We enjoy Christ not only as our Redeemer but also as our Savior (Titus 1:4). On the one hand, the Lord Jesus died for us and thus accomplished redemption to be our Redeemer; on the other hand, He was raised from the dead and enters into us to be our Savior in life. Romans 5:10 shows us that while we were enemies, through His death, that is, through His redeeming death on the cross, we were reconciled to God; that is, the charge of sins against us before God was settled and we were redeemed. This is the redeeming aspect. But, having been reconciled, much more we will be saved in the life of the resurrected Christ. This is the saving aspect. Redemption, which is accomplished outside of us by the death of Christ, redeems us objectively, once for all. Saving, which is carried out within us by the working of Christ's life, saves us subjectively, daily through our whole life. As we enjoy Him as our Redeemer, we are delivered positionally from condemnation and eternal punishment; as we enjoy Him as our Savior, we are delivered dispositionally from our old man, our self, and our natural life.
First Corinthians 1:30 says, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God." This word indicates that at one time Christ was not wisdom to us but that later He became wisdom to us. Christ could not become wisdom to us before we were in Him. But when we believed in Christ, God put us into Christ, and then Christ became wisdom to us.
For Christ to become wisdom to us from God indicates that there is a transmission of Christ as wisdom from God to us for our daily experience. Christ is unceasingly transmitted to us to be our present and practical wisdom. Therefore, we should remain in the presence of the Lord to receive His dispensing, allowing Him to transmit Himself into us as our wisdom that we may be able to handle the various problems and matters that come to us daily.
First Corinthians 1:30 indicates also that Christ is our righteousness. Christ is the righteousness by which we have been justified by God so that we may be reborn in our spirit to receive the divine life. Here, it is not the righteousness of Christ that has become our righteousness; it is Christ Himself who has become our righteousness. God has made Christ, the embodiment of God Himself, our righteousness.
Christ as our righteousness is of two aspects: the objective aspect and the subjective aspect. As our objective righteousness, Christ is the One in whom we are justified by God. 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 acceptable to God. When we live Him and express Him, He becomes our daily righteousness. This is the surpassing righteousness spoken of in Matthew 5:20. Therefore, objective righteousness is the Christ we received when we believed in Him in order to be justified before God. Subjective righteousness is the indwelling Christ lived out of us as the righteousness in our daily life. This is the issue of our daily experience and enjoyment of Him.
Colossians 3:4 speaks of "Christ our life." Christ is God and also life (1 John 5:12). The life which is God, the life that God is, is in Christ (John 1:4). Hence, the Lord Jesus said that He is life (14:6; 11:25) and that He came that we may have life (10:10). Therefore, he who has Christ has life (1 John 5:12), and now He dwells in the believers as life. Just as life is God Himself, so also life is Christ. Just as having life is having God Himself, so also having life is having Christ. Christ is God becoming life to us. Through Christ God is manifested as life. Therefore, Christ is now our life.
This life is very subjective to us. Nothing is more subjective to us, or more intimately related to us, than our life. Our life is actually we ourselves. To say that Christ becomes our life means that Christ becomes us. That Christ is our life is a strong indication that we are to take Him as our life and live by Him, that we are to live Him in our daily life in order to experience Him, so that all He is and has attained and obtained will not remain objective facts but will become our subjective experience.
With Christ as our life there are three characteristics. First, this life is a crucified life. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He daily lived a crucified life. If we truly experience Christ as our life, we also will live a crucified life. Such a crucified life is a life that has been processed and thoroughly dealt with. Second, this life is a resurrected life. Nothing, including death, can suppress it. When we live a crucified life, the result is that we will have the resurrected life dispensed into us for us to live a life that manifests the resurrected life. Third, this is a life hidden in God, who is in the heavens (Col. 3:3). Hence, we should no longer be concerned for things on the earth. God in the heavens should be the sphere of our living. With Christ we should live in God.