Breastplate of Righteousness (Ephesians 6:14)
The Armour of God - This is day three, so far. I'm going to read the passage that—the parts that we've covered, just kind of do a summary, and then we're going to look at the Breastplate of Righteousness today. It's the part that covers the vital organs, the parts that could really kill you. And what God gives to us to cover those parts where the enemy seeks to shoot his fiery arrows at us and take us out.
This is what God's Word says. Ephesians 6, once again, if you can get the Bible open and look at it with me, that'd be awesome. Paul says: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not battle, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
Notice it’s not physical enemies. Notice it's not actual flesh and blood people. The enemy is spiritual. Those are our biggest and most dreadful enemies. And this is where the fight needs to be focused. And so God gives us spiritual armour.
And he says, "Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore—"
And our first talk, our first recording, this is where I really focused that this is the main command for you and I. God says, "Ron, Phil, take your stand. You are in Christ. Don't take it lying down. You must stand. And you must fight the fight of faith. And you now have a commander in Jesus who is gracious and powerful and strong. And so he equips you for the battle of faith and of life and all the different things that God has called you to do. And so stand. Stand therefore today, whatever you're facing."
And he tells us to fasten on the Belt of Truth. And now today he tells us to put on the Breastplate of Righteousness. The Breastplate of Righteousness.
So, you know, this is now a defensive weapon. This is the first thing—a breastplate, a shield is so important, that this is where if you get hit, because the shield covers you, it covers your upper body, it covers your torso, covers your heart. It's so important. And if you get hit there, well you're out, you're done. And so this is not an optional piece of armor. This might be one of the most important ones. I mean, they're all important, but this is a very important defensive weapon. No soldier in ancient battles ever went in without their shield.
And it's very interesting that God gives us his own armor here, his own Breastplate of Righteousness. What is righteousness? It might be good to just kind of think about it. Righteousness, I often say, sounds like a religious word for do-gooders and proud, cocky people who are like, "Oh, you know, I am righteous and you're unrighteous," or whatever. Or it sounds like a churchy word for religious people.
But in the Bible, righteousness is actually very different. It has two aspects. Righteousness is about presentation. Think about it like that way: if, Ron, if you're going to a party, or if you're going to meet someone important, or even if you're in your neighborhood, you want to look the way that you're supposed to look, right? You want to look true to yourself. You know, you might wear your hat, or your favorite shirt, or if you're going to a special event, you might up it a little bit and wear nice clothing.
But righteousness is about presentation. It's about being up to specs. Being approved. Passing muster. And that right away makes us realize this is not a religious word. This is about how we want to look. we want to be able to pass muster. We want to look good. We want to be approved by other people. We want to be presentable.
And you know what God says? He says, "In order to be presentable, you need something wonderful. And I am the only one who can give that to you. You need my Son's righteousness, his perfect record. He passes inspection. He is fully approved. He's wonderful. He is righteous. He's never done anything wrong. And you get to be clothed, you get to be covered in Christ."
Isn't that awesome? You get his perfect record of righteousness, and that makes you presentable spiritually, Ron. So you don't—you and I don't have to worry about really what other people think of us. we can do our best, but you know, ultimately we can't really please people. And righteousness, the righteousness that God gives us—this breastplate, this shield—protects us from constantly being worried about what people think of us and trying to proudly look the part.
Well, now we have this gift of God's righteousness, this breastplate, this armor, that we can put on, and that protects us. And that gives us the presentation that we need. That's the righteousness of Christ.
Another aspect of being righteous is not just the presentation, but actually being right with God and being right with each other and even being right with yourself. And so that's what the Bible means with righteousness. To be—so for example, when it says that Noah was righteous, it isn't saying he was religious or didn't do anything wrong. It's just saying that he lived by faith. He had a right relationship with God. He had a—you know, he kept his record with God. He kept the lines open. There was no unconfessed sin. There was no unrepented of pride. There was no secret sin that he was hiding. Righteousness also means to be at right with other people. It means, you know, there's no unforgiveness or bitterness or rivalry. And also to be right with yourself, to be at peace. This is righteousness.
And God, again, gives you that in Christ. He says, "Cover yourself with this shield, and don't be ashamed. Don't be afraid. I am going to protect you."
There's this beautiful hymn that we sometimes sing at church, called "On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand." And it has this line, "Dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name."
And then towards the end it says, the day that he comes back, "I will be found dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne." In other words, you'll be perfectly presentable, perfectly secure. And so today, let's not dress ourselves with some fake righteousness. Let's present ourselves with confidence, covered with the righteousness of Christ. Let's not pretend. Let's put on the humility that puts on the righteousness of Christ.
I hope to continue this soon and I hope this has been helpful and encouraging. Take the time to pray and ask God to show where there's fake righteousness or false righteousness and to help us to be dressed in the righteousness of Christ as we spend time with people today and as we go about life, that we would be confident in the righteousness that Jesus gives us.
