The book of Romans reveals that in every church there must be the base of God’s righteousness, the process of God’s holiness, and the goal of God’s glory to bring us into the heart of God to have the reality of the Body of Christ through the local churches; Christ died as our Substitute on the cross to fulfill God’s righteous requirements for our justification so that He would dispense Himself as life into us.
Amen, Lord Jesus, unveil us to see the base of God’s righteousness, the process of God’s holiness, and the goal of God’s glory in the local church! Hallelujah, God wants to bring us into the heart of God so that we may have the reality of the Body of Christ through the local churches. We love You, Lord, and we open to You. We open to Your divine dispensing as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. May Your divine transmission continually go on in our being so that we may become Your corporate expression, the church as the Body of Christ expressed in the local churches! Amen!
The New Testament shows us not only that God loved us and sent us His Son to die for us; much more than this, what we see in the New Testament is that God Himself came to be incarnate, went through human living, entered into death, accomplished redemption, and was resurrected and ascended.
This is not just a story of Jesus that happened two thousand years ago: this is a timeless story, even an ever-effective matter, for now we can believe into Christ and God makes Him wisdom to us, both righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Wow!
What God wants is to dispense all that He is into us so that we become His corporate expression on the earth. He went through a process to be the life-dispensing Spirit, and now He continually dispenses all that He is into us so that we may become the same as He is, even to be His corporate expression on the earth.
When we repent and believe into the Lord, our spirit becomes zoe – our spirit becomes life, the divine life!
Hallelujah, now our spirit is life because of righteousness! When we set our mind on our spirit, the life-dispensing Spirit spreads into our mind to saturate our inner being, and there’s a process of sanctification going on in our inward being.
Eventually, God will spread His life even into our mortal body to transfigure it and redeem it, and we will become glorious even as He is glorious. This is His marvellous salvation by His divine dispensing! Amen!
In Every Church there must be the Base of God’s Righteousness, the Process of God’s Holiness, and the Goal of God’s glory to bring us into God’s heart to have the Reality of the Body of Christ through the Local Churches
If we read the book of Romans with the glasses of God’s economy, we will see that this book reveals something marvellous.
Romans reveals that in every church there must be the base of God’s righteousness (God’s procedure), the process of God’s holiness (God’s nature), and the goal of God’s glory (God’s expression) – see Rom. 1:17; 8:10; 6:19, 22; 8:18, 21; 9:23; 11:36—12:5; 16:27. Wow, Amen!
In other words, every church must have the base of God’s righteousness as the procedure, the process of God’s holiness with God’s nature, and the goal of God’s glory for God to be expressed.
All this is so that we may be brought into the heart of God to have the reality of the Body of Christ through the local churches.
God’s complete salvation is not only for us as individuals but for Him to gain a corporate expression of Himself.
God is dispensing Himself into us according to the base of God’s righteousness; based on His righteousness, when His righteousness is satisfied, He can dispense Himself into us. God cannot dispense Himself into us unless His righteousness is satisfied and met.
But when we repent and believe into the Lord, God makes Christ our righteousness, and now we can receive God’s dispensing.
God’s dispensing is according to His righteousness, and it is through His holiness. If we look at the sections of the book of Romans, we will see God’s righteousness, God’s holiness, and God’s glory being present.
First, there is the introduction (Rom. 1:1-17) and then there’s a section of condemnation (v. 18-3:20). Then, there are the sections on justification (v. 21 – 5:11), sanctification (v. 12-8:13), and glorification (vv. 14-39).
Here we see God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory.
Romans reveals the tabernacle of God as the Body life realised in the church life (chs. 12—16) with the basic structure of righteousness (3:21—5:11), holiness (v. 12—8:13), and glory (vv. 14-39).
If we look at the picture of the tabernacle, we see the type being fulfilled in the book of Romans.
First, we are justified through Christ’s redemption; this is in the outer court. We need to first be justified, and this is by taking Christ as our righteousness. Then, we need to be sanctified, which is in the Holy Place. Finally, we are being glorified, which is something we experience in the Holy of Holies.
This is something we experience both personally and corporately, for the result is not just our personal enjoyment and experience of Christ but, even more, the tabernacle of God, the church as the house of God, into which we enter.
This is why we say that in every church there must be the base of God’s righteousness, the process of God’s holiness, and the goal of God’s glory.
What is the church life? A very high definition of the church life is that it is the Triune God mingled with His chosen people who are justified, sanctified, glorified, and built together to be the reality of the Body of Christ.
The church life is the tabernacle, the reality of the Body of Christ in the local churches, to consummate in the New Jerusalem, the ultimate tabernacle of God (Rev. 21:3). Hallelujah!
The dispensing of the Triune God is according to His righteousness, taking God’s righteousness as the base.
The dispensing of the Triune God is through His holiness, by means of His sanctification so that we may partake of His holy nature. The dispensing of the Triune God is unto His glory, for He gains a corporate expression of Himself.
The ultimate goal of the dispensing of the Triune God as life is glory, the expression of God in and through the church as the Body of Christ (Rom. 5:17; 6:19-23; 8:18, 21; 16:27; Eph. 3:16-21). How wonderful!
Christ’s death is for God’s righteousness, Christ’s resurrection is for God’s holiness, and Christ’s ascension is for God’s glory!
Amen, when Christ comes back, the glorification of His saints will be consummated! He went through a wonderful process, and now we are going through a process in order for us and Him, Him and us, to be built together into a corporate dwelling place of God, the tabernacle of God, the corporate expression of God!
Amen, by means of His procedure, way, and goal, He is gaining His glory, His corporate expression! Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, unveil us to see that in every church there must be the base of God’s righteousness, the process of God’s holiness, and the goal of God’s glory! Hallelujah, we were justified by God through faith in Christ, and Christ became our righteousness. We praise You, Lord, for Your procedure of righteousness. Keep us in the process of being sanctified today so that Your holy element would be wrought into us to become our very constitution. Amen, Lord, may You gain Your glory in the church! Praise the Lord, the church life is the Triune God mingled with His chosen people who are justified, sanctified, glorified, and built together! Amen, Lord, gain such a group of people under the divine dispensing who are the reality of the Body of Christ in the local churches to consummate in the New Jerusalem! Praise the Lord, God is in the process of gaining His ultimate tabernacle, the New Jerusalem to express God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory for eternity! Hallelujah! Amen!
As our Substitute, Christ Died on the Cross for us to Fulfill God’s Righteous Requirements for our Justification so that He can Dispense Himself as Life into us
The matter of God’s righteousness is first; God dispenses Himself into us according to the procedure of His righteousness, that is, based on His righteousness. Amen! According to God’s righteousness, we all should die because of sin.
The soul that sins shall die. Not only did we need to be punished but death was our recompense. But if we had died, we would have perished; however, God does not want us to perish, so He sent Christ to be our righteousness.
As our Substitute, Christ died on the cross for us in order to fulfill God’s righteous requirements for our justification so that He could dispense Himself as life into us (John 19:34; Rom. 1:17; 3:23-25; 5:18; Rev. 22:14).
He died in our stead; He died as our Substitute to fulfil God’s righteous requirements. He didn’t just die to redeem us; He died as our substitute so that He can dispense Himself as life into us. Now through faith in Christ, our spirit is life because of righteousness.
It is because Christ fulfilled the demands of God’s righteousness that He can become our righteousness, and our spirit can be life, the divine life. In God’s eyes, nothing is more righteous than for us to die; if we die, we are righteous in every way.
However, if we refuse to die, we are not righteous; we do not behave righteously, and we are not righteous toward God, toward ourselves, toward others, and even in the way we handle material possessions.
To be righteous before God, we need not only to be washed but also we need to die; when we die, we’re spontaneously justified. We believers in Christ have died with Christ, and by faith in Him, we live in oneness with Him, remaining in His death.
If we live in a natural way, we are unrighteous; but if we experience the death of the cross, we will be righteous in everything, with everyone, and in every way. A proper Christian is one who has died with Christ and who conducts Himself daily according to this fact.
Paul testified of this when he said that he is crucified with Christ and that he dies daily (Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 3:9).
Only the death of Christ and our death with Christ fulfill the requirements of God’s righteousness to give God the ground to righteously dispense Himself into us as the divine life so that we may be filled with life, even swallowed up by life, to be the city of life (Rom. 8:10, 6, 11; 2 Cor. 5:4).
By faith in Christ, we are one with Him, and we partake of His death; we need to remain in His death, dying to ourselves and to the natural man, so that Christ may life in us.
When we remain in the death of Christ, when we experience Christ as our Substitute and we are crucified with Him, we are righteous before God, and we can enjoy the divine dispensing of the Triune God into us as life. Hallelujah!
May we see not only that Christ died but even more, that we were crucified with Christ.
The penalty of the law is death, and this penalty has been paid by Christ, for He died as our Substitute. Now we are one with Him; we died with Him, and we die daily.
The debt to the law has been paid, and He can be our life in resurrection. He can dispense Himself into us as life to make us the city of life, New Jerusalem. Hallelujah!
For us to live and serve as ministers of the new covenant, we need to take the way of righteousness, the living out and genuine expression of Christ (Matt. 3:13-17; 21:32).
This is how the Lord Jesus lived and served; He was not only baptised to testify that in His flesh He’s good for nothing but death and burial, but He also took the way of righteousness in His daily living.
We need to recognise that we do not have any qualification to be a servant of God, that as a man in the flesh we are good for nothing except death and burial. This is our experience also today.
Lord Jesus, we open to Your divine dispensing by Your procedure of righteousness today! Thank You, dear Lord, for dying as our Substitute on the cross! Thank You for dying to fulfil God’s righteous requirements for our justification! Hallelujah, by faith in Christ and His redeeming work, we are justified! Praise the Lord, now that we have Christ as our righteousness and we are justified, God can dispense Himself as life into us! Amen, Lord, dispense Yourself into us as life. Make us proper Christians who have died with Christ and who conduct themselves daily according to this fact! Save us from living in a natural way; may we experience the death of the cross by being one with Christ so that we may be righteous in every way, with every one, and in everything! Praise the Lord, only the death of Christ and our death with Christ fulfil the requirements of God’s righteousness and give God the ground to righteously dispense Himself as the divine life into our entire being! Amen, Lord, we are one with You in Your death today! Dispense Yourself as life into our being and swallow our whole being by life so that we may become the city of life! Amen!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Romans, pp. 619-622, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Ministry of the Word and God’s Dispensing for God’s Economy (2026 March ITERO), week 8, “The Dispensing of the Triune God as Life into the Tripartite Man according to His Righteousness, through His Holiness, and unto His Glory” – day 5.
- Hymns on this topic:
– We praise Thee for Thy righteousness; / Thy justice, Father, we confess, / And fully testify. / Thou art the judge of all mankind, / In Thee injustice none can find, / Nor wrong to Thee apply. / 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 stanzas 1-2)
– 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. / 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. / Hallelujah! Our Redeemer, / Christ, to God has purchased us; / Now enjoying His redemption, / We become God’s righteousness. (Hymns #1203 stanzas 1-2)
– Thou art to us our righteousness, / All God requires to meet; / In Thee we all are justified, / In Thee we are complete. / Thou art to us our holiness / That we may be transformed; / In Thee we all are sanctified, / To Thee we’ll be conformed. / Thou art to us redemption too, / That we Thy likeness bear; / Transfigured will our bodies be / Thy liberty to share. (Hymns #197 stanzas 3-5)
