God’s Christ, who is my righteousness

Christ is given to us by God to be our righteousness. Hence, in Christ we have righteousness and thus are justified. Some hymns confuse Christ's righteous act with Christ the person who is our righteousness. For instance, a popular hymn written by Nicolaus L. Zinzendorf and translated by John Wesley begins, "Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness / My beauty are, my glorious dress." Therefore, when we added it to our hymnal, we corrected this line so that it says, "God's Christ, who is my righteousness, / My beauty is, my glorious dress" (Hymns, #295). It is not Christ's act of righteousness that is our righteousness but Christ Himself who is our righteousness.

When the Apostle Paul was in the Jewish religion, he surpassed many of his equals (Gal. 1:14). However, he did not at that time obtain God's righteousness. In Philippians 3:9 he spoke a deep and excellent word: "And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God based on faith." Paul did not want to be found in himself, having his own righteousness; he wanted to be found in Christ, having the righteousness which is of God. We, like Paul, need to be found in Christ. That He is our righteousness is expressed by the words of a well-known hymn: "God's Christ, who is my righteousness, My beauty is, my glorious dress." Christ, as God's righteousness, is our covering under whom we stand. God has put us into Christ and made Him our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30). We stand under His covering. We are one with Him. He, Himself, His very person, not one of His attributes, is our righteousness.

There are two aspects of Christ being righteousness from God to the believers. The first aspect is that He is the believers' righteousness for them to be justified before God objectively at the time of their repenting unto God and believing into Christ (Rom. 3:24-26; Acts 13:39; Gal. 3:24b, 27). The first stanza of Hymns, #295 says, "God's Christ, who is my righteousness,/My beauty is, my glorious dress." Christ is our beauty given by God to us to be put on us as our clothing, our glorious dress. This is outward, objective.

The second aspect is that Christ is the believers' righteousness lived out of them as the manifestation of God, who is the righteousness in Christ given to the believers for them to be justified by God subjectively (Rom. 4:25; 1 Pet. 2:24a; James 2:24; Matt. 5:20; Rev. 19:8). We were sinners who repented to God and believed into the Lord Jesus. Right away God gave Christ to us as a glorious dress to cover us, so we are acceptable to God righteously, outwardly. This is objective righteousness. Also, when Christ was given to us to be put on us, He entered into us to be our life and life supply to live Himself out of us. This living out is the manifestation of God in Christ. This is pleasant in the eyes of God. Surely, God would justify us subjectively, not just objectively. Now we can see the two aspects—outward and inward. Christ is put on us, and Christ enters into us to live God out of us to be our subjective righteousness.