In a context of lattice-valued functions (also called lattice-valued fuzzy sets), where the codomain is a complete lattice L, an equivalence relation defined on L by the equality of related cuts is investigated. It is known that this relation is a complete congruence on the join-semilattice reduct of L. In terms of residuated maps, necessary and sufficient conditions under which this equivalence is a complete congruence on L are given. In the same framework of residuated maps, some known representation theorems for lattices and also for lattice-valued fuzzy sets are formulated in a new way. As a particular application of the obtained results, a representation theorem of finite lattices by meet-irreducible elements is given.