Our God is Righteous, and we Died to Sins so that we might Live to Righteousness

The government of God is the governmental administration of the righteous, holy, faithful, and loving God; God is righteous, His government is established upon righteousness, and we died to sin so that we may live to righteousness.

Our wise God is a perfecting Father who loves His children and deals with them governmentally, based upon His righteousness; He disciplines His children for the purpose of perfecting them.

Many think that, once we become a Christian, there will be no more problems or suffering, but prosperity and joy waits for us in our Christian life.

However, our God has two systems – the system of grace in which He gives Himself freely to us for our enjoyment, and the system of government in which He rules and governs over all things for His purpose.

According to the system of grace, whoever believes into the Lord and confesses with his mouth that Jesus is Lord receives eternal life; he then is organically joined to Christ and made one spirit with Him.

According to the system of government, God rules and reigns over all things, and He arranges all things to discipline His children and judge them so as to remove anything that doesn’t match His holy nature.

So on one hand we are enjoying God and we breathe Him in as the Spirit, partaking of His divine nature and being infused with His very being.

On the other hand, however, we are under God’s discipline, and we need to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.

Even the Lord Jesus, who was God incarnated to be a man to live a perfect human life, express God, and accomplish redemption – even He Himself was under God’s judgement as a man, and He had to submit to the rule and governing of the Father.

We see this in particular with the children of Israel who, in their wilderness journey, were under God’s judgement and discipline again and again, as their nature was exposed through their murmuring and rebellion.

We do not know what is in our being, but God does; so He arranges all things to work for good, and as our natural being, our flesh, our self, and our natural man is exposed, He judges and disciplines because He loves us.

The system of government is to safeguard us and ground us in the Lord’s love so that we may enjoy all that He is!

Today we want to see that the government of God is to allow us to inherit God, for Him to give Himself to us and lavish Himself upon us, so that He would be everything to us.

The One we are to receive through that government administration is reflected by this governmental administration; we receive the righteous, holy, faithful, and loving God.

God is Righteous and His Government is Established upon Righteousness

Our God is righteous, and His government is established upon righteousness (see 1 John 1:9; Rev. 15:3; Psa. 89:14).

When we repent and confess our sins, we are cleansed and all our unrighteousness is washed away, based on His righteousness. He is the One who is righteous and true, and righteousness is the very foundation of His throne, of His government.

God’s government requires righteousness; righteousness therefore is a matter of God’s government (1 Pet. 2:23-24).

Righteousness is the main factor based upon which God’s governmental judgement is applied to all creatures in the old creation. Righteousness is related to God’s outward acts, is ways and actions and activities, for everything that God does is righteous.

In Rev. 15:3 the overcomers sang the song of Moses, the slave of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and wonderful are Your works, Lord God Almighty, righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations.

Righteousness here is used to characterize the Lord’s ways; by knowing Him in His government, as the One who is righteous in His government, we know God in His ways, in His principles.

Once we know God in His government as the righteous One in His principles, we will not be discouraged or stumbled by what happens to us, for we know His ways and, based upon His ways, we know that He will accomplish His works.

God’s works will come, they will ensue, based upon His righteousness; His righteousness ensures the working out of all that is on God’s heart.

The righteousness of God is what God is in His actions with respect to justice and righteousness (1 John 1:9; Rev. 16:7).

Righteousness is related to the kingdom of God; the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). God’s throne is established with righteousness as its foundation (Psa. 89:14).

It is God’s righteousness that assures us that, regardless of what happens, we can’t be lost. Righteousness in the system of government protects the system of grace.

In His grace and love God is not obligated to forgive us, but in the system of righteousness, His Son Jesus Christ fulfilled all righteousness and died for us, and now for God not to forgive us is unrighteous!

Our forgiveness of sins and our eternal salvation are unquestionable and irreversible because of God’s righteousness, which is the base of His throne and His first aspect in His government. Where God’s righteousness is, there His kingdom is also (Isa. 32:1; Heb. 1:8-9).

He as a king will reign according to righteousness, and we as the many rulers will rule with justice. Praise the Lord, the scepter of His uprightness is the scepter of His kingdom, and He will reign forever based on His righteousness!

We praise You Lord for Your righteousness, the foundation of Your throne! Thank You that, based on Your righteousness, we are forgiven, cleansed, and washed from all unrighteousness whenever we confess our sins and apply the precious blood of Christ! Amen, Lord, we want to know God in His ways, His actions, and activities, realizing that everything God does is righteous. We praise You our righteous God and we submit to Your government, which is established upon righteousness!

In the Death of Christ we have Died to Sins so that we might Live to Righteousness

According to 1 Pet. 2:2, in the death of Christ we have died to sins so that we might live to righteousness. He bore up our sins upon the tree, and we died in Him and with Him; now we should no longer live in sin but live to righteousness.

As God’s people living under His government, we must live a righteous life (Matt. 5:20; 1 John 2:29; 3:7).

To die to sins literally means “being away from sins”; Christ carried up our sins onto the cross and died, and His death terminated us – this termination can keep us away from sin.

The best way for a person to be kept from sin or sins is to be put to death; no matter how many sins a person may commit, death separates us from his sins.

Through Christ’s death we can be kept away from sins so that we may live to righteousness. We need to allow the cross to operate in us subjectively and put us to death daily so that we may be dead to sin and live to righteousness.

Daily we are undergoing the inward working of the cross of Christ, and daily we’re being made alive so that we may live to righteousness.

If we remain in the death of Christ by exercising our spirit to be in the mingled spirit, it will not be difficult for us to overcome sins and live to righteousness.

The objective cross, therefore, needs to become subjective in our experience; this all depends on the working of the life-giving Spirit within us.

When we call on the name of the Lord, fellowship with Him, and pray to contact Him, the life-giving Spirit operates within us; spontaneously the cross works in us subjectively to separate us from sins and cause us to live to righteousness.

The expression “live to righteousness” is related to fulfilling of God’s governmental requirements.

We were saved so that we might live rightly under the government of God, that is, that we may live in a way that matches the righteous requirement of His government.

In Christ’s death we have been separated from sins, and in His resurrection we have been enlivened so that in our Christian life we might live spontaneously to righteousness under the government of God (Rom. 6:8, 10:11, 18; Eph. 2:5-6; John 14:19; 2 Tim. 2:11).

He died for us that we may live with Him, we are no longer enslaved to sin but are seated with Him in the heavenlies, and as He lives, so also we shall live!

Christ died for us so that we may live with Him the same kind of life that He lived – a living in righteousness, a living out of His righteousness, based upon His death for us on the cross.

Because God’s government requires righteousness, 2 Pet. 3:13 says, According to His promise we are expecting new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

The consummation of His work in us and on the earth is that the enlarged personified righteousness of the Lord Himself – who is righteousness and became our righteousness – will dwell in the new heaven and the new earth.

Everything will be in order; everything will be headed up and regulated. Everything will be governed, controlled, and under the proper rule, for the throne of God, the kingdom of God, the divine administration, will be there, and the result will be peace and joy (Rom. 14:17; 15:13, 33).

When we allow the cross to operate in us by the exercise of our spirit, we will live to righteousness; by this righteousness as the basis of the church life and the kingdom of God, we will enjoy peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah!

Thank You Lord Jesus for bearing up our sins in Your body on the tree in order that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. Thank You for terminating us through Your death and enlivening us in Your resurrection so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin but live to righteousness! We want to cooperate with the inward working of the cross of Christ so that we may be daily made alive and live to righteousness. Oh Lord Jesus, we call on Your name, we remain in fellowship with You, and we allow You as the life-giving Spirit to operate within us to separate us from sin so that we may live to righteousness in the church life as the kingdom of God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Rick Scatterday for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Peter, msg. 21 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Deuteronomy, week 2, The Governmental Administration of the Righteous, Holy, Faithful, and Loving God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – 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)
  – When I am in Adam, though I may not sin, / Unto death, a sinner, sentenced I have been; / When in Christ I need not righteously to act, / I’m already righteous, justified in fact. (Hymns #593)
  – God is righteous in His doings, / He is perfect in His ways; / Just is He in all His actions, / And He well deserves our praise. / Righteous was His condemnation, / Righteous His requirement; / For the law had deemed us sinners, / And for judgment we were meant. (Hymns #1203)