The third matter in the kernel of the book of Jeremiah is what Christ is to us; He is the righteous Shoot, the Shoot of David, and He is Jehovah our righteousness – He became a man, died for us, became our righteousness, and came into us as the law of the Spirit of life.
On one hand we see what God wants from us, on the other hand we see what we are in our fallen condition, and finally we see what Christ is to us.
In ourselves we have no chance; we are sinful, our heart is deceitful and incurable, and our very nature is evil and unchangeable.
But praise the Lord, we can come to the Lord in His word, we can be in His light and be exposed of our sins and uncleanness, and we can apply the precious blood of Christ to be washed, cleansed, and restored to the Lord in fellowship.
As believers in Christ we still have a deceitful and incurable heart, and our nature is still evil and unchangeable, but the Lord came in us as the law of the Spirit of life, and He shines on us through His word in our fellowship with Him!
When we see the Lord in His word, when we are enlightened and then exposed of our situation and condition, we can repent, confess, and return to the Lord in fellowship, applying the blood of Christ to restore our fellowship with Him.
Furthermore, when we see God and are enlightened by Him, we abhor ourselves, we deny ourselves, and enjoy God, receive God into our being, and gain God. Seeing God both exposes us of our sinfulness and uncleanness, and causes us to gain God, be transformed into His image, thus bringing us to the point that we express God and represent Him.
In seeing God, we receive His element into us; at the same time, our old, natural, fallen element is gradually being discharged, and we gain more of God.
We need to be in a constant fellowship with the Lord, contacting Him in spirit, learning to pray over His word, calling on His name, and fellowshipping with fellow believers, so that more of our self would be denied and put aside, and more of Christ would be wrought into us and manifested out of us.
May we learn to pray over the Lord’s word in many ways and at many times during the day, may we pray short prayers to contact Him, and may we breathe constantly by calling on the name of the Lord, so that we may be in a constant beholding of the Lord to reflect Him.
Christ is the Righteous Shoot of David, and His name is, Jehovah our Righteousness
Jeremiah reveals what Christ is to us; in Jer. 23:56 we see that Jehovah declares that He will raise up to David a righteous shoot, and the name by which He is called is, Jehovah our righteousness.
Jehovah, who is Jesus as our salvation, He is our righteousness.
A shoot means a branch, something that springs up; it is a branch with the sending out of new growth. Christ was a righteous shoot, and He came out of David.
He is a new development of God for Jehovah’s increase. Christ as the righteous Shoot denotes the riches, the refreshing, the vigor, the growth, and the productive power of the divine life.
When we touch Christ as the Shoot of Jehovah, we are touching this.
Jehovah our righteousness refers to Christ in His divinity, and “a righteous Shoot”, to Christ in His humanity.
This name, Jehovah our righteousness, indicates that Christ is not merely a man but also the very Jehovah who created the heavens and the earth, selected Abraham, established the race of Israel, and was the Lord of David, the One whom he called Lord (Matt. 22:42-45; cf. Rev. 5:5; 22:16).
Christ in His divinity is Jehovah our righteousness; a righteous Shoot is Christ in His humanity. What a wonderful Christ we have!
Christ becomes one with us to be our righteousness, for He is made our righteousness by God based on His redemption (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21).
As the righteous Shoot, Christ came in the flesh as the descendent of David to die on the cross; He shed His blood to wash away our sins and accomplish redemption (Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:22; 1 Pet. 1:18-19), and now we can believe and receive God’s forgiveness.
Hallelujah, Christ came as the Shoot of David, the righteous Shoot, to die for us, accomplish redemption, and even more, to become our righteousness!
When we believe into Christ, we receive God’s forgiveness (Acts 10:43), and God justifies us (Rom. 3:24, 25), making Christ our righteousness, and He clothes us with the robe of righteousness (Isa. 61:10).
![Jehovah our righteousness [in Jeremiah 23:6] refers to Christ in His divinity, and a righteous Shoot (v. 5), to Christ in His humanity. The name here indicates that Christ, as a descendant of David, is not merely a man but is also the very Jehovah who created the heavens and the earth, selected Abraham, established the race of Israel, and was the Lord of David, the One whom he called Lord (Matt. 22:42-45; cf. Rev. 5:5; 22:16). Jer. 23:6, footnote 1, Recovery Version Bible](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Jehovah-our-righteousness-in-Jeremiah-23_6-refers-to-Christ-in-His-divinity-and-a-righteous-Shoot.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "Jehovah our righteousness [in Jeremiah 23:6] refers to Christ in His divinity, and a righteous Shoot (v. 5), to Christ in His humanity. The name here indicates that Christ, as a descendant of David, is not merely a man but is also the very Jehovah who created the heavens and the earth, selected Abraham, established the race of Israel, and was the Lord of David, the One whom he called Lord (Matt. 22:42-45; cf. Rev. 5:5; 22:16). Jer. 23:6, footnote 1, Recovery Version Bible")
Now we are qualified and enabled to go on to receive Christ as embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9) to be our life (Col. 3:4), our inner law of life (Jer. 31:3), and our everything!
God doesn’t leave us, His people, in our captivity or in our being distracted; on one hand He is disciplining His people, and on the other, He comes to be our everything, especially our righteousness.
In Jer. 23 we see that, while God was condemning, punishing, and chastising Israel, He intended to be incarnated as a Shoot unto David so that He could be their righteousness.
When Christ came as Jehovah being their righteousness, the evil race of Israel can be restored.
Eventually, God will restore Israel, Israel will manifest Christ, Christ will be their righteousness; Christ will be their centrality (their being) and their universality (their expression), and this will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
How we praise the Lord that Christ came to be the righteous Shoot, the Shoot of David, a new development of God in humanity, so that He may become, Jehovah our righteousness! Hallelujah, Christ is our righteousness!
Thank You Lord Jesus for not giving up on us when we are distracted and far away from You. Thank You for coming as the righteous Shoot, a new development of God in humanity, so that You may become our righteousness! Hallelujah, God was incarnated to be the Shoot of David, a tender, living, and fresh sprout of God in humanity, and He died for us, He was resurrected, and now He is our righteousness! Praise the Lord, Jehovah is our righteousness! Amen, Lord, we believe into You. We come to You as we are, we open to You, and we take You as our righteousness so that we may enjoy God as life, inner law of life, and everything! Amen, praise the Lord!
God made Christ our Righteousness; now we can Receive Christ as Life, Law of Life, and Everything through His dispensing
What is Christ to us? He is the Shoot of David in His humanity and Jehovah Himself as the Lord of David in His divinity to be the righteousness of God’s people. Wow!
On one hand Christ is the Lord of David, the One whom David called Lord; on the other hand, Christ is the Son of David, the One who came out of David in His humanity.
To the Pharisees and the Jewish opposers the Lord said, Who is the Christ, the Son of David or the Lord of David? This is the question of questions: who is the Christ?
On one hand He is the Son of God and on the other He is the Son of Man.
God made this Christ, who is the God-man, to be our righteousness; with His redemption as the basis, we can believe into Christ to receive the forgiveness from God, God can justify us and clothe us with Christ as the robe of righteousness, and we are accepted by God.
To be justified by God is to be accepted by Him according to His standard of righteousness, which is Christ Himself as our robe of righteousness.
In Isa. 61:10 we see that God clothes us with garments of salvation, and He wraps us with robes of righteousness.
Christ is the robes of righteousness wrapped around us, and we are both covered, protected, qualified, and adorned with Christ as our righteousness. Hallelujah!
Outwardly we are justified, having Christ as our righteousness; this opens the way for us to receive Christ as our life and everything.
God doesn’t only give Christ to us as our robe of righteousness; He gives us Christ as the divine life to be wrought into our inner being (Jer. 31:33).
On one hand Christ is our righteousness; on the other hand, He is our life, our life supply, and even the law of life which works in us to dispense into our being all that God is in His rich being.
God cannot dispense what He is into us unless we are in the proper position, having the right standing.
But once we believe into Him and Christ becomes our righteousness, we are qualified to receive the divine dispensing, and the divine life comes into us to function as a spontaneous, automatic, and innate power to deliver us from the law of sin and of death and impart the life of God into all the parts of our inner being.
May we learn to take Christ as our righteousness, experiencing Him as the righteous Shoot, the shoot of David, and may we open to Him to receive His life and allow Him to operate in us as the law of life to fill us with the Triune God. Amen!
May we experience being wrapped in the robes of righteousness, being so enthralled by the Lord’s work on the cross for us that we open to Him and enjoy Him!
May we realize we are covered with Christ our righteousness, and may we allow the Lord to be our life, our inner law of life, and our everything, so that God would dispense Himself into our entire being for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy!
Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your wonderful redemption; we can believe into Christ to receive forgiveness of sins, and God can justify us and clothe us with Christ as the robe of righteousness. Hallelujah, it is of God that we are in Christ Jesus, whom God made our righteousness and sanctification and redemption! Praise the Lord, Christ being our righteousness opens the way for Him to enter into us as our life, our inner law of life, and our everything! Amen, Lord, we open to You, we allow You to be our life and our everything, and we simply receive Your dispensing! Dispense Yourself into our entire being for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Jeremiah, msg. 2 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, week 2, The Kernel of the Book of Jeremiah.
- Hymns on this topic:
– 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. / Lord, I believe Thy precious blood, / Which, at the mercy seat of God, / Forever doth for sinners plead, / For me, e’en for my soul, was shed. (Hymns #295)
– So subjective is my Christ to me! / Real in me, and rich and sweet! / All-inclusive is my Christ to me! / All my needs He fully meets. / Christ to me is so subjective, / Life imparting all the way; / As the Spirit He revives me / And refreshes day by day. (Hymns #537)
– How wonderful redemption is, / My gracious Lord, in Thee! / Not seen, nor heard, nor e’er conceived / What Thou hast done for me! /… Since we’re Thy Body, Thou may come / And settle down in us; / In us Thou may obtain Thy home / And we become Thy trust. (Hymns #116)
