Righteous Body Armor

Ephesians 6:14b

Righteousness is right-relationship with God which includes right-living with God.

We “put on” the perfect Righteousness of Christ (Isaiah 59:17self created for righteous relationship and righteous living.

Unrighteous actions give opportunity for attack.

Don’t.

Defined Relationships

35 years ago a document was signed. It certified that Dustin Matthew Mackintosh was born, that Ralph Eugene Mackintosh was his father and Denise no-middle-name Mackintosh was his mother. That moment defined our relationship.

15 years ago a document was signed. Anna and I stood in front of a crowd (and you were there, and you were there…) and we vowed: for better or worse, in sickness and in health, till death do us part. And we signed a document, a marriage license, and that moment defined our relationship.

I signed a birth certificate 11, 8 and 5 years ago. I am Logan’s father, Arabelle’s father, Dylan’s father. Relationships defined.

From each of those moments, I never had to do anything again. I could just sit back and do nothing. My mom and dad would always be my mom and dad, my wife would always be my wife, my kids would always be my kids.

But what a terrible relationship that would be. How empty. How hollow. It wouldn’t be right.

Instead we have the idea that those relationships should be more than a legal definition, a piece of paper that defines our legal standing… they should be active, alive, full of interactions and reactions.

This week was my kids Spring Break and we did stuff together. Playing games, jumping on trampolines, playing at parks, going disc golfing, watching a movie (Zootopia was awesome, by the way).

I want more than a technically defined relationship. I want to do it right, full of life together.

In prophetic surfer language: I want to be righteous…

Righteous and Self-Righteous

Now that isn’t a word we use outside of theological discussions very often. Away from 80s surfer movies, it has a stuffy feel to it. Self-righteous… we hear that and it isn’t a good thing. Someone is “righteous” and we think of someone who is obsessed with always doing the right thing.

And that isn’t wrong. But the tone in my mind is the guy with the checklist, marking off all the right things. Writing up tickets for infractions.

So we may be tempted to leave “righteousness” in the technically defined theological sense. Jesus was righteous. I am clothed, I am robed in his righteousness, so God looks at me and sees his righteousness. And this is true. This is good. This is great, actually, this is gospel. It is miraculous and salvific and all those good things.

It is like the moment I signed that marriage certificate. I signed the birth certificates. It defined and defines the relationship. It created a relationship between me and God, in Christ, I am a child of my Father, I am follower, a disciple of the Son, I am a temple for the Spirit. I am righteous in Christ.

And yet… in the same way I am not content with letting my relationship with my parents, my wife, my kids be “technically defined”. I do not just let my relationship be.

I pursue relationship. I pursue Righteousness.

Breastplate of Righteousness

We are continuing to look at the armor of God in Ephesians 6, and we move now to the Breasplate of Righteousness. As before, we take three questions to the text:

What is it?

Why does it help in spiritual warfare?

How do we put it on?

Ephesians 6:13-14

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness

What is It

What is the breastplate? Well, your front is squishy and very stab-able. A breastplate puts a layer of metal here to make you less squishy and stab-able.

What is righteousness?

I think we are used to thinking of righteousness as simply doing the right things. And that is part of it. That is a big part of it. However, we have to take the checklist, legalistic mentality completely off the table. Righteousness is a huge theme through the Old Testament, the prophets are constantly correcting this view of righteousness, justice and righteousness, it goes further than technical relationship or even technically right actions. It goes deeper. It goes to the heart.

Righteousness is not legalistic perfection.

Righteousness is primarily relational.

Righteousness is right-relationship with God which includes right-living with God.

Right relationship leads to right actions which lead to right relationship which lead to right actions

The Upward Spiral

This image helps me.

It is about doing the good things. The right things at the right times. That comes out of right relationship. That leads into better relationship. So this right action / right relationship spirals upward into better and better relationship.

This is true in all my relationships: as father, as husband, as son, as friend.

The opposite is true.

If my relationship is strained or stressed, I am more likely, more tempted, to do the things that drive Anna crazy. Because I am ticked. I am less likely to do the things that she loves, I don’t feel like it. And that strains and weakens my relationship. It is a downward spiral.

Righteous Love

We see this in Jesus’ summary of the law. The law, so associated with righteousness, not the source of righteousness but forever the course of righteousness… and Jesus said these two commandments summed up all the rest: love God, love others.

The word “love” perfectly captures this relational-actional duality. Love defines a relationship, it only makes sense in the context of relationship. And yet, it is an action verb, it isn’t really love unless you are acting in loving ways.

Jesus’ Righteousness?

What about Jesus’ righteousness? He did this perfectly. Perfectly right relationship with God. Perfectly right action, right living.

So we are discussing two kinds of righteousness: the perfect righteousness of Christ by which we are saved… and our own ethical righteousness. In his righteousness we are saved and we have this relationship with God. But that does not mean we forever ignore our own personal ethical righteousness.

Ephesians 4:20-24

20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

That phrasing should sound familiar. Put on. Paul has used this metaphor again and again. We have a newly created self, a new capacity. We are reborn, recreated with a new capacity: true righteousness and holiness. You didn’t have that before Christ and now you do.

In Christ you now have the capacity to live in right relationship leading to right action. Righteousness and holiness. So it makes the most sense, since he has been talking about putting on righteousness as our own ethical actions living out of the new self,

How do we Put in On?

Putting on the breastplate of righteousness is something we do by stepping into right relationship and right action.

We aren’t earning anything. We aren’t earning our salvation. We aren’t earning righteousness. None of that. But we are wanting our relationship with God to be everything it possibly can be. So we pursue righteousness.

We do that by:

not doing wrong things

and doing right things.

Very complicated.

Putting on righteousness is more than just not sinning. Not sinning is important. That’s like punching a friend in the nose. It is not sufficient for a vibrant friendship just to not punch them in the nose. But it is helpful to not punch them in the nose. If every time we get together I punch you in the nose, it is hard to really get close.

So cutting sin out of our lives is part of it. But then there’s so much more. We do stuff together. We do life together. We talk together, we sing together, we laugh together, we give each other gifts. And as we grow closer we get better at talking and hanging together and better at giving gifts to one another.

Putting on righteousness is life-with-God. It is holy living, it is a life of worship, of communion and constant connection with God. It is prayer and fellowship with God. It is service in the name of God. It is right relationship that leads to right living that leads to deeper relationship that leads to ever more righteous living.

How is it Spiritual Warfare???

Now how does this play into spiritual warfare?

We used to be in the Kingdom of the prince of the power of the air, but we were purchased, rescued by the sacrifice of Jesus’ perfect righteousness, transferred from the Kingdom of darkness, recreated within the Kingdom of God.

Nothing the enemy can do reverses that process. In our “battle” analogy it is important to define the stakes. We are not battling for our eternal salvation.

We are fighting to stand in His victory. We are on the front lines of the Kingdom, and His Kingdom is advancing. So the principalities and authorities, the powers of this present darkness fight, not to win you back (they can’t do that) but to steal from you the joy of his victory and to render you ineffective in the advance of His kingdom.

The enemy fights to steal from you the joy of his victory and to render you ineffective in the advance of His kingdom.

The very first lie in the garden was to twist the relationship, the words between God and his people. “Did he really say???” and so lead human beings into unrighteous action. Then, that unrighteous action brought sin and death.

Because of Christ’s perfect righteousness, that isn’t true anymore.

But if you can be tricked into a cycle of sin and shame, you aren’t growing in your relationship with God, in your righteousness. You have neither the joy of his victory, nor effectiveness in the advance of His kingdom.

It isn’t even just about sin. If you can be distracted in pursuing anything other than his righteousness: worrying about wealth, worrying about food, worrying, pursuing anything else beside him, you are rendered less effective for His kingdom. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you (Ha a a alelujah).

The enemy fights to steal from you the joy of his victory and to render you ineffective in the advance of His kingdom.

Unrighteousness (not just sin but anything less than pursuing Right relationship which leads to Right Living) is like pulling off your armor in the midst of battle.

Put on Righteousness

Therefore, don’t be content with the title “Christian.”

Repent of your sin. That is unrighteousness.

Repent of your distraction. That is unrighteousness.

Put on righteousness.

It is an eternity long love relationship with God. This is righteousness.

It is an eternity long practice of loving others. This is righteousness. Love your God, love your neighbor as yourself. This is the law, this is righteousness.

Practically it looks like this: Take one step in relationship with God. One step in that upward spiral. If you wanted to grow closer to a friend, you would shoot them a text “let’s have breakfast this Sunday.” Make an appointment with God.

If you wanted to grow closer to your kid, do an activity you both love. Well you know so much about what God loves, what he loves to see you doing, what he loves to do with you. Do it. In worship, in service to our community, in fellowship with one another, in all of the things, all of the options.

Put on righteousness. Take a bold step in righteousness: right relationship that leads to right living that leads to right relationship that leads to more righteous living.

We – Putting on Righteousness Together

And don’t take that step alone. As with all the armor, we put on righteousness together.

We need help in repentance, turning away from unrighteousness.

We need help in pursuing right relationship with God. We need help in right living. We need accountability and support.

We need ideas.

Sometimes, I need to follow you as you follow Jesus because I can’t see Jesus right now… but I can see you.

You can see me: follow me as I follow Jesus.

I know this all sounds familiar, and I am unrepentantly going to sound like a broken record. This is who we are. This is our mission. To gather together and put on righteousness.