The Righteousness of the Bride: Christ as our Subjective Righteousness Lived out of us

For the joy set before us, which is the Lord Jesus as our dear Bridegroom coming for His bride, we are today preparing to be the bride of Christ; there is the need for the righteousness of the bride, that is, the wedding garment that the bride wears for the wedding feast, which is the righteousnesses of the saints.

Amen! Lord Jesus, we love You!

The Lord is the most lovely One. He has captured our heart. We love Him more and more and day by day.

We love to spend time with Him in His word to enjoy Him and be filled with Him.

The more we contact the Lord, the more we’re filled with an inner sense of His sweet presence.

And the more we enjoy His presence, the more we desire that He would return and rapture us as His bride.

He is the joy set before us, and for this joy, we cooperate with Him to be prepared as His bride.

There’s a long process, even a lifelong process, that takes place in order for the bride to be prepared.

We aspire, therefore, to be the Lord’s overcomers, those who overcome today by eating the Lord and overcoming anything that is negative in order that, when He returns, He would rapture us as His bride.

The bride of Christ is composed of the overcomers throughout the ages. All those who have overcome, whether they have passed away or are living on earth today, are part of the overcoming bride of Christ.

These overcomers are the most precious thing the Lord has on earth.

Yes, the Lord Jesus came to the earth in incarnation and suffered the death of the cross for the joy set before Him, and the joy is the church.

But the church as a whole has failed God, even as the people of Israel as a whole have failed God.

So God’s eyes are now on the overcomers. He wants to gain the overcomers who are one with Him and who are prepared to be the bride.

The overcomers are those who will be raptured to enjoy Christ and reign with Him for one thousand years.

No defeated believer will be part of the bride of Christ.

There are millions of Christians today on earth, even many billions, but how many of these are overcomers?

How many Christians today live in the Lord’s presence, live Christ as their lived-out righteousness, and are mature in life, even built up together to be the bride of Christ?

We aspire to be such ones. We aspire to be those who bring the Lord back, so we give ourselves to the Lord to be prepared as the bride of Christ.

Furthermore, we want to cooperate with Him in our daily living to live out Christ so that this lived out Christ would be our subjective righteousness; in this way, we are cooperating with Him to prepare our wedding garment, which qualifies us to be in the wedding feast. Amen!

We need Two Garments: Christ as our Righteousness and Christ lived out of us as our Subjective Righteousness

When we believed into the Lord Jesus, God came and covered us with Christ as our righteousness.

This is seen in type in Luke 15:22, when the prodigal son returned to the father and the first thing the father did was to cover him with a robe.

Before God, we are sinful and unqualified to stand, so we need someone to cover us and make us qualified.

The unique One that is qualified to stand before God is Christ; He is righteousness itself.

Abraham believed God, and this was considered to him as righteousness.

When we believe into the Lord Jesus, something amazing happens: we are covered with Christ as our objective righteousness so that we can have the standing to be before God and enjoy God.

As sinners, we can never enjoy God or partake of His riches; however, by faith in Christ, we’re joined to Him and He becomes our righteousness, our standing before God.

Christ is our righteousness for us to be justified by God in His presence.

All genuine believers in Christ have Christ as their righteousness.

And if we sin, we have the precious blood of Christ; we can confess our sins in the Lord’s light and the blood of Christ cleanses us from every sin (1 John 1:7, 9).

Praise the Lord for Christ as our objective righteousness!

This is the first garment that we as Christians need.

However, there is one more garment that we require, and this is not for our salvation but for our reward.

Thank the Lord that Christ is our righteousness simply by our faith in Christ.

But we need to go on and have Christ lived out of us as our subjective righteousness.

Yes, it is good to enjoy and partake of God based on Christ as our objective righteousness, the first robe that covers us before God.

But we need to go on and experience Christ, live Christ, and express Christ, so that we can have the second garment, the lived-out Christ as our subjective righteousness. This is for our reward.

When the Lord returns, He will rapture those who have this second garment, the lived-out righteousness – the righteousnesses of the saints.

He will return to rapture those who have the wedding garment.

Only those who have cooperated with the Lord day by day to live out Christ can be qualified to enter the wedding feast of the Lamb.

In Mat. 22:11-12 we are told of the wedding feast, and there was a person there who did not have the wedding garment.

You can’t attend a wedding feast in any clothes you want; you need to have the proper clothing.

We cannot attend the wedding feast of the Lamb with any clothes that we want.

If our daily living is not the living of Christ, if we do not have the subjective righteousness lived out in us, if Christ does not live and is expressed in us, we are not qualified to enter the wedding feast of the Lamb.

Our garments need to be bright and clean (Rev. 19:8); in nature, we need to be clean, and in expression, we need to be bright.

The church as a whole is under great degradation, but we need to be the overcomers of the Lord who live Christ and live Him out as our subjective righteousness day by day.

We need to not only enjoy Christ, read the Bible, and meet with the saints; even more, we need to live Christ as our subjective righteousness.

As we do this, we prepare our wedding garment so that we may be qualified to enter the wedding feast of the Lamb.

How much we want to be part of that feast when the Lord returns!

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for being our righteousness before God. Thank You for not only regenerating us with the divine life to make us sons of God but even more, covering us before God to be our objective righteousness. You qualify us to come to God and enjoy God. We take You as our righteousness and we come to enjoy God and partake of His riches. Hallelujah for Christ as our first garment, the objective righteousness before God for our salvation! Lord, we want to go on with You and cooperate with You day by day to live out Christ as our subjective righteousness. Live in us today. May it be no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us. We aspire to be the Lord’s overcomers, those who overcome anything negative and live Christ as their subjective righteousness. Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with You to prepare our wedding garment day by day so that You may rapture us when You return! We want to enter in with You at the wedding feast!

The Righteousness of the Bride: Christ as our Lived out Righteousness to be our Wedding Garment

One of the aspects of being prepared to be the bride of Christ is the righteousness of the bride (Rev. 19:7-9; Matt. 5:20; 22:11-13).

Christ is our objective righteousness, and He is also our subjective righteousness.

As our subjective righteousness, Christ is the One dwelling in us to live for us a life that can be justified by God and that is always acceptable to God (5:6, 20).

It is not us trying to express God and to live to please God; it is Christ living in us.

The righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us when we live according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:4).

We don’t try to fulfill these requirements; they are fulfilled in us as we live Christ by being in our spirit.

Everything we do and say is justified by God when we live Christ.

We all have to admit that we speak so many idle words; we may not gossip or revile others but we may speak a lot of idle words.

We will one day give an account before God for every such idle word.

How can we speak the right thing, even speak Christ for the building up of the Body?

It is only by living Christ; we need to have Christ lived out in us as our righteousness, our subjective righteousness.

The living that is right with both God and man must be God as our expression in our daily living (2 Cor. 3:9; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10).

God must be our expression day by day. Christ lived out of us as our subjective righteousness becomes our wedding garment.

When we live Christ, when Christ has a way to live in us to be our subjective righteousness, we are being prepared to be the bride of Christ, having the bright and clean garment of fine linen for the wedding feast.

In our speaking, in our doing, and in everything we do and act day by day, we need to live out Christ.

When someone cuts us off in our speaking or someone cuts in at the line at the supermarket, we need to live Christ.

Christ must live out of us to be our subjective righteousness, our wedding garment.

The wedding garment the New Testament speaks of signifies the Christ whom we live out and who is expressed through us in our daily living as our surpassing righteousness (Mat. 5:20; Rev. 3:4-5, 18).

Christ lived out of us is not just our righteousness; He is our surpassing righteousness.

We believers in Christ need to have both garments: the initial garment, Christ as our righteousness covering us before God for our salvation, and the second garment, Christ as our lived-out righteousness, our subjective righteousness, our wedding garment.

The second garment is not for our salvation; it is for our reward, for it qualifies us to meet Christ for our reward.

This is what Rev. 19:8 speaks of when it says, the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints.

There’s not just one righteousness but many righteousnesses, the many acts of living out Christ.

Day by day as we live our Christian life we need to cooperate with the Lord to prepare our wedding garment stitch by stitch by living out Christ as our subjective righteousness.

We are in Christ already, and He is our righteousness objectively before God.

We now need to go on with Him and live Christ as our subjective righteousness, even to have the righteousnesses of the saints, our wedding garment.

Without this wedding garment, we cannot attend the wedding feast of the Lamb when the Lord returns.

The wedding garment has very much to do with our daily living.

We need to realize that the Lord has sovereignly put us in certain situations and with particular people so that we may live Christ as our subjective righteousness.

We are not here for ourselves or for our own benefit; we are not here for us to gain something or to achieve something great outwardly.

We are not even here to change the world by bringing a positive influence on the society.

We believers in Christ are here to just live Christ.

We are here to let the Lord live in us.

Many of our daily experiences are of failure, for we fail to live Christ again and again.

But we can confess our sins and trespasses, and we can enjoy the Lord’s cleansing.

And we can turn to the Lord again and again throughout the day so that He may be our lived-out righteousness.

We should not worry about where are we in regards to the preparation of the wedding garment; we should simply open to the Lord, allow Him to work in us, let the cross be applied to our being, and live one spirit with the Lord.

May we all allow the Lord to make His home deep down in our heart, and may we cooperate with Him to prepare our wedding garment, having the righteousness of the bride!

Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with You today to prepare our wedding garment. We love You, Lord, and we want to live to You today. We want to have a living that is right both with God and man, a living that lives Christ in our daily living. Amen, Lord, we take You as our life and person. You are the indwelling One who lives in us a life that can be justified by God and that is always acceptable to God. We open to You. We love You. We allow You to make Your home in our heart. We simply want to be one with You and let You live in us. May Christ be lived out of us today as our subjective righteousness. Amen, Lord, as we go to work, take care of business, do our daily chores, and take care of so many things related to our human life, keep us in our spirit so that Christ may live in us. Save us from the failure of not living Christ. May the indwelling Christ live in us a life that is full of righteousness, even the lived-out righteousness which is Christ Himself.

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 brother Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Truth Lessons – Level Four, vol. 4, lsn. 56, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Enjoyment of Christ and our Growth in Life unto Maturity (2023 Thanksgiving Blending Conference), week 6, entitled, The Joy Set before Christ and the Joy Set before Us.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The coming of the Lord Jesus to marry the prepared bride in Revelation 19, article by David Yoon in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Learning to Deal with the Accusations of Satan, testimony via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The readiness of the bride, a portion from, Life-Study of Revelation, Chapter 54.
  – The word of righteousness – the rapture of the saints (3), via, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Justification by Faith – What it is and How to Experience it, via Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The Fine Linen Garment is the Righteousnesses of Christ Lived Out through Us, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The marriage garment, a portion from, The Kingdom, Chapter 30, by Witness Lee.
  – 2 – The Ministry of the Spirit and of Righteousness (2), via, Shepherding words.
  – Building Up the Church as a Prepared Bride and as a City with Gates, outline via, The Church in Pittsburgh.
  – Two Garments Prepare the Bride, via, New Jerusalem blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Christ comes quickly for His Bride, / Wedding feast He will provide, / Garments bright and pure supplied— / Dress in time! / Taking Christ as life she’s dressed, / By much suffering stitched and pressed; / Righteous acts are thus possessed— / Dress in time! (Hymns #1304 stanza 1)
  – Oh, that fine linen garment / Which on that day we’ll wear / E’en now, Lord, work within us / And stitch by stitch prepare. / For this we would redeem / Every moment opportune / For the wedding day that’s coming / Very soon. (Hymns #1316 stanza 2)
  – Let us rejoice and exult, / And let us give glory to Him, / For the marriage of the Lamb has come, / And His wife has made herself, / Made herself ready. / 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)