The Experience and Enjoyment of Christ in the Local Churches

Experiencing Christ in the Local Church

The book of Psalms is replete with types, shadows, and figures of the believers' experience of Christ in the local church. In the remainder of this website, Witness Lee unlocks the riches of the experience of Christ in the local church as portrayed in the book of Psalms.

3. Experiencing Christ as Our Garment of Wrought Gold and Embroidered Work

In his interpretation of Psalm 45, Witness Lee describes the objective and subjective experiences of Christ as our righteousness which define the church and issue in praise to Christ:

Now let us go on to verse 13: “The king’s daughter is all glorious within the inner part of the palaces: her clothing is of wrought gold…” In verse 9 we read that the queen was arrayed in gold, but here the clothing is of wrought gold. Gold, as we have seen, signifies the nature of God. Wrought gold, however, signifies Christ. Christ is not only gold, but wrought gold. He, with His divine nature, has undergone so many sufferings and has been dealt with in so many ways that the gold in Him has become wrought gold. Now this wrought gold, this Christ, has become our clothing, our righteousness, that we may stand justified in the presence of God. In the eyes of God, we are clothed with Christ as the acceptable righteousness. Christ is our righteousness before God.

Then verse 14: “She (the queen) shall be brought unto the king.” It does not say that she will be brought unto God, but unto the King. Wrought gold is sufficient for us to abide in the presence of God, but an added factor is necessary that we may stand in the presence of the King. “She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of broidered work…” What is this? The clothing of wrought gold, as we have seen, is Christ. The raiment of embroidered work here is also Christ. But the first is the objective Christ; the second is the subjective Christ. The objective Christ is our righteousness that we may stand in the presence of God; the subjective Christ is Christ Himself woven into our character, embroidered into our being, that we may stand before the King. The latter is not merely a garment that we put on, but one that is worked into us, stitch by stitch. Christ as the wrought gold is the righteousness put upon us—that is our justification. But following that, the Holy Spirit is working day by day to embroider Christ into us stitch after stitch. Thus, we will have another raiment. We will have two robes: the first is for the Father’s satisfaction; the second is for Christ’s satisfaction. It is by the second that we will be brought unto Christ. All these are definitions and descriptions of the church, but praises unto Christ.

(Witness Lee, Christ and the Church, 75-76)

These two garments in Psalm 45 beautifully symbolize our objective and subjective experiences of Christ as our righteousness in the local church. These garments issue in praise to Christ as well as the satisfaction of the Father and the Son.

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Described in OT

Revealed in OT

Revealed in NT

Portrayed in NT

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