The Breastplate of Righteousness

Last week we talked about the belt of truth. The belt on a Roman soldier’s uniform was worn at all times, even if the other pieces of armor were not worn. It is centrally located, reminding us that truth is central to our defense against the devil’s attacks. Truth is not up to us to define, but for us to discover as God leads us to it. Jesus said to his disciples in John 16:13 that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will guide the disciples into all truth. That ministry continues today. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you at salvation, He begins to lead you into all truth. So God, by the Holy Spirit, is the dispenser of all things true according to His written word. Our first line of defense against the devil and his schemes is the truth. If we don’t have the truth, we don’t have anything else.

Ephesians 6:10–14 NASB95

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

We must remember our enemy is not our neighbor, our family member, our friend, politician, or anyone else. He comes after the things God loves, so that includes us. God has given us the tools we need to take up our defense. The words stand firm appear several times here. Without our armor, we are vulnerable. The second we perceive we are in danger, we will run out of our natural instinct of self preservation. But when we put on God’s armor, we have the power to stand firm.

The next piece of armor found in Ephesians 6:14 is the breastplate of righteousness. The Roman breastplate took a variety of forms, but one was composed of a stiff leather vest with pieces of metal sewn onto it. The armor was kind of scaled so that the metal pieces had some overlap, and they covered the abdomen on all sides and each shoulder. These were very effective defenses against stabbing weapons like swords and daggers. This covered the soldier’s vital organs. The breastplate would also be attached to the belt. Both would work together as the soldier moved about in combat.

So the question arises, how do we put on righteousness like a breastplate? Like the breastplate was a vital tool for protecting one’s vital organs, righteousness is vital for our stand against the devil. The truth itself does very little in your life. The truth applied leads to transformation.

Righteousness is the result of applying God’s truth to your life.

Righteousness is boiled down to this: doing what is right. God has a standard by which all should live and righteousness is meeting that standard. The standard for righteousness was abandoned in Genesis 3 in the garden of Eden and every human being since then has abandoned that standard. There is not a single one of us who lives according to God’s standards perfectly. This is why he sent his son who demonstrated what living out God’s standard perfectly looks like, then sacrificed himself to cover the consequences of our rejection of the standard. Now, through God’s help, armed with the truth, we can live out what God requires us to do.

The application of God’s truth to our lives is the natural response to coming to true saving faith in Christ. When we are awakened to who we are apart from Christ, then realize what Christ has done for us, and respond in faith to the gospel message, a transformation takes place within us. We pass from death to life. We are made new. We are reborn with the capacity to live a righteous life before God our Father. This is a work that he produces in us, not something we are capable of producing in ourselves. If we were, we would not have needed Christ.

Righteousness absent of God is not righteousness at all.

The Bible teaches us that we alone are not capable of the life of righteousness that God requires. Without a new heart that enables us with the desire and capability of living a righteous life pleasing to the Lord, we are selfish. We are naturally self-serving beings. This is not to say that we are not capable of of living a moral life or that we exhibit no compassion absent of Christ. What this does mean is that in a general sense, we are willing to do for others only if there is a return for us. Even acts that seem selfless may be done in some self-serving fashion. Absent of the Lord’s influence in our lives, we will look out for the most important person in our lives: us.

Paul speaks to this reality earlier in the letter in the second chapter:

Ephesians 2:1–5 NASB95

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

God does not save us because of our capacity for doing good. These verses teach us we had none. Our capacity for doing real good comes from the transformation he causes in our lives as we respond to his offer for salvation. Paul explains this process with two terms: justification and sanctification.

Justification is your right standing before God when you place your faith and trust in Jesus.

When you hear the gospel message and you recognize that you are a sinner incapable of living a life of righteousness before God without him, agree that Jesus has been your substitute in paying the death that you owe for your own bad deeds, and trust Jesus for the work he has done, God removes your guilty verdict and declares you innocent of all crimes. This is known as being positionally righteous. If you are trusting Jesus for your salvation, your standing before God on judgment day is innocent.

This is what we see as the apostle Paul quotes Genesis 15:6 in Romans 4:3. The question is do we have a right standing before God because of what we have done, or because of our faith in what God has done?

Romans 4:3 NASB95

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

In Genesis 15, God promises Abram a son.

Genesis 15:1–6 NASB95

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

In that moment, a transfer had taken place. Abraham believed God and God credited that belief to him as righteousness. That word credited is a banking term. The salvation Abraham experienced is something he did not earn. It was given to him by God as a gift on the basis of his belief. Abraham’s account was in debt. God deposited the righteousness needed to clear the debt.

Justification is God depositing into our account the righteousness we cannot come up with on our own. The debt has been paid in full. We trust that God, on judgment day, will open up the ledger and discover that we are paid up. The Bible teaches us he will because of the payment Jesus applied to our account when we believed him for salvation. We are positionally righteous in the eyes of God because we are covered by the blood of Christ.

But this does not mean that we are immune to attack. Our ability to stand firm as Ephesians 6 tells us, comes from being equipped with the armor of God. Once we are justified before God, having been declared righteous, then we are sanctified as an ongoing process where we are further made into the image of Christ.

Sanctification is the process by which we are made to be more like Jesus.

God does not awaken us to our need for him only to leave us how he found us. The goal of our Christian life is to become like Jesus. He represents who we were always meant to be. He is the perfect man, untainted by sin, a reality we can’t begin to fathom. The paradise that was the garden of Eden is what we were meant for. We were created for intimate fellowship with God our Father. We broke that relationship through our own sin. God begins a new work in us on the day of our salvation and we follow him to be transformed by him in every facet of our lives.

If anyone could ever point to himself and say that he has a righteousness worthy of God, it was Paul. In his letter to the church in Philippi, he wrote about the goal of the Christian life. He outlined his reasons he would have to boast in himself, but he said it was all worthless.

Philippians 3:7–11 NASB95

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul was saying, “Look, I did everything right!” But it didn’t amount to anything. Paul had quite the spiritual resume. If anyone was good enough to get to heaven, it was Paul, and it turns out he wasn’t. All that stuff he did to impress God was garbage. According to Paul, knowing Jesus is worth more than everything he ever did. Both Ephesians and Philippians are written from the same place. Paul is in jail. He’s saying, “I’ve lost everything! That’s alright. It was garbage anyway.” I have found that the good in me hasn’t come from me. It was birthed in me through the power of the Holy Spirit who has led me to all truth.

Paul’s goal was to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, to know victory over sin and death, to share in the fellowship of his sufferings. That’s not a popular message in today’s world. We suffer enough already, don’t we? But now our suffering has purpose. We suffer with purpose. We now suffer armed with the power and presence of Christ amidst suffering, where before we just suffered.

Don’t you know that you are destined to become like Jesus? The process is painful. As we walk through the refiner’s fire in life, the old us is being burned away and one day the process will be complete and we will step out of this life and into one that purified. Our struggle with sin will be no more! That is the power of resurrection! That was Paul’s hope and that is our hope today!

Don’t you know God wants you to have victory over the sins that ensnare you? Aren’t you tired of being the same person, falling into the same traps? Aren’t you tired of the devil landing his shots in your back or chest? Put on the breastplate of righteousness! Live out what God has commanded. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling as Phil. 2:12 says. Find those things in your life that cause you to sin, grab them by the root, and yank them out! And do not do this alone! We are here to bear one another’s burdens!