As we prayerfully consider the spiritual significance and application of the rainbow, we need to realize that the three basic colors composing it refer to God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, which once excluded the sinful man from God’s presence but are now becoming our reality in Christ.
As seen in Ezekiel chapter 1 – the deepest chapter in the Bible – our experience of the Christian life and of the church life consummates in a rainbow; this chapter starts with the experience of the wind, cloud, fire, and electrum, and finishes with the throne and the rainbow around it.
God’s eternal purpose is to work Himself into us to be our life and everything so that we may take Christ as our person, live Christ, and express Christ; this is the main thing the Bible speaks of.
When we approach any subject in the Bible, whether it is the fire of God’s judgment, the righteousness of God, the throne of God, or the rainbow, we always need to have the central work of God and His eternal purpose in view.
Everything God does relates to His purpose, and everything in our experience in the Christian life and church life should be for God’s purpose.
The rainbow is a sign of God’s faithfulness in keeping His covenant; He entered into a covenant with man and with all living creatures that He will never destroy the earth by water, but will save some people for His glory.
Because man fell, all men are born in sin, rebellious against God, alienated from the life of God, unable to participate in the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
Therefore, God Himself became a man and went through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, and now He is the life-giving Spirit to be imparted into man and regenerate, transform, and glorify man so that He may have a corporate new man who expresses God in His glory and represents Him with His authority.
As we read and pray over Ezekiel 1, we need to ask the Lord to give us the experiences we need that would constitute us to be the same as He is, the rainbow around the throne, for His glorious expression on the earth.
Blue, Red, and Yellow in the Rainbow Signify God’s Righteousness, Holiness, and Glory
A rainbow can be considered as being produced from the combining of three basic colors: blue, red, and yellow; there are many more colors such as orange, green, indigo, and violet, but these can be considered as a combination of the basic colors of red, blue, and yellow.
What do these three colors signify, and how do they apply to our Christian life?
Blue is the color of God’s sapphire throne, and it signifies God’s righteousness. In Psa. 89:14 the foundation of God’s throne is righteousness; the blue throne signifies the righteousness of God. Red is the color of fire which sanctifies, separates, and consumes, referring to God’s holiness. Yellow signifies God’s glory, and is seen in Ezekiel 1 in the glowing electrum.
The three basic colors of the rainbow – blue, red, and yellow – signify God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory as the three main attributes of God.
In Gen. 3:24 God drove man out of the garden of Eden as a result of his fall, and at the east of the garden He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. The footnote on this verse is very enlightening,
God closed the way to the tree of life by means of three items: the cherubim, the flame, and the sword. Cherubim signify God’s glory (cf. Ezek. 9:3; 10:4; Heb. 9:5), the flame signifies God’s holiness (Deut. 4:24; 9:3; Heb. 12:29), and the sword for killing indicates God’s righteousness (cf. Lam. 3:42-43; Rom. 2:5). These attributes of God placed requirements on sinful man. Since sinful man was unable to meet these requirements (Rom. 3:10-18, 23), he was not permitted to contact God as the tree of life, until Christ fulfilled the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness by His all-inclusive death on the cross to open a new and living way for us to enter the Holy of Holies and partake of the tree of life. (Gen. 3:24, footnote 1, Recovery Version Bible)
Because of the fall of man, God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory shut man out, and whenever man wants to come to God, these attributes block the way – unless man has a way to satisfy the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory.
God’s throne judges and condemns sinners, God’s glory cannot be satisfied by any good deeds made by sinners, and God’s holiness cannot be approached by sinful man.
But praise the Lord, Jesus Christ came and, through His death, fulfilled all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, and now the way to God is open again!
On the cross the Lord Jesus satisfied all God’s righteous, holy, and glorious requirements, and His resurrection is a proof that His sacrifice was accepted by God, that God was happy with His death, and that now the way into God is open again!
How we praise the Lord for His all-inclusive death on the cross to open a new and living way for us to enter into the Holy of Holies and partake of Christ as the tree of life (Heb. 10:19-20; Rev. 22:14)!
Lord Jesus, thank You for dying an all-inclusive death on the cross that satisfied the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory. Thank You for being the perfect sacrifice on our behalf to satisfy God, appease Him, and reconcile us back to Him. Hallelujah, the way to the tree of life is now open, and we can come forward to the Holy of Holies and partake of Christ as the tree of life based on the Lord’s shed blood! Thank You Lord Jesus for Your death on the cross on our behalf!
Christ Satisfied God’s Requirements and He is our Righteousness, Holiness, and Glory
Most Christians know that Jesus died for them on the cross, and that now through His shed blood they have access to God to worship Him and receive His salvation. But what the Bible tells us concerning this matter is so much more!
The Lord Jesus died on the cross to satisfy the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, and now in resurrection He is our righteousness, holiness, and glory.
Hallelujah, it is of God that we are in Christ Jesus, who was made wisdom to us from God, both righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).
When Christ died on the cross to accomplish God’s judicial redemption, He had us in view – He had the rainbow in view, knowing that we will become, in Him, God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory. For this joy which was set before Him, Jesus endured the cross and despised the shame, knowing that He will obtain a glorious, bright, wonderful rainbow-city, the New Jerusalem!
Through the Lord’s death not only God’s requirements according to His attributes were satisfied and fulfilled, but His death also leads us into His organic salvation that we may receive Him as our life and everything!
Now based on Christ’s judicial redemption, we can be saved much more in the divine life (Rom. 5:10), and we can enjoy Christ as our life and everything, both as our righteousness and our sanctification and our redemption.
Today we need to experience Christ in such a way that, when others contact us, they can sense righteousness, holiness, and glory. We need to open to the Lord and deal with anything between us and Him so that we may have a clear sky between us and Him, with a throne set above it.
We need to enjoy Christ as our righteousness and have Him lived out of us as our righteousness, being righteous and proper toward others, not loose or careless in any way.
Also, we need to have the shining and glowing electrum in us, letting Christ shine in us by being expressed through us; when we enjoy the Lord and He expresses His humanity through us, others will see God expressed in man and will glorify God.
We need to be those who not only enjoy Christ as our righteousness, holiness, and glory, but also experience Him as our righteousness, holiness, and glory, and even more: become the expression of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, that is, the rainbow!
We were fallen but now have been saved, and we are becoming a testimony of God’s faithfulness in saving us. In all the local churches we need to have the rainbow: the expression of God in man, the living out of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory in many human beings who are sinners redeemed by God!
Lord Jesus, thank You for dying on the cross to satisfy the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, and now You are our righteousness, holiness, and glory. Give us the experiences we need, Lord, that we may become the reality of the rainbow – Your duplication, Your reproduction on earth today. May we have a clear sky with a throne above it so that we may express God’s righteousness. May we be sanctified from the world and saturated with God’s holy element to express God’s holiness. May we have Christ lived out of us in our daily living so that we may manifest God’s glory!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Minoru C. for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, pp. 132-133 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 9 (week 9), The Rainbow — the Consummation of the Experience of the Christian Life and the Church Life.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Oh, how blest the love that spared us, / For the law had judged us dead. / God, to meet the righteous judgment, / Passed it on His Son instead…./ God is holy in His nature, / Holiness is what He is. / In this way He sanctified us, / Makes our nature one with His…./ Glory is God’s true expression, / All He is, in full, expressed; / Final stage of our redemption, / Bodily made manifest. (Hymns #1203)
# 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)
# God is faithful, who has called us, / To His Son’s communion real; / When we share in Christ our wisdom, / He on us His image seals; / Attributes of God wrought in us / Make us righteous, holy, bright! / Soon we, too, will be a rainbow / For His pleasure, His delight! (Song on the rainbow)
About aGodMan
It is very significant that the three primary colors of the rainbow are red, yellow, and blue because they correspond to what we have already seen in Ezekiel. The throne looks like a blue sapphire stone; the electrum is yellow; the fire is red. By their shining and refracting, these three colors combine to make a rainbow.
Blue signifies the throne. According to Psalm 89:14 the foundation of God’s throne is righteousness. This indicates that the blue throne signifies the righteousness of God. Fire signifies the sanctifying, separating, and consuming fire. This means that red here refers to God’s holiness. Yellow signifies God’s glory in the glowing electrum. Therefore, here we have God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, signified by the colors blue, red, and yellow. God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory are three divine attributes that keep sinners away from God. (Life-study of Ezekiel, p. 132, by Witness Lee)
AMEN….
Amen…
But of Him we are in Christ Jesus!
Praise the Lord!