Welcome back to our series on your spiritual weapons— as we explore the armor of God, and what the purpose of each piece of the armor is and does.
In the last segment, we covered the shoes of peace, and as I was recording that episode, I realized that I skipped over the breastplate of righteousness; so my fault on these being a bit out of order that they are listed in the verse; and that order listed in Ephesians 6 is actually really smart, because the breastplate perfectly connects the belt of truth, with the shoes of peace because it speaks of our spiritual identity in Christ, our complete justification, and the spiritual defense that it offers to us. Let’s dive in!
Righteousness: A Vital Protection
As always, let’s begin by reading the verse, Ephesians 6:14:
“Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;”
So we can see in this verse, we are told to stand with the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness is mentioned in the very same sentence, along with the shoes of peace in the next verse 15.
These pieces of armor are joined together for a very specific reason… righteousness is part of truth, and righteousness is what gives you peace. So let’s explore this more.
The Truth of Righteousness
2nd Corinthians 5:17-21 says the following:
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them; and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be you reconciled to God.
For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Verse 17 starts off with the essential truth of who we are in Christ. Without this truth, we have no foundation upon which to stand. It says Therefore if any man be in Christ… today if you are a believer in Christ Jesus, if you are abiding in Him, then this truth is your truth and this reality which we are about to read is also your reality, regardless of how you feel, regardless of what your eyes may see regardless of what you may think and regardless of what anyone else may tell you, you are a new creature: old things have passed away; these “old things” in the Greek is ancient things, all the things from the old man, all of the things from the first Adam, all of those things are gone – they have passed away, they are dead. Then verse 17 continues: Behold which means “look and see”, all things are become new. This verse does not say that some things are become new, but that all things are become new. In Christ you are a new nature, a new life, a new hope, a new assurance, a new and living way, new power over the enemy and evil forces, a new way of thinking about the world and about your life, a new attitude, and new perspective. It is virtually endless, and all of these things are because of Jesus Christ as we see in the next verse 18.
Now verse 18 says that all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. This is telling us what God’s desire is: to reconcile us to Himself; the word “reconcile” means to make peace – not to beat us down, not to condemn us, and not to punish us. He accomplished this reconciliation through His Son Jesus Christ, who also has not come to judge or condemn us (John 8:15, John 3:17), and then after reconciling us, after making peace with us, look at what He did then: He has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Not condemnation. God is very clear on this. Your ministry, the way that you serve should be based off of this reality of peace with God – you are not trying to get peace with God, you already have peace with God, and your ministry flows naturally from this truth.
Then, it continues in verse 19 that God in Christ was reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. This is an important detail because many believers don’t actually believe this truth. Most believers do not even believe that this is true in their own life, let alone the rest of the world! How about you? Do you know that today God is not imputing your trespasses to you? Many people do not know this because pastors today do not preach or teach this! The world needs to hear that God is not imputing their trespasses to them today. This does not mean that the entire world is saved – that’s not what this verse is saying. But God is leaving the doorway open for salvation, and many people are scared away from God because they have a wrong idea or belief about His character or His nature.
How the Breastplate Protects You
Now the idea of an angry God isn’t very inviting, and that image doesn’t cultivate confidence either. This is where the breastplate of righteousness comes in.
As we have seen, knowing that you are made righteous by Jesus Christ, and knowing the quality and permanence of that righteousness, you can be absolutely certain that God is not angry with you, and you will never suffer his wrath, because you are in Jesus Christ, with his righteousness set to your account. (Isaiah 54:9, Romans 5:9-10)
This is how the breastplate protects your heart.
Let the truth of Jesus’ righteousness guard and protect you, my friend.
I look forward to thriving with you again.
Be blessed.
No responses yet