Isn’t it nice to know there is armor we can put on for the spiritual warfare? But what does that mean? This devotion looks at the breastplate of righteousness, which protects where Jesus and the Holy Spirit live within us – our heart.
Nuggets
- Righteousness is what comes out of being holy, having faith, and loving as Jesus does.
- If righteousness is the product of holiness, faith, and love, we could say it produces regeneration.
- God is constantly working on us to change us into the holy, righteous people He is calling us to be.
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We are looking at the armor that God provides us to protect us against spiritual warfare. We are looking at it through the lens of the following question: How are we exposed when we take off this part of the armor?
We looked at the armor of truth in the last devotion. Included in verse 14 of Ephesians 6 is the breastplate of righteousness.
Part of me is surprised I didn’t do righteous in the Churchy Word series. I know, duh.
Right is the root of the word, so it shouldn’t be too hard. We are either right with God or wrong with God.
I’ve said before that righteousness means being right with God, being holy as He is holy. Unfortunately, we are still in our earthly bodies. We still have the ability to sin. We have to protect ourselves — our actions, our thoughts — so that we are always the children God wants us to be.
I think the trouble I have with righteousness is that it must be defined by so many other terms — holy, faith, and love. We can’t be righteous without being set apart and pure. We can’t be righteous if we do not have the faith that Jesus is our Savior and God is our Sovereign Lord. To have all of that, we have to love Them.
When we add in the breastplate, it just tips the scale into the great unknown.
So, let’s dig a little into righteousness before we dig into breastplate.
Let's Put It into Context
Holman Bible Dictionary defined righteousness as “the actions and positive results of a sound relationship within a local community or between God and a person or His people.”
Okay, that helps clear up the mud. Righteousness is what comes out of being holy, having faith, and loving as Jesus does. Being holy produces the righteousness. Yada, yada, yada.
That is why Romans 4: 3 says, “… Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (ESV). Two verses later, Paul said, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Rom. 4: 5 ESV).
Now, don’t read that as you get to quit your job and just trust God will provide. What that means is we can’t earn our way to holiness and righteousness.
Jesus is the one who justified us. We have to believe that His death on the cross paid the price for our sins. That is the only path to faith, holiness, and righteousness (Jn. 14: 6).
Righteousness
“Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness” (Eph. 6: 14 RSV)
So, if righteousness is the produce of holiness, faith, and love, we could say it is the product of regeneration. Regeneration is the change in us that God brings about when we go from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
That part comes at conversion. But regeneration continues as we work through our salvation. God is constantly working on us to change us into the holy, righteous people He is calling us to be.
The Disciple’s Job Description
Complete Job Description
Individual Description
Job Duty #2
Work Out Our Salvation (Philippians 2: 12)
The Breastplate
“… and having put on the breastplate of righteousness” (Eph. 6: 14 RSV)
The breastplate covers the heart. That’s really important because the heart stops, the body is toast. Over with. Done for.
It is important that the heart is covered because Jesus dwells in our hearts along with the Holy Spirit.
It is really important that we don’t take off the breastplate. To me, that is what protects our faith. Proverbs 4: 23 says, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (NLT).
Satan only attacks us when we are doing God’s work. If we are not seeking God and not trying to live for Him, Satan has succeeded in wrecking our witness. He doesn’t need to work on us.
Making the Connections
When the breastplate is removed, the heart is vulnerable. He heart can be seriously injured in battle — and death is a distinct possibility.
When we apply that to our Christian walk, that is serious consequences. Does that mean we can lose our salvation?
I have been collecting research to look into whether we can lose our salvation. Some believe that. I grew up in a denomination that does not. But I’ve said before that we have to know why believe what we believe. But that is for another day.
Whether or not we can full out lose salvation, our faith can get bruised, can’t it? Satan would so like for us to compromise our beliefs and slide more to a worldview, wouldn’t he?
To me, it sometimes seems like that is Satan’s favorite plan of attack right now.
If we put on the breastplate of righteousness when we truly repent, we take it off when we keep sinning. Remember, repentance is expressing sorrow for things we’ve done wrong. If we are not making the commitment to changing ourselves or we haven’t succeeded in no longer doing the wrong things, the heart is in danger.
How Do We Apply This?
Moore reminded us that “the righteousness which constitutes the believer’s breastplate is the fruit of the Spirit, a principle of the renewed mind, one of those good and perfect gifts which come down from the Father of lights.” If righteousness is the product of being holy, having faith, and loving as Jesus does, righteousness produces the fruits of the Spirit.
At the end of the day, do we take stock of what happened that day? Not just a journal entry of I took Adam to class; I wrote my post; we got pizza, I got my hair painted; and I went to Praise Team practice.
Do we ask ourselves the questions to which God is really interested in us finding the answers?
- How well did we follow God’s will today?
- Is our public walk with God reflected in my private walk with God and vice versa?
- What sin did we commit or omit today?
- What sin is lingering around that is either confessed or unbeaten?
- What do we need to concentrate on tomorrow to grow my relationship with God?
Faith is a gift of God. God sets us apart, making us holy. He made us in His own image, which means we are love when we live in Him. Therefore, we are righteous.
When we let sin control our lives, we take off the breastplate of righteousness. That is detrimental to our walk as a disciple.
Gracious Father. We have admitted our sins, believed on Jesus as Redeemer, and confessed You as Sovereign Lord. Still, we have sin in our lives. Bring this sin to our conscience so that we can confess it. We don’t want to sin but know we will while in these bodies. We pray that this sin will not control our lives.
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
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