Scripture Reading: Isa. 42:5-7; 49:6, 8b-9a; Rom. 10:3; 3:21-28; 4:22-25; 5:18; 1:16-17; 8:4
Ⅰ
Christ as the Servant of Jehovah serves God by being a covenant and a light to God's chosen people that He may be the full salvation of God— Isa. 42:5-7; 49:6, 8b-9a:
A
Through His death and resurrection, Christ has become the new covenant as the new testament according to God's righteousness to be the base of God's full salvation—Luke 22:20; Psa. 89:14:
１
As the Servant of Jehovah, Christ serves God by being a covenant—Isa. 42:6; 49:8b:
ａ
Christ served us by dying for us; this was to serve by being a covenant.
ｂ
Christ serves God by ministering life to us through His death and resurrection—Mark 10:45; John 12:24.
２
In the new covenant it seems that we have received many things, but actually we have gained only one thing—Christ—Heb. 8:10-13:
ａ
Christ is the reality of the new covenant; therefore, Christ is the new covenant, the new testament.
ｂ
The new covenant, established by Christ through His death, gives us Christ—Luke 22:20; Matt. 26:27-28.
３
Christ as the covenant takes care of God's righteousness; hence, this covenant is the foundation of God's salvation.
B
God gave Christ as a light to the nations that He might be God's salvation to all the world—Isa. 42:6; 49:6:
１
This light issues in Christ as the divine life to us—John 9:5; 1:4, 9; 8:12.
２
Christ as the light carries out God's salvation to consummate God's salvation in life—Rom. 5:10.
３
The life of this light becomes God's salvation to us in His righteousness.
C
Christ as the covenant and Christ as the light, added together, equal God's full salvation—3:21; 5:10, 18.
D
Based on the righteousness of God and in the life of God, we enjoy God as our inheritance—Acts 26:18.
Ⅱ
God's full salvation is based upon His righteousness and is consummated in His life—Rom. 10:3; 3:21-28; 5:18; 1:16-17:
A
The righteousness of God is what God is with respect to justice and righteousness—10:3; 3:21-23:
１
Because we are fallen, God must deal with us according to His righteousness.
２
As the righteous God, He cannot forgive sinful people without meeting the demands of His righteousness—1 John 1:9.
B
Justification is God's action in approving us according to His standard of righteousness—Gal. 2:16; Rom. 3:28.
C
The proof of God's justification is the resurrection of Christ—4:22-25:
１
The redeeming death of Christ as the ground for God to justify us has been fully accepted by God, and Christ has been resurrected as a proof of this.
２
The resurrected Christ who sits at God's right hand is the evidence that God is satisfied with His death on our behalf and that we have been justified—1 John 2:1.
３
Now that Christ has died and has been raised from among the dead, it is impossible for God to change His mind about forgiving us; He is bound by His righteousness to forgive us—1:9.
D
God has given Christ to us as the righteousness of God—1 Cor. 1:30.
E
Our experience of Christ rests upon the foundation of God's righteousness— Psa. 89:14.
F
Whereas God's righteousness justifies us through the death of Christ, God's life germinates us by Christ as the life-giving Spirit—Rom. 10:3; Gal. 2:16, 21; Rom. 5:18; Eph. 2:5; 1 Cor. 15:45b:
１
The condemnation of God is dissolved by Christ as the covenant, and the death that comes from Satan is annulled by Christ as the light that issues in life—John 8:12.
２
Christ became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection to dispense the life which was in God into us to enliven us, to regenerate us, to make us children of God—3:3-6; 1 John 3:1; John 1:12-13; Rom. 8:15.
Ⅲ
The New Jerusalem is the embodiment of God's full salvation, and God's full salvation is a composition of God's righteousness as the base and God's life as the consummation—Rev. 21:2, 10, 19-20, 23; 22:1-2:
A
The foundation of the New Jerusalem is the righteousness of God with God's faithfulness—21:19-20.
B
The content of the New Jerusalem is life, which issues from light—v. 23:
１
The entire New Jerusalem is a matter of life built on the foundation of righteousness—22:1-2.
２
Life is the consummation of righteousness, and righteousness is the base, the foundation, of life.
Ⅳ
The way to receive and enjoy the full salvation of God is to exercise our spirit, live according to our spirit, and remain in our spirit, with which is Christ, by calling on the Lord's name—Rom. 8:4; 10:12-13; 2 Tim. 4:22.
Ⅴ
God's full salvation is full of springs, and we need to learn to draw water out of these springs by calling on the Lord's name—Isa. 12:2-6.