God the Father also makes the believers His righteousness in Christ. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf, that we might become God’s righteousness in Him.” Eventually, those who have been brought back to God in the Holy of Holies will experience and enjoy Him in the triune dispensing to such an extent that they will even become His righteousness in Christ. Righteousness issues from God for His administration (Psa. 89:14; 97:2; Isa. 32:1), which is Christ to be our righteousness (Phil. 3:9; 1 Cor. 1:30), making us God’s righteousness in Him, not merely righteous before God. Through His redemption, man as a sinner, even as sin, is made God’s righteousness.
The phrase “in Him” in 2 Corinthians 5:21 means in union with Christ, not only positionally but organically in resurrection. We were enemies of God (Col. 1:21) by becoming sin, which came from the one who rebelled against God. Christ was made sin for us by becoming one with us through incarnation. God condemned Him in the flesh as sin for us, through His death, that we might be one with Him in His resurrection to be God’s righteousness. In the organic union with Christ, those who have been brought back thoroughly to God are made the righteousness of God. They not only become righteous; they are the righteousness of God. This means that they not only become righteous persons, but they become righteousness itself.
God desires to have a people on earth who are not only righteous persons; He wants a people, who, in the sight of God, the Devil, the angels, and the demons, are the very righteousness of God. To be made righteous before God is one thing; to be made God’s righteousness is another thing. Now we may enjoy God as the Father in His love to such an extent that in Christ we become God’s very righteousness.
In the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of transformation, the believers may also experience and enjoy God as the Father in His love as He sanctifies them. This sanctification is not outward and positional but inward and dispositional. This dispositional sanctification involves our entire being and causes us to become a sanctified entity, a totality of the Father’s sanctification.
The Father sanctifies the believers in His word. In John 17:17 the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” The Father’s word carries with it the Father’s reality. For example, when the word says, “God is light,” it conveys God as light. Hence, it is the reality, the truth.
God’s living word works in the believers to separate them from anything worldly, separating them from the world and its occupation unto God and His purpose, not only positionally but also dispositionally. This is what it means to be sanctified by the Father’s word as the truth, the reality. This sanctification changes not only our position but also our disposition, our inward being.
The Father sanctifies the believers wholly in their spirit, soul, and body. First Thessalonians 5:23 says, “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.” The word “sanctify” here means to be set apart; it is to be separated unto God from all things common or profane. The word “wholly” means entirely, thoroughly, to the consummation. God the Father sanctifies us wholly, so that no part of our being, either of our spirit or soul or body, will be left common or profane.
God not only sanctifies us wholly but also preserves our spirit, soul, and body complete. “Wholly” is quantitative; “complete” is qualitative. In quantity God sanctifies us wholly; in quality God preserves us complete, that is, He keeps our spirit, soul, and body perfect. Through the fall our body was ruined, our soul was contaminated, and our spirit was deadened. In God’s full salvation our entire being is saved and made perfect and complete. For this, God is preserving our spirit from any deadening element (Heb. 9:14), our soul from remaining natural and old (Matt. 16:24-26), and our body from the ruin of sin (1 Thes. 4:4; Rom. 6:6). Such a preservation by God and His thorough sanctification will sustain the believers to live a holy life unto maturity.
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