In Christ we are Becoming the Righteousness, Holiness, and Glory of God – the Rainbow

As believers in Christ, we are in Christ and we bear Christ as righteousness, holiness, and glory – in God’s eyes we look like righteousness, holiness, and glory, and we have the appearance of a rainbow (1 Cor. 1:30)!

On the one hand, the rainbow around the throne of God is a sign of God’s faithfulness to His word in His covenant that He will no longer fully destroy man by water but will spare some for His glory.

On the other hand, the rainbow is the glorious and wonderful expression of God in Christ as righteousness, holiness, and glory.

These three attributes of God excluded the sinful man from contacting God and enjoying God as the tree of life, but now they are becoming our reality and expression as we are in Christ, allowing God to saturate us with Christ day by day.

When you look at the throne of God, the throne itself is of sapphire stone (blue), and the appearance of the man on the throne is of fire (red) and electrum (yellow) – the entire scene is a rainbow, which is around God’s throne.

Because we as fallen men were unable to fulfill the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, we were not permitted to contact God as the tree of life, until Christ came to fulfill these requirements by His all-inclusive death on the cross.

Hallelujah, Jesus Christ died on the cross for us, and He His death fulfilled the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory; now there is a new and living way for us to enter into the Holy of Holies and partake of Christ as the tree of life.

After He died and was buried, on the third day the Lord was resurrected by God; God approved Christ’s sacrifice and was satisfied with His vicarious death, and in His resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit to impart His life into us.

Now all those who believe into Christ are being put in Christ, and in Christ we have Christ as our righteousness, holiness, and glory, and even more: we become the expression and manifestation of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, for we are being constituted with Christ.

Wow! We are becoming the rainbow-church, the rainbow-city, the expression of the glorious Christ to bear the attributes of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory! Today we want to see how these three attributes of God – righteousness, holiness, and glory – are being wrought into us as we are in Christ.

In ourselves we are short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23), we are under God’s righteous judgment, and we are kept away by God’s holiness. But now, as believers, we are in Christ, and He has become our righteousness, holiness, and glory. Moreover, because we are in Christ, we even bear Christ as righteousness, holiness, and glory. Because we are in Christ, in the sight of God we look like righteousness, holiness, and glory. (Life-study of Ezekiel, pp. 132-133, by W. Lee)

Christ is our Righteousness, and in Christ, we are Becoming the Righteousness of God

God is righteous; righteousness is the foundation of His throne, and righteousness issues from God for His administration (see Psa. 89:14; 97:2; Isa. 32:1). Righteousness is related to God’s acts, his actions, his ways, and His activities; everything that God does is righteous.

God is just and right, and whatever God is in His justice and righteousness constitutes His righteousness.

The righteousness of God is Christ to be our righteousness; God made Christ to be our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30), so that we may be made God’s righteousness in Him.

Through faith in Christ we become righteous, for Christ becomes our righteousness; through Christ’s redemption, we are reconciled to the righteous God, and we are made a new creation living to God for His eternal purpose.

Furthermore, in God’s organic salvation He is not only making us righteous objectively before God, but He is also working Himself as the righteousness of God into us so that we may become the righteousness of God in Christ. Wow!

Once, the righteousness of God kept us away from Him so that we would not be judged and condemned by Him, but now He has become our righteousness by faith in Him, He justifies us, and He is working Himself into us to make us righteous and even make us righteousness itself before God in Christ!

We become the righteousness of God in Christ, as we live in the mingled spirit. Hallelujah, we are in the process of becoming the righteousness of God – this is God’s organic salvation, resulting in a rainbow!

Lord Jesus, thank You for becoming our righteousness before God so that we may be righteous before our righteous God. Thank You for working Yourself into us to be our subjective righteousness which is lived out of us, so that we may become the righteousness of God in Christ. Keep us in the process of God’s organic salvation until we are fully becoming God’s righteousness in Christ and God will get all the glory and praise in the church!

We are becoming Holy by having God in us, by being in God, and by being Saturated with God

What does it mean that God is holy? We should deny our own natural concept and come to the Bible to be shined on by the Lord and see that our God is holy, distinct, and different from anything that is common; holiness is a distinct quality of His nature.

Holiness is not mere sinlessness or perfection; God is holy, and holiness is His nature. The way God makes us holy is by first sanctifying us unto Himself from everything else other than God, and then by saturating us and permeating us with His nature.

As believers in Christ, we are partakers of the divine nature, which is holy (2 Pet. 1:4); as we enjoy the promises of God in His word, we partake of God’s holy nature and our whole being is permeated with Him to be made holy, the same as God Himself in His nature.

Being holy doesn’t mean that we separate ourselves physically from everyone else and live in the desert “for God”; rather, being holy is being mingled with God, who is holy. We become holy by having God in us, we become more holy by being in God, and we become the holiest by being mingled, permeated, and saturated with God.

The more we are saturated and permeated with God, the more holy we become, until we become the New Jerusalem, the holy city (Rev. 21:2, 10). We are the holy people of a holy God, becoming holy as our Father is holy, by having God in us, by being in God, and by being saturated with God.

This is what the Christian life and church life is about: being saturated, permeated, and filled with God so that we may be sanctified, made holy as God is holy.

Thank You Lord for making us partakers of the holy divine nature so that we may be holy even as our heavenly Father is holy. Praise the Lord, we are becoming holy by having God in us, by being in God, and by being saturated with God. Amen! Keep us in this process of being saturated, permeated, and mingled with God day by day until we become as holy as God is holy! Lord, mingle Yourself with us and saturate us with Your holy element until we become the holy city, New Jerusalem!

Christ is in us as the Hope of Glory and We’re Transformed in His Image from Glory to Glory

According to God’s standard, being a sinner is being short of God’s glory; God’s glory excludes and condemns the sinners. However, God came in Christ to manifest His glory among men, and whoever receives Christ receives the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).

As believers in Christ, we have Christ dwelling in our spirit to be our life, our person, and our hope of glory; our hope is that, when He returns, we will be glorified with Him.

What does it mean to be glorified? In 2 Cor. 3:18 we see that, as we behold the Lord with an unveiled face, we are being transformed into the same image as Him from one degree of glory to another degree of glory.

Being glorified is a process of being inwardly transformed by the divine life we have received through regeneration; the consummation of the process of transformation is that we will be conformed to the same image of the resurrected and glorified Christ, being made the same as He is (Rom. 8:29).

Right now Christ is the mystery that is full of glory within us; one day, when Christ returns, this glory will be manifested to its fullest extent in His saints, as He glorifies His saints (Rom. 8:30).

Our Christian life and church life is a matter of being transformed inwardly by Christ, as we are in Him, to be conformed to His image. The indwelling Christ is daily saturating our inner being with Himself until even our physical body will be transfigured and conformed to His body of glory (Phil. 3:21).

Hallelujah, Christ comes to glorify us, and from within us He is transforming us to be the same as He is, to make us glorious and holy!

Lord Jesus, keep us beholding You with an unveiled face so that we may be transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit! Saturate our entire inner being, Lord, until even our physical body will be transfigured and conformed to the body of Your glory! Give us the experiences we need today so that we may be transformed from one degree of glory to another degree of glory. Amen, Lord, gain Your glorious church that expresses You in Your 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, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 85-91, 95-96, 111-112 (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:
  # But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, / Who became wisdom to us from God: / Both righteousness and sanctification / And redemption, / And the God of peace Himself / Sanctify you wholly, / And may your spirit and soul and body / Be preserved complete, / Without blame, at the coming / Of our Lord Jesus Christ, / Of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Scripture song)
  # Thus we’re sanctified completely, / Saturated thoroughly; / Not the old religious concept: / Separated doctrinally. / But ’tis Christ Himself within us, / Added to our every part, / All supplying, satisfying, / Making home in all our heart. (Hymns #1136)
  # God will bring us into glory, / We will then be glorified; / Fully saturated with Him, / We’ll be wholly sanctified. (Hymns #970)