SWORD Bible Study:  Eph 6:14b

By Mari

Eph 6:14b Stand…having on the breastplate of righteousness;

A wound to the chest can be fatal!  This is why ancient soldiers wore a breastplate that covered their heart and lungs.

Today our police and Special Forces wear a Kevlar vest to protect them from a mortal wound.  The point?  Believers are God’s Special Forces, soldiers and ambassadors! His breastplate of righteousness is our spiritual Kevlar vest.

Why do we need the breastplate of righteousness?  Because our heart is susceptible to the wiles of the devil, who would have us believe that we have no righteousness!  Our protection, the breastplate of righteousness, assures us that if Christ be in us, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life within us because of His righteousness.

Rom_8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

The breastplate of righteousness reminds us that righteousness comes from Jesus Christ. There is no way we can become righteous on our own, no matter what good works we might do.

We have been justified by the work of Christ on the Cross the moment we believed!  We are only righteous through His righteousness imputed to us.

While righteousness and justification are related, they are NOT the same thing.  Justification is a declaration from God that we are free to go with no punishment or penalty that we owed for justice sake!  We are NOT condemned, there is nothing OWED to balance justice, because Jesus Christ PAID THE FULL PRICE FOR US who choose to BELIEVE what HE DID for us, on the CROSS.

Rom_5:19  For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Christ’s righteousness is the SOURCE of our justification. We do not claim a righteousness of our own, however we claim the righteousness of Christ, which glorifies Christ. We are justified by His grace.

Tit_3:7  That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

When we believe on Jesus Christ for salvation God sees us as righteous, because He sees US IN Christ!

We are justified, “made the righteousness of God in Him”.

2Co 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Christ’s righteousness is imputed to our account.  Christ is our righteousness!

1Co 1:30  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

To protect our heart from being discouraged by our sins, we must put on the breastplate of righteousness!   And the only way you can wear this breastplate is by faith in the word of God. You must stand in what God has told us that HE has made us righteous in His Son!

It is the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness that we can put on the full armor of God.

Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

If we think about our sins we are discouraged, and we need to make sure we have put on the new man and the breastplate of righteousness by thinking about His righteousness, then we can be bold and confident despite the wiles of the devil! While he works hard to make the old tapes of our sins play in our head that remind us we are not righteous…why, just look at our sins!

When one does sin, who feels righteous? No one…except a believer who knows he IS righteous IN the righteousness of Christ! We know that God is not going to punish us because His Son already took our punishment!  To believe the old tapes is to believe the devil over God, that Christ’s work was not enough to save us.  Who wants to believe a lie?

This is why putting on the armor is so important! Putting on the armor is remembering to believe God and not the lies of the devil! Letting ourselves believe a false narrative will freeze us in this life, and take away our joy and victory in Him!  We need remember that we are NOT standing in our own merits, but IN HIS. Do you see this?

Even our Apostle Paul used the armor because if anyone could have been discouraged by past sins, it would have been Paul.

Act 22:4  And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.

Act 26:9  I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

Act 26:10  Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.

Act 26:11  And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.

Gal 1:13  For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:

1Ti 1:13  Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

If the Apostle Paul had allowed himself to dwell on his past, he would have thrown up his hands and walked away from serving the Lord.  Instead he understood the breastplate of righteousness…especially here, I believe:

1Co 15:9-10 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Remember too, putting on the armor of God is not a suggestion, it is a command! And putting on the breastplate of righteousness, and the rest of the armor of God, is something we must do!  These verses give us our marching orders!

God gives us this command because putting on this breastplate is for our own good.  He knows that this is what we need, and that it is truly sufficient to protect us and defend us. Nothing more and nothing less.