The Breastplate in Place
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Paul in this section of scripture is writing about God’s armor. He must have had in view a Roman soldier that was all prepared for battle.
He had no doubt seem many soldiers. One thing that they had in common was their uniform. I remember when I first joined the Air Force and was in basic training. On the second or third day we got our uniforms. This was back in the early 1980s and we were wearing the uniform style that they wore during the Vietnam war.
The uniforms we wore were called the utility uniform. It was green pants and green shirts. The day we got our uniforms all of our civilian clothes were stored away. We were referred to as rainbows because there was all sorts of different styles of clothing. When we got those new uniforms we went from being rainbows to being pickles. We all looked alike, we didn’t have name tags or any rank, just plain green uniforms.
Eventually we got our name tags sewed on the uniforms and at the end of basic training we had our rank sewed on if we had received a promotion. Even with the addition of name tags and rank we all looked alike. Sure some were taller or shorter, whiter or darker, but we all looked alike whether we were in our utility uniform or in our dress uniform.
When we come to faith in Jesus we all look different. We come with different experiences. We come with different habits and hangups. We come with different addictions. Some are a little taller or shorter, skinny or not so skinny, lighter skinned or darker skinned.
When we come to faith in Jesus we all put the same clothes on.
This second piece of our clothing is literally tied to that first piece, the belt of truth.
I really like the imagery of the Roman soldier and the breastplate that they wore.
Look at that breastplate, it covers him from his neck to his waist. You can see the belt just below providing him protection down to his thighs. The breastplate goes up over his shoulders and down his back.
If you were a Roman soldier you were involved in hand to hand combat. You needed this type of protection because you didn’t know if someone was going to try to stab you in the chest or come at your back.
Armor was an absolute necessity. If you were a Roman soldier you would never even think about going into battle without your armor on.
I feel like this is part of the point that Paul is making. We must be ready for battle. Just like the Roman soldier, and just like when I was in the Air Force, I did not get to choose what I wanted to wear. I was told what I had to wear. I wore what was provided for me.
Do you realize that when you came to faith in Christ that you got dressed in brand new clothes? Well you got dressed, but it wasn’t in clothes made by man. You got dressed in Jesus.
Paul wrote
27 All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There are two important points in the passage. The first is about baptism. There is the assumption that all believers are baptized. If you haven’t been baptized, then why not?
The most important point is that in baptism we are clothed with Christ. I like the Passion Translation that renders this verse this way:
27 It was faith that immersed you into Jesus, the Anointed One, and now you are covered and clothed with his anointing.
You are covered and clothed with his anointing. Oh how we need to see that visible anointing at work in our lives. How we need to see that empowerment of the Holy Spirit at work today in our lives.
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of yesterday. Do you know what I mean?
I’m tired of remembering when the pews were full.
I’m tired of being told about when the Sunday School rooms were full.
I’m tired of hearing about brother or sister so and so testifying about the miraculous healing that they received.
I’m tired of hearing about how the altars use to be lined.
I’m tired of hearing about revival services that were filled with people seeking the presence of God.
I’m tired of that because we act like the Holy Spirit is not available to us. We act like it was all about yesterday and we dare not expect anything for today. We remember the past and we look forward to the day that we see Him face to face.
I’m tired of that because we live today. God has given us everything that we need for today.
3 Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts!
Keith Brooks in his outline of this chapter of Paul wrote:
The Lord Jesus has met Satan at every point and defeated him. It is therefore dangerous for us to be strong except in Him Who is the Victor. Our natural courage is perfect cowardice; our natural strength is perfect weakness, but our sufficiency is always in Him 1
Jesus has already defeated the enemy and he has given us everything we need as we are covered and clothed in Jesus.
Paul took it step further and wrote:
14 Instead fully immerse yourselves into the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, and don’t waste even a moment’s thought on your former identity to awaken its selfish desires.
We are not who we once were. Look at that verse - fully immerse yourselves into the Lord Jesus.
Fully immerse means that there is not one part of you that is not in Christ. There is no holding out or holding back. It is all or nothing.
That is the thing about the breastplate, it is designed to cover all of our vital organs. The breastplate though that Paul is writing about is something greater.
Ephesians 6:14 (NIV)
14 Stand firm then... with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
As I said earlier it is easy to picture that Roman solder with that impressive uniform consisting of that metal shell that goes around him, protecting his vital organs.
I mentioned last week the belt that the Jewish priest wore as a part of his outfit. The high priest wore a breastplate. God gave the directions on how it was to be made.
15 Make an embroidered chest pendant used for making decisions. Make it in the style of the vest, using gold, blue and purple and deep red yarns, and fine twisted linen.
16 It will be square and doubled, nine inches long and nine inches wide.
17 Set in it four rows of gemstone settings. The first row will be a row of carnelian, topaz, and emerald stones.
18 The second row will be a turquoise, a sapphire, and a moonstone.
19 The third row will be a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst.
20 The fourth row will be a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. Their settings will be made of decorative gold.
21 There will be twelve stones with names corresponding to the names of Israel’s sons. They will be engraved like official seals, each with its name for the twelve tribes.
This breastplate looked something like this
This breastplate was worn by the high priest. In Hebrew it was referred to as the Avnei Hoshen. It does not look like it would protect anyone. It was a square piece of cloth with precious stones attached to it.
How would that type of breastplate protect anyone?
Further on in that passage from Exodus we read
Exodus 28:29 (NIV)
29 “Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of decision as a continuing memorial before the Lord.
This was to be worn as a continuing memorial before the Lord. In other parts of scripture this breastplate was simply referred to as the Memorial.
I don’t want to skip over an important point about this. God referred to this breastplate as the breastpiece of decision.
It was a reminder that we are making a decision to put God’s will before our will. It was a memorial, it was remembering all that God had done for them. When we put on that breastplate we are reminding ourselves of all that God has done for us. When we put on this clothing that God has provided us we are reminding ourselves about all that God has done.
Putting on the full armor of God is not just covering ourselves, it is about a radical transformation of our lives. That is why Paul could write in his letter to the Galatians:
Galatians 2:20 (CEB)
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in my body, I live by faith, indeed, by the faithfulness of God’s Son, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Paul is saying that he died but he is alive in Christ.
6 This is what we know: the person that we used to be was crucified with him in order to get rid of the corpse that had been controlled by sin. That way we wouldn’t be slaves to sin anymore,
When we come to faith in Christ we are born again, we are made new creatures.
18 Now that you have been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.
Slaves of righteousness? Certainly not ours. The Bible talks about this and Isaiah described it this way.
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Our righteousness is like filthy rags, it is nothing compared to the righteousness of Jesus. Remember we are covered and clothed in Jesus.
So what is the point? What can take home from what Paul is writing here?
5 You know that he appeared to take away sins, and there is no sin in him.
That is where it begins. Jesus came to take away sins. He was perfectly sinless, perfectly righteous, perfectly holy.
Jesus took care of that sin issue when he died and rose again.
John goes on to write
6 Every person who remains in relationship to him does not sin. Any person who sins has not seen him or known him.
This is where we struggle. Every person who remains in relationship to him does not sin.
Pastor, that is impossible. No it’s not. Pastor, I can’t do that. Yes, you are right. Pastor, God is setting us up for failure. No, he’s not.
3 Bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven.
4 God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in God’s presence before the creation of the world.
5 God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love. This was according to his goodwill and plan
6 and to honor his glorious grace that he has given to us freely through the Son whom he loves.
7 We have been ransomed through his Son’s blood, and we have forgiveness for our failures based on his overflowing grace,
8 which he poured over us with wisdom and understanding.
God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. He has blessed with the spiritual blessing of living this life dying to sin and self and living in Christ.
Putting on this breastplate of righteousness is yielding the very core of our life to Christ.
This involves surrendering our entire life to God.
13 Don’t offer parts of your body to sin, to be used as weapons to do wrong. Instead, present yourselves to God as people who have been brought back to life from the dead, and offer all the parts of your body to God to be used as weapons to do right.
The NIV translated that verse this way
Romans 6:13 (NIV)
offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
Instruments of righteousness, instruments of holiness. An instrument is something that is used by someone to accomplish a specific task. In this case we are the instrument in the hands of God to live holy lives.
Our lives are weapons to do right in the hands of God.
John Wesley in his Covenant Service had this prayer:
I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you,
Praised for you or criticized for you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and service.
And now, O wonderful and holy God,
Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer,
you are mine, and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
Let it also be made in heaven. Amen.
Folks that is full surrender to God. That is where the life of holiness begins, fully surrendering everything to God.
One of the hymns that we often sing has these words:
All to Jesus I surrender,
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.
Holiness is surrendering everything.
The second point we can make about putting on this breastplate is this.
You must depend on the Holy Spirit of God.
Paul had this to say:
12 So then, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it isn’t an obligation to ourselves to live our lives on the basis of selfishness.
13 If you live on the basis of selfishness, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the actions of the body, you will live.
We have an obligation. There are a number of definitions for obligation. The one that I feel like matches what Paul is saying here is that we have a duty or a responsibility.
Our duty or responsibility is to God. Our duty if we reword this verses is this:
Our obligation is to live by the Holy Spirit so that we will live in the spiritual blessings that God has already provided.
Romans 14:17 (CEB)
17 God’s kingdom … is … about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
You see that comes from God and we cannot live in those blessings without first yielding our lives to the Holy Spirit.
There is no other way to pursue holiness to pursue holiness than fully surrendering to the Holy Spirit. There are not short-cuts to the life of holiness. Holiness comes through surrendering to the Holy Spirit. This is to be done on a daily basis. Turn Romans chapter 6 into a prayer, pray
Lord, I’ve believed in Jesus and I’m now counting on this truth that I’m dead to sin and I’m alive to you through Jesus Christ, and therefore I’m saying no to sin and to temptation, and I pray today that you would help me to say no when that temptation comes knocking on my door. Help me to say no, and help me yield myself to you instead. Fill me with your Spirit; give me power, give me strength, give me grace to fight this sin. 2
Robert M'Cheyne was a pastor who lived in the early 1800’s. He wrote these words in his journal
Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be made.
That should be the prayer of each and everyone of us. Make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be.
We should pray that prayer everyday. Why you might ask? Let me ask this:
Are you as holy as you can be? Have you arrived? I know I haven’t. The great thing is that the Holy Spirit is still in the transformation business. He is still active making people holy.
Have you put that breastplate of righteousness, that breastplate of holiness on?
Is everything good between you and God?
Do you have sins you haven’t dealt with, sins you haven’t brought under the blood of Christ, sins you haven’t put to death? Are you killing sin, or is sin killing you? Are you pursuing holiness? Are you clothed with Christ? Do you have assurance of your salvation? 2
If you need justifying righteousness this morning, if you’ve never been saved, you go to Jesus and he will cover you, forgive you, pardon your sins, clothe you in his righteousness, so that you are right with God. If you need sanctification this morning, you go to Jesus, and Jesus will fill you with the Spirit, impart to you his character, so that you begin to walk with him. 2
1 - Brooks, K. (2009). Summarized Bible: Complete Summary of the New Testament (p. 60). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
2 - “Put On the Breastplate of Righteousness.” Redeemer Church, 10 Feb. 2019, redeemer.ch/sermons/put-on-the-breastplate-of-righteousness/.