righteousness enables us to meet the requirement of the righteous God, whereas Christ as our subjective righteousness enables us to meet the requirement of the overcoming Christ; the subjective truths are linked to the Spirit and life and are constituted with Spirit and life.
The truth in the Bible has two aspects: the objective and the subjective aspect.
The church, for example, is formed of the believers in Christ – this is what we see outwardly, but there’s an intrinsic and organic aspect, and if we touch the intrinsic reality of the church, we are the church.
The church is not just the ekklesia, the assembly of the called-out ones, neither is the church only the composition of all the believers having a church life together.
The church in its essence is the mingling of God and man, the organism of the Triune God, the very Body of Christ.
The church is not a mere human organization or social gathering of the Christians; the church is related to the Spirit and life, and the church is real to us in the divine life and by the divine Spirit in our spirit.
The Body of Christ is organic; the Body is the reality of the church, the subjective aspect of the church.
When we speak of “subjective”, we mean something that is experiential, something that we didn’t just read and understand but we experience.
A subjective matter is not something that we mentally agree with and acquire; it is something we experience to the extent that it becomes a part of us.
For example, we may have a revelation from God from the Bible, and praise the Lord, when the heavens are open and we have a clear sky, we can clearly see what is in the heart of God for man and for the church.
It is so good to see God’s economy and to dive into the truth concerning the dispensing of the Triune God and the church.
We need to dig into the deeper truths, be constituted with the truth, and use the Recovery Version Bible, the life studies, and the ministry books to get into the word of God more and more, paying the price to be constituted with the truth.
However, God’s desire doesn’t stop here; He doesn’t want merely that we, His people, would enjoy a divine revelation and merely understand something.
Paul prayed in Ephesians 1 that we would have the eyes of our heart enlightened and have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to see what is revealed in the Scriptures.
But Paul also went further to have another prayer in Eph. 3, where he bowed his knees to the Father and asked that the saints would be strengthened through the Spirit into the inner man so that Christ would make His home in their heart.
This is a subjective experience of what we see in ch. 1; in ch. 1 we see a vision of Christ, God, and God’s economy, and in ch. 3 we are brought into the inward experience, the subjective experience, of what we see.
This is what the Lord wants; He wants that the Christ we see would be wrought into us, would make His home in our heart, and would be formed in us so that we would express Christ corporately.
Christ is both our Objective and Subjective Righteousness, and Justification is of Life in the Organic Union with God
In Psa. 45:13-14, we see the church in type having two garments – a garment with a woven work inwrought with gold, and also having embroidered clothing.
On one hand, Christ is our objective righteousness to enable us to meet the requirement of our righteous God; on the other hand, Christ is also our subjective righteousness to enable us to meet the requirement of the overcoming Christ (see Psa. 45:13-14; Phil. 3:9; Rev. 19:7-9).
This is a very deep matter and not easy to grasp; Christ is both our objective and subjective righteousness for us to meet God’s righteous requirements and also the requirement of the overcoming Christ.
We need not only to take Christ as our objective righteousness to be qualified to enjoy God but also have Christ wrought into us as our subjective righteousnesses for us to be victorious and overcoming in Christ.
Day by day we need to take Christ as our righteousness, applying His blood to be cleansed of anything that the divine light exposes, and be brought into the presence of God.
Furthermore, we need to cooperate with Christ to have Him wrought into us to be lived out of us as our many subjective righteousnesses, the lived out Christ.
This corresponds to the two garments of the queen in Psa. 45 and also to the initial white robe plus the wedding garment which is required to enter the wedding feast.
First, we need to take Christ as our righteousness subjectively, so that we may enter into the enjoyment of God’s life.
Then, we need to obey the Spirit’s leading and allow the Spirit to work in us and on us, through all the environmental situations, for Christ to be lived out of us.
When we see Christ’s accomplishments, say Amen to what He has done, and apply them to our being, we gain the position to come to God and be one with Him.
When we allow the Spirit to lead us and transform us, we will gain the second garment, the fine linen, the righteousnesses of the saints (Rev. 19:8).
Amen, may we learn to cooperate with the Lord in this! Justification is “of life” because the goal of God’s salvation is life; our organic union of life with and in the Lord subjectively is an issue of our justification objectively (Rom. 5:10, 17-18; 11:17, 24; John 15:4-5; 1 Cor. 6:17).
Justification is of life; this means that justification is not an end in itself but rather, it is of life, and the goal is life.
Through justification, we come up to the standard of God’s righteousness, and we correspond to it.
Now, because we have this righteous position of being justified, He can righteously dispense His life into us.
This will change not only our outward position but also our inward disposition. Life is the focus, and when we are justified, we are brought into the proper position to experience life in the organic union with God.
We thank the Lord that He has justified us and made us righteous in Christ; now, being justified by Christ, we can experience Christ as life in a subjective way.
May we daily experience Christ as our objective righteousness and stand on Him, not on our own merit or righteousness, and may we cooperate with the Lord to have Christ wrought into us as our subjective righteousness so that He may be lived out as our righteousnesses!
Amen, may this be done in life and by life, as we grow in life and experience life!
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for being our objective righteousness enabling us to meet the requirement of the righteous God! Amen, Lord, thank You for being our subjective righteousness to enable us to meet the requirement of the overcoming Christ! We give ourselves to You, dear Lord, to enjoy You and experience You day by day in our Christian life. We take You as our objective righteousness and are justified in You. We come forward to God to enjoy God, partake of God, and experience God’s life. We open to You, dear Lord, and we allow You to work Yourself into us to become our subjective righteousnesses, the Christ lived out in us in so many ways all throughout the day! Amen, Lord, bring us into such an enjoyment and experience of Christ!
Living by the Spirit and Life to Experience the Subjective Truths issuing in the Church Life
The subjective truths are not just doctrines; they are linked to the Spirit and life, and they are constituted with the Spirit and life (John 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6).
The truth is one with the Spirit and life, and the truth conveys Spirit and life; these are linked together.
The truth in the Bible is constituted with the Spirit and life. If we remove the Spirit and life from the truth, we have only mere doctrines, which are empty and without any reality or content.
The Spirit and life are the substance of the subjective truths; without the Spirit and life, we don’t have any subjective truths.
The truth in the Bible has two aspects: the objective aspect and the subjective aspect.
The objective aspect is for the subjective aspect, and the subjective truths are related to the Spirit and life.
When we come to the truth to study it, know it, preach it, and propagate it, we should not do this apart from the Spirit and life.
We should not divorce the subjective truth from the Spirit and life. Without experiencing Spirit and life, without living by the Spirit and by life, we cannot have any subjective experience.
When we live by the Spirit and life, we have the experience of the subjective truths, and this issues in the church life (Rom. 8:2, 4; 16:1, 4-5).
Day by day, we as believers in Christ need to experience the Spirit and life, live by the Spirit and life, and experience the subjective truths; the issue will be that we have the real church life.
On one hand, we need to realize that there is the redemptive aspect of God’s salvation, and on the other hand, we are saved in His life much more.
In His full salvation, God is redeeming us through the death of Christ and He is saving us in His life much more.
Objectively, He is redeeming us, justifying us, and reconciling us with Himself through the death of Christ. Subjectively, He is sanctifying us, transforming us, and conforming us by working within us by His life, saving us and sanctifying us in our very nature, in our disposition.
We have a clear picture of this when we come to the Lord’s table; on the table, we have the bread and the cup being displayed.
The cup signifies the blood that the Lord shed for our sins; this blood is for the meeting of the need of redemption, being related to the judicial aspect of God’s salvation.
The bread signifies the Lord Himself as the bread of life and is related to the organic aspect of God’s salvation.
In the Old Testament, in type, the children of Israel had the Passover, and they sprinkled the blood of the lamb and ate the flesh of the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
Today, in the fulfilment of the Passover in the New Testament, we drink the Lord’s blood and eat His flesh; we drink His blood judicially for our redemption, and we eat His flesh organically for our salvation in life. Praise the Lord!
The result of these two items is that we receive God as our eternal life (John 6:54); we eat and drink the Lord so that we may partake of Him and have Him as our eternal life.
This is not mere teaching – this is a subjective truth that we experience in the church life as we experience the Spirit and life.
Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to enjoy and live by the Spirit and life so that we may experience the subjective truths, issuing in the church life. We come to You in Your word, dear Lord, to be infused with You as Spirit and life. Save us from reading the Bible apart from contacting You; save us from doing anything apart from the Spirit and life. We take You as our objective righteousness, we apply Your precious blood, and we come to enjoy God and partake of God as our life and life supply. Amen, Lord, grant us to live by the Spirit and life so that we may have the experience of the subjective truths for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation,” chs. 1-2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing the Truth, being Absolute for the Truth, and Proclaiming the Truth in this Present Evil Age (2021 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 4, The Recovery of the Subjective Truths in the Gospel of John.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Let us rejoice and exult, / And let us give glory to Him, / For the marriage of the Lamb has come, / And His wife has made herself, / Made herself ready. / And it was given her that / She should be clothed in fine linen, / Bright and clean; / For the fine linen is / The righteousnesses of the saints, / of the saints. (Scripture song)
– In Him, who is our righteousness, / Have we been justified; / In Him, who is our holiness, / We’re being sanctified. / Redemption too He is to us, / According to Thy plan, / That we may fully be redeemed / To be a perfect man. (Hymns #24)
– A glorious Bride He is preparing for His wedding day; / She’ll be so bright and pure, fine linen covering her. / O Lord, work in Thy righteousness, this is the only way; / And blessed we will be to join that feast with Thee. (Hymns #1311)
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