In Revelation 1:5 Christ is called the faithful Witness. As the faithful Witness Christ testifies God. Without Him, we cannot know God or gain God. He lived a life as a witness to God. Although He was a despised Nazarene and even a slave, His living was a testimony of God, for He was a living witness of God. This means that He lived God. As a despised man in a low estate, He lived God. He lived a life that witnessed God faithfully.
In Revelation 3:14 the Lord indicates that He is the Amen, the faithful and true Witness. In Greek “Amen” means firm, steadfast, trustworthy. The Lord Jesus is the firm, steadfast, and trustworthy One. Because He is firm, steadfast, and trustworthy, He is the faithful and true Witness.
In his speaking in Acts 3:14 Peter calls the Lord Jesus “the Holy and Righteous One.” What does it mean to say that the Lord is the Holy One? In this verse “Holy” indicates that Jesus the Nazarene, the One despised by the Jewish leaders, was absolutely for God and separated unto Him. Furthermore, He was absolutely one with God. According to the denotation of the word holy in the Bible, it signifies one who is absolutely unto God, who is absolutely for God, and who is absolutely one with God. In all of human history only the Lord Jesus is such a one. Throughout His entire life He was absolutely separated unto God, for God, and one with God. There never was an instant when He was not absolutely for God and one with Him. Therefore, He is called the Holy One. He alone deserves this title.
As the Holy One, the human living of the Lord Jesus was altogether holy in nature. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18, 20), and He was called “the holy thing” (Luke 1:35). In His being and behavior He was holy. His living, which was absolutely separated unto God, for God, and one with God, corresponded to God’s desire and nature.
In Acts 3:14, Peter called the Lord Jesus not only the Holy One but also the Righteous One. To be righteous is to be right with God and also with everyone and everything. Only the Lord Jesus can be called the Righteous One because only He is right with God and with everyone and everything. In everything the Lord said and did He was right with both God and man. As the Righteous One, the Lord Jesus is the Right One. He was never wrong with God or with anyone or anything. In His human living the Lord was always the Holy One, the One absolutely separated unto God, for God, and one with God, and also the Righteous One, the One who was right with God, with everyone, and with everything.
In this message we have covered six aspects of Christ in His human living: the Son of Man found in fashion as a man, a despised Nazarene, a carpenter who was a son of a carpenter, the One who took the form of a slave to serve God and man, the faithful Witness of God, and the Holy and Righteous One. As such a One Christ is being dispensed into us, the members of His Body. If we are under His dispensing, surely we shall be the kind of person He was in His human living. We shall not want to hold a high rank but rather be low in rank and position. Actually, we are not the ones living in this way. This is Christ living in us after being dispensed into us. This is not a matter of following His steps or imitating Him. This is a matter of having Christ dispensed into us and then living Him. First, Christ is dispensed into our being, and then He lives from within us. Of course, as He lives within us we shall have a human living that is low in position and rank, yet holy in nature and righteous in behavior.