As those who have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, we desire to be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness but the righteousness of God, taking Christ as our subjective righteousness.
Our pattern in the Lord is the apostle Paul; he used to be for the law and in the law, but after he met Christ, he was found by others in Christ. He had the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, and on account of this, he counted all things as loss and even suffered the loss of all things, so that he may gain Christ and be found in Him.
This should be our situation today also; we have seen something of Christ, and day by day we see more glimpses of the excellency of Christ, being therefore motivated to drop all other things and count only Christ as the most excellent One.
Just as in the physical realm we may consider a certain item – for example one of the new iPads or gadgets – to be very precious, and we pay a very high price to gain it and have it, so in the spiritual realm Christ becomes more and more precious to us to the point that we count all things loss on account of Him.
When we count all things as loss and seek to gain Christ, we will be found by others in Christ. Our desire is to know Christ, enjoy Christ, be saturated with Christ, and be found in Christ, so that all may see us and discover us in Christ.
Where are we today? We may be at home, at work, travelling, or doing something, but are we in Christ? Do others find us in Christ, or do they find us in our morality, ethics, religion, culture, or behavior?
Where others find us indicates where we live, the realm in which we live.
If we see the excellency of Christ, if we take Christ as our life and person and live Him and experience Him, we will gain Christ, and we will be found by others in Him.
Our desire should be that we would be saturated with Christ and filled with Him, having our daily life with all its activities in the realm of Christ; we want to be found by all in Christ.
Deep within Paul was the aspiration that he would have his whole being immersed in Christ and saturated with Christ, so that all who would observe him – whether spiritual of human beings – might find him fully in Christ.
Our earnest desire should be to be found in Christ. Today we want to see more concerning the condition in which others should find us – not our own righteousness but the righteousness of God!
Being Found in the Righteousness of God, taking Christ as our Subjective Righteousness
Paul’s desire was to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness but the righteousness of God (Phil. 3:9).
He wanted to be found in Christ in a condition of not having his own righteousness which is out of the law, but having the righteousness that is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith.
Paul used to have his own righteousness, which was given to him by the law, but now he wanted God’s righteousness, that is, a proper and upright living, a life that is right, by taking Christ as his subjective righteousness.
There are two aspects of Christ as the righteousness for the believers; first He is our righteousness for us to be justified by God objectively, and second, He is our righteousness lived out of us as the manifestation of God.
The first aspect is Christ being the believers’ righteousness for them to be justified by God objectively (see Rom. 3:24-26; Acts 13:39; Gal. 3:24b).
When we believe in Christ and apply His blood, we are clothed in white garments; we can all come before God the Father in faith and peace, for we are justified and Christ is our righteousness.
The second aspect is Christ being the believers’ righteousness lived out of them as the manifestation of God, who is the righteousness in Christ given to the believers for them to be justified subjectively (Rom. 4:25; 1 Pet. 2:24a; James 2:24; Matt. 5:20; Rev. 19:8).
Hallelujah, now God can approve our inner being and our living because our living manifests the Christ who dwells in our spirit.
If we aspire to be a part of the bride, we should be actively wearing our wedding garments, which is the righteousnesses of the saints; these signify the innumerable acts of living Christ in particular situations.
When we are one spirit with the Lord, taking Him as our person, we allow Him to live in us, and we express Him through our soul; this expression is bright, radiant righteousnesses.
The subjective righteousness of God in Phil. 3:9 is actually God Himself becoming our daily living, a living that is right with God and man.
If we are right with God and man, we will not have any self-effort to keep the human law or to live according to our conscience, for we take Christ as our subjective righteousness, our lived-out righteousness.
Paul didn’t want to live in his own righteousness, the righteousness that comes from man’s effort to keep the law (Phil. 3:6, 9).
He tried so hard to keep the law, but when he saw Christ, he counted all as loss and even suffered the loss of all things, realising that it was a waste of time to try to be righteous.
Christ is our righteousness; he lives in us, He lives out in us, and He wants to be our subjective righteousness, our lived-out righteousness everywhere and all the time.
Wherever we are, whatever we do, we can take Christ as our righteousness and let Him live in us the many subjective righteousnesses, which become our wedding garment!
Lord Jesus, You are our righteousness; live in us and be our subjective righteousness everywhere and all the time! Hallelujah, Christ is both our objective righteousness before God to make us acceptable before Him, and He is also our subjective righteousness, the lived-out righteousness in our daily living. Thank You Lord, we are not only justified by God objectively but we can also have Christ lived out in us subjectively as our subjective righteousness in our daily living! Praise the Lord!
Being Found in Christ, having Christ as our Subjective Righteousness in Faith
Paul desired to live in the righteousness of God and be found in the condition of expressing God by living Christ; if we would be found in Christ, we must be in such a condition (Phil. 1:20-21).
On one side Christ is being added to us, and on the other, we are going through many things arranged by God for our self-made righteousness to be broken and terminated until we are reduced to nothing.
Job went through this process; he had the knowledge of God but he didn’t have God’s presence, and he expressed his self-made righteousness but not the living out of God.
Therefore, when God appeared to him, he abhorred himself, realising that he heard of God by the hearing of the ear, having the knowledge of God, but now he saw God.
We may be good, ethical, moral, and spiritual people, but we need to be willing for the discipline of the Spirit to be such that the Lord will deal with our kind of righteousness and help us take Christ as our subjective righteousness in faith.
What a great release it is when we are delivered from our self-made righteousness and the tree of knowledge of good and evil no longer governs our mind but rather, it has the axe laid at its root.
How can we tell when someone’s righteousness is his own or the expression of God? It’s not easy to tell doctrinally, but it is easy by “smelling” its scent; when we sense a pleasant scent of Christ, we can clearly tell that Christ lives in someone, being his righteousness, and he takes Christ as his subjective righteousness.
When we love someone, it is easy to smell whether it is a natural love or the love of the Lord expressed through us; when the Lord’s love is expressed, there’s a love that is heavenly fresh, pure, sweet, and divine.
This is the righteousness which is out of God and based on faith, for it is the loving God being manifested through His children. This righteousness, Christ as our subjective righteousness, is based on faith and it is conditioned by faith.
Such a righteousness doesn’t come by our efforts, our endeavours, or our struggles; rather, it is something spontaneous, something lived out of us.
Christ is being infused into us to be our faith, and we seek to gain Him, live in Him, and even rest in Him; we have been crucified with Christ, and the life we now live in the flesh we live in faith, the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself up for us (Gal. 2:20).
Our living today is in faith, being conditioned by Christ’s faith; it is based on the faith of Christ, not on a faith that we ourselves can produce. Hallelujah, Christ is our life; He is our faith, and by faith we put ourselves aside and we take Christ as our life.
So because we have no trust in our flesh, we set it aside, we take Christ by faith, and we live by Him; spontaneously, God is lived out of us, He is manifested through us, and He is expressed from within us.
May the Lord have a way to bring us into such a condition and situation, in which we all can be found in Christ, having Christ as our subjective righteousness, so that all may be able to tell that we are in a condition of having God lived out of us! Amen!
Lord Jesus, we simply care for Christ being enjoyed by us, lived in us, expressed through us, and manifested in us. We take You as our life, Lord, and we rest in You; we exercise our spirit of faith to deny the self, reject the flesh, and take Christ by faith to live Him! Amen, Lord, we desire to live in the righteousness of God and to be found in the condition of expressing God by living Christ! In ourselves we can’t make it, we can’t bear it, and we can’t do it – but we say Amen to Your word, we stop our trying, and we let You live in us, flow in us, and be expressed through us!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Să fim găsiți în Cristos, avându-L pe Cristos ca dreptatea noastră subiectivă trăită la exterior.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1978, vol. 1, “The Experience of Christ,” chs. 13-14, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Experience of Christ (2019 Memorial Day Conference), week 6, Being Found in Christ, Knowing Christ, and Pursuing Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# All I have in Adam is but sin and death, / I in Christ inherit life and righteousness; / When in flesh abiding, Adam I express, / But when in the spirit Christ is manifest. (Hymns #593)
# 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)
# God’s Christ, who is my righteousness, / My beauty is, my glorious dress; / Midst flaming worlds, in this arrayed, / With joy shall I lift up my head. (Hymns #295)
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