The ancient Egyptians used their ring as a seal. Whatever they sealed with their ring was something important to them. Thus, the ring, the seal, received by Joseph typifies the Holy Spirit received by Christ. At the time of Christ's ascension and enthronement, Christ received of the Father the Holy Spirit that He might use Him as a seal to put on all His believers. Whenever anyone calls on Him, He puts this seal upon him.

As a saved one, you have a living seal on you. Even if you were to go to a gambling casino in Las Vegas, you would still have this seal upon you, and it would make you feel that, because you belong to Jesus, you should not stay in such a place. As our Joseph, Christ has received the seal from the Father, and with it He has sealed us. Now this seal is within us and upon us.

The second of the gifts Joseph received was the garments. We believers need at least two garments, one for salvation and the other for victory, for reward. The prodigal son in Luke 15 received just one garment because he was simply a saved one. He had not yet become victorious. After we have been saved and have received the garment of righteousness to justify us, we need to go on to live a victorious life. If we do, then in addition to the garment of salvation we shall receive another garment.

Often I have pointed out that the queen in Psalm 45 has two garments (vv. 13-14): one corresponds to the objective righteousness for our salvation, and the other to the subjective righteousness for our victory. The New Testament reveals that we believers should have two garments. The first garment is seen in Luke 15, and the second is found in Revelation 19. The garment of salvation is good for us to be justified before the Father. But in order to attend the wedding feast of the Lamb we need another garment. Both garments are Christ. The first, the garment of salvation, is the objective Christ. It is Christ put upon us (Gal. 3:27), Christ given to us to be our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30). When the prodigal son came back home, he was not qualified to sit down with his righteous father. He needed a garment of righteousness to cover him and to qualify him for this. This garment is the objective Christ as our righteousness, which justifies us before the righteous God. But after we have been justified, we need to live out Christ. When Christ is lived out of us, He becomes our subjective righteousness, not just something put upon us, but something lived out of us. This is the subjective Christ as the second garment. Christ has been given to us as these two garments.

Our Christ is the real righteousness before God. Apart from Christ, there is no righteousness in the universe. In this universe there is only One who satisfies all of God's righteous requirements, and this One is Christ. Although it may not sound logical, this righteousness has been given to Christ. You may wonder how Christ can be righteousness, yet have this righteousness given to Him. Nevertheless, this is the biblical way of speaking, and we need to learn to speak the biblical language. The unique righteousness in this universe is Christ; yet this righteousness has been given to Christ that He may put it upon His believers. Christ is the righteousness that has been put upon us objectively for our justification. This righteousness which has been given to Him by the Father has been passed on by Him to us. Furthermore, He is constantly giving Himself to us so that we may live Him out of us. This is wholly a matter of gift.

The matter of Christ being righteousness yet having righteousness given to Him involves the Trinity. If this righteousness had never been given by the Father to the Son, it would not be so legally effective. Although the unique righteousness in the universe is Christ Himself, without this righteousness being given by the Father to the Son, not even the Son would have the right to use it. Therefore, the Father gave it to the Son so that the Son might pass it on to His believers, firstly as the objective righteousness, then as the subjective righteousness.