Breastplate of Righteousness (2)
Spiritual Warfare • Sermon • Submitted
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· 14 viewsAll saved men and women have been provided the beautiful gift of righteousness. This message explains that gift and opens our eyes to the wonder of it.
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God is Passionate About Us
God is Passionate About Us
I have recently been in the book of Jeremiah. If you know the book, Jeremiah is not a very optimistic read. Most of it is telling the Israelites that they need to accept captivity by the Babylonians. Of course, their captivity was their own fault since they refused to obey God.
As I was reading, I came across a verse that surprised me. Up to that point the prophet had been saying some pretty dire and unpopular things but in chapter 31 I found this statement:
Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares the Lord.
It reminded me that we tend to forget how passionate God is about His children. Even though the Israelites, Ephraim, had disobeyed God, God delighted, remembered, yearned, and had compassion on them.
We don’t quite understand the way God looks at us. And, that really puts us at a disadvantage. I believe that the image Paul makes when he references the breastplate of righteousness helps us understand the love and blessings that we have in Christ.
We Glow in the Breastplate of Righteousness
We Glow in the Breastplate of Righteousness
This week we’ll not move too far along in our passage by Paul about the armor of God.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
In fact, Paul doesn’t add much except that it is a breastplate of righteousness. We have to go to other verses to understand how amazing righteousness is.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ
and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
The Greek word for “righteous” is dikaios, which means
1. “of God—just, righteous,
2. with reference to his judgment of men and nations, a righteous judge;
3. of men—upright, just, righteous conforming to the laws of God and man, and living in accordance with them.”[1]
When we are talking about righteousness the Bible describes a righteousness that is freely given to us by Jesus through justification.By His blood we are saved. There is nothing that we need to do for salvation accept to receive the free gift.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
We undervalue the righteousness provided to us by the justification of Jesus Christ. We have been blessed with a brilliant breastplate of righteousness! Some historians claim that the Roman soldiers would shine their shields and breastplates so they would shine in the sunlight as they lined up for combat. Can you imagine the psychological advantage? As the opponent looks across the valley, the entire hill shines.
Check Out Your Beautiful Breastplate
Check Out Your Beautiful Breastplate
I remember being pinned as a Warrant Officer. My entire uniform changed. The pant legs had a yellow stipe up the sides. My bar sat up on my shoulder boards and the insignia on my collar changed. To top it off, the hat on my head changed. I was polished and standing straight and tall.
If you have accepted Jesus, you are beautiful in your breastplate. As I was studying for this message, I read this from Rick Renner’s book:
In addition, brass is a golden color that shines and sparkles when it is out in the sun, especially if it is a fine piece of brass. Therefore, when the fully armed soldier went outside on a sunny day, the rays of the sun would reflect off his breastplate and create a dazzling spectacle.[2]
It creates quite a picture, but it seemed too convenient, so I wanted to find another source. I found another source from the series, War in History. Kate Gilliver, the author, quoted from a 1st century manual on generalship, the Greek write Onasander advised that “ The general should ensure that he deploys his battle line with their equipment glittering, a simple matter requiring only an order to sharpen swords and to burnish helmets and breast-plates. For the advancing ranks appear more terrible with their gleaming weapons, and the terrible sight strikes fear and confusion in the hearts of the enemy.”[3]
Isn’t the Word of God amazing? I have read over the Ephesians 6 passage many times but now the breastplate of righteousness shines for me like it never did before. I believe this helps us understand what Paul was trying to show us.
Your Breastplate is Brought to You by Jesus Christ
Your Breastplate is Brought to You by Jesus Christ
There is a beautiful example of what happens to us at salvation when we receive our ‘breastplate’. In the OT book the prophet Zechariah has a series of dreams. In one of the dreams he sees Joshua, the high priest, standing in front of an angel and Satan. The angel rebukes Satan. Then this happens…
Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel.
The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
This is what happens when we become Christians. The old filthy clothes come off and fine garments (a breastplate of righteousness goes on). The Roman commanders loved to show off their armor. Here is the great historian Onasander again:
Soldiers should wave their swords above their heads towards the sun; the polished spear-heads, flashing swords and reflections of the sun from the army sends out a terrible lightning flash of war’.[4]
What Jesus did for us is both beautiful and powerful. “When you understand that God has freely imparted righteousness to you and that this God-given righteousness now serves you as a gorgeous breastplate, it will affect your attitude quite positively and profoundly. You will discover that your level of confidence rises dramatically because an attitude of righteousness imparts both confidence and tremendous authority.”[5]
Your Breastplate is Also Yours to Maintain and Shine
Your Breastplate is Also Yours to Maintain and Shine
I watched a brief glimpse of Priscilla Shirer as she was preaching on the breastplate of righteousness. She emphasized the need for Christians to walk in their righteousness. The Apostle Paul challenges all Christians to exercise a righteousness of character and conduct. This seems to be one of the many challenges of the modern church. Some are teaching that we can be in Christ without being like Christ. That is why we have a responsibility to maintain the breastplate.
in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)
and find out what pleases the Lord.
Again from War in History
The emperor Aurelian is reported to have advised a subordinate to ensure his soldiers kept their arms polished and equipment bright, and wore their military decorations in public, partly no doubt to present an intimidating sight not only to any enemy, but also to the civilian population, and also as an indication that military discipline was being maintained.28
You may be asking yourself, doesn’t polishing the breastplate of righteousness look like selfish pride? The answer is, “no” but it is all about motivation. It brings up the difference between legalism and righteousness. I like this statement, “Legalism is about loving self, self-preservation to get to Heaven, and TRUE godly living/righteousness is about loving Christ. It’s about a genuine relationship with God and walking in the Spirit.”
Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
So, what is motivating you to behave a certain way? Why don’t you lie, cheat, get drunk, gossip view pornography, curse, … (fill in the blanks). Are you motivated because you want to look good or do you choose to because you know that if Jesus were with you, He wouldn’t be pleased? And if you are doing those things just because you feel you are free to do whatever you want, are you really serving in the right army?
It is true that we will spend the rest of our lives maintaining and polishing our breastplates. Righteousness is blessed.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!
Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.
You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
So, the breastplate of righteousness has been gifted to us by Jesus and Jesus expects us to take care of it.
Your Breastplate is a Weapon
Your Breastplate is a Weapon
1. Learn to View Yourself as Jesus Views You –
1. Learn to View Yourself as Jesus Views You –
By developing an attitude of righteousness in your life and learning how to views yourself through the work of the Cross, you will receive a divine impartation of confidence and boldness that will always put you on the winning side.[6]
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
The gift of righteousness offers life, which we will look at more when we talk about the helmet of salvation.
2. You Can Have Confidence
2. You Can Have Confidence
In one story about the Roman army, the brilliance of armor wasn’t on their side. Instead, the Pontic army intimidated the Romans because of their appearance.
In a very short encounter before Chaeronea in 86 BC the Romans were unwilling to engage the Pontic army, and Plutarch claims that this was because they were intimidated by the latter’s spectacular appearance: ‘As the ranks surged back and forth, the flashing of their armour which was magnificently embellished with gold and silver, and the colours of their Median and Scythian cloaks mingling with gleaming bronze and iron, presented a radiant and formidable appearance’ (Plutarch, Sulla 12).[7]
John expressed the confidence this way:
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
Which brings us to another point
3. You Are Powerful
3. You Are Powerful
There is an account of a lame man at the gate Beautiful in the book of Acts. Peter and John were just walking along and the man called out and caught the attention of Peter.
Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!”
So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
Too many weak believers are afraid to have people really look at them! When we are covered in the armor of God, the breastplate of righteousness, we are not afraid to have people look at us. Just like Peter and John, we don’t have silver and gold but we do have something more wonderful – the Spirit of God!
4. You are Protected!
4. You are Protected!
The breastplate of righteousness protects us from the attacks of the enemy.
“Hear me, you who know what is right, you people who have taken my instruction to heart: Do not fear the reproach of mere mortals or be terrified by their insults.
For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations.”
The purpose of the armor of God is that we might, after having done all, stand. We protect everything that we have… our homes, cars, electronics, finances, and even toasters if we want to pay an additional $3 at the register at Walmart. The breastplate of righteousness protects us from the attack of the enemy.
We are Dazzling in our Armor
We are Dazzling in our Armor
The roman soldier almost glowed when the sunlight reflected off the brass on his breastplate. So far, we have learned about the value of having the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. The thing that stands out most to me about the breastplate is the brilliance of it.
It taught me about the wonder of the righteousness that we have in Jesus. It has reminded me to stand tall. To be bold. Keep walking. Keep marching. Keep moving forward – and don’t let the enemy talk you out of enjoying the benefits of your right standing with God!
[1] Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave, Foundations of Pentecostal Theology, Revised & Updated., vol. 1 (Los Angeles, CA: Foursquare Media, 2016), 67.
[2]Excerpt From: Rick Renner. “Dressed to Kill.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/dressed-to-kill/id595411385
[3] Qtd in War in History. (Onasander 28).
[4]Qtd in War in History. (Onasander 29).
[5] Excerpt From: Rick Renner. “Dressed to Kill.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/dressed-to-kill/id595411385
[6] Renner, Rick. Dressed to Kill.
[7] Gilliver, Kate. War in History. Jan 2007, Vol. 14 Issue 1, p1-21.