The righteousness which is the condition for the believers to be found in Christ is actually Christ Himself living out of them to be their righteousness. Christ is the righteousness by which we are justified by God (1 Cor. 1:30). Day by day we need Christ to be our righteousness. The more we gain Christ and live in Him, the more He as our righteousness will become our expression before both God and man. Then we shall not simply be found in Christ in a general way, but we shall be found in the very righteousness which is Christ Himself lived out of us.
As Christ lives Himself out of us, He lives a righteous life in us. In Titus 2:12 Paul tells us that “we should live soberly and righteously and godly in the present age.” This indicates that we need to live a righteous life through Christ. This is to live Christ as our righteousness so that we may be found in Him to be justified by God.
In the continuous experience of God’s redemption, the believers are justified by works through living the divine life as the issue of the divine life. James 2:24 says, “A man is justified by works and not by faith only.” To be justified by faith is for receiving the divine life (Rom. 5:18); to be justified by works is through living the divine life. Since the living is the issue of life, to be justified by works is the issue of being justified by faith. Abraham’s offering of Isaac (Gen. 22:9) and Rahab’s receiving the messengers and thrusting them out (Josh. 2:1, 21; 6:23) are both works which issued from their living faith. A living tree surely brings forth fruit. To be justified by works does not contradict being justified by faith. The latter is the cause, bringing forth the first, and the first is the effect, the outcome and proof of the latter.
As we live the divine life, this living will issue in certain works. Then in our living we are justified by our works and not only by our faith. To be justified by faith is mainly objective, but to be justified by works is subjective in that these works are the issue of our living the divine life.
Eventually, the believers are made God’s righteousness in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21b). This means that we become righteous not only in our deeds and behavior but in our being. 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. By being constituted of Christ as the righteousness of God (Rom. 5:19b) we shall be made in Him God’s righteousness.
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.” Christ did not know sin in an experiential way by contact or personal experience. Nevertheless, Christ was made sin (not sinful) on our behalf to be judged by God (Rom. 8:3) that we might become God’s righteousness in Him.
Christ died on the cross not only for our sins but also as sin, having been made sin on our behalf by God. We were not only sinful-we were sin itself. We were the constitution of sin, the embodiment of sin. When Christ died for us as our Substitute, God considered Him not only the sin bearer but sin itself. Now in resurrection Christ comes into us as life, and this life lives within us to constitute us into the righteousness of God. In substitution Christ was made sin for us, and now, in His constitution, we become the righteousness of God in Him.
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. When He died on the cross, God condemned Him in the flesh as sin for us so that we might be one with Him in His resurrection to be God’s righteousness. Therefore, in the organic union with Christ we are made the righteousness of God. This means that we not only become righteous; we are the righteousness of God. We not only become righteous persons; we become the very righteousness of God itself.
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