Christ as righteousness takes care of our past. In the past we were unrighteous, always doing things unrighteously. Now Christ is transmitted into us as our righteousness to take care of our past in order that in Him we would be accepted by God.
None of us has a good past. Because our past life was sinful, we need Christ to be our righteousness. This is the real remedy, the real cure. Formerly, our past was awful because of our sins and wrongdoings, but now it is glorious because of Christ. By Him, through Him, and in Him, we have been justified by God, and our past has been forgiven. Now that we have Christ as our righteousness, we should no longer say that our past is awful. Instead, we should declare that our past is glorious, because our past is Christ.
Righteousness is actually Christ Himself. Christ, therefore, is not merely to be righteousness for our past so that we may be justified by God; He should also be our present righteousness in our daily living. Christ as righteousness enables us to be right and just toward God, man, and everything else. Christ is dispensed from God into us to be our life, power, and wisdom so that in our living we can be righteous in every word, deed, movement, and action. In this way, the Lord becomes righteousness to us.
Christ as our righteousness is for the believers’ enjoyment. Whenever we enjoy Christ and experience Him, we have Him as our righteousness not only objectively but also subjectively. As our objective righteousness, Christ is the One in whom we are justified by God. Justification is God’s action in approving us according to the standard of His righteousness. In Christ as our objective righteousness before God, we are justified, approved, by Him (Rom. 3:26). 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 (Phil. 3:9). When we live this Christ and express Him, He becomes our daily righteousness. As believers, we need not only to receive Christ as our righteousness but also to live Him as righteousness subjectively. When we exercise our spirit to contact Him, we become righteous. The more we contact Him and enjoy Him, the more righteous we become in Him. Eventually, by having Christ wrought into us, we become the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).
Christ as sanctification takes care of our present. Because our present life is not holy, not sanctified, we need Christ to be our present sanctification that we may become holy and separated unto God. In ourselves, that is, in our natural life, we are altogether not holy, not sanctified unto God. However, the divine element in the life of Christ that is constantly transmitted into our being sanctifies us, separating us unto God and thereby making us holy.
Sanctification is more than holiness; it is holiness “to us” in a subjective and experiential way. Whereas holiness refers to the thing itself, sanctification is holiness becoming our experience. By calling on the name of the Lord continually, we gain Christ as our holiness in a subjective way and experience Him as our daily and hourly sanctification. Day by day we need to experience Christ as our sanctification in order that every aspect of our daily walk, including our appearance, our attitude, and our relationships, would be Christ. The more we exercise the spirit to call on the name of the Lord Jesus, the more we are separated from what is common and from being common ourselves. The Christ we enjoy causes us to become holy, sanctified, and separated. In this way, we are no longer common; instead, we are sanctified, separated, marked out, and absolutely different from the worldly people. This is sanctification—Christ becoming our holiness in our experience.
Christ as the sanctification to us from God is sanctifying us not only in position but also in disposition so that we can be set apart to God from everything common. He is both the power of our sanctification and the factor for our sanctification. Through Him, the divine dispensing is continually transmitted into us, sanctifying our whole being—spirit, soul, and body—making us holy, full of the divine element.