The Breastplate of Righteousness

What does it mean to be a Christian?  How do you know that you are a Christian?  What assurance can you have that you will remain a Christian?  Well it is mentioned over thirty times in Ephesians, in fact we are told about 10 times in the very first and very long sentence that makes up the first 14 verses of Ephesians:

1. In Christ, all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places now belongs to you Christian (v. 3)
2. In Christ, you were chosen before the foundation of the world (v. 4)
3. Through Christ, you were predestined and adopted as sons and daughters of the living God (v. 5).
4. In the Beloved Son of God, you are a favored child of God (v. 6).
5. In Jesus, we have redemption, forgiveness, and the riches of God’s grace through His blood (v. 7).
6. In Jesus, God made known the mystery of His will (v. 9).
7. In Christ, the Father is bringing all things together to accomplish His good plan (v. 10).
8. In Christ, we have obtained an inheritance in accordance with the plan of the Father’s perfect will (v. 11).
9. In Christ, we are the praise of God’s glory (v. 12).
10. In Jesus, you have been sealed by God’s Holy Spirit for the day of redemption (v. 13).

 

To be a Christian is to be a person who was once spiritually dead, but now is alive with Christ not because of any religious activity on our part, but only because of the work of Jesus on our behalf (Eph. 2:1-9).  This is what it means to be a Christian, but how does one become a Christian?  I believe that in the same way that you become a Christian, is the same way you put on and take up the breastplate of righteousness. 

 

Some of you will remember our time spent in the sermon on the mount during my sermon series, “Something Greater” just over two years ago.  In fact, if you are trying to make sense of the rhetoric and animosity that we are experiencing in our nation, I encourage you to read the first manuscript in that series from May 22, 2022.  If you were here for that sermon series, you discovered that not only is the sermon on the mount the greatest sermon ever preached, but Jesus’ sermon shows us what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. 

 

During our time in the beatitudes I shared that the first three beatitudes, which are also known as “beatitudes of need,” reveal what is essential for any person to understand what is necessary for the salvation of your soul.  Let me walk you through it because it will help you appreciate just how encouraging the breastplate of righteousness really is.  So here are the first three beatitudes from Matthew 5:3-5,

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

 

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

 

“Blessed are the gentle, for they will inherit the earth.

 

To be poor in spirit is to arrive at the cross of Christ with empty hands, recognizing that you are spiritually bankrupt of any moral virtues adequate to earn or gain God’s forgiveness for sins committed against Him.  Those who mourn are those who see and understand their sins for what they are and grieve because of them.  The meek are those who understand that their problems are beyond them, their problems are because of the sin in them, and their problems are of their own doing. 

 

To come to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins is to come to Jesus knowing that there is no righteousness in yourself; it is to mourn over the reality that your sins offend the God who is infinitely righteous, and to come to Jesus knowing that there is not one thing you can do to generate the kind of righteousness necessary for your salvation.  The person who has been truly born again is one whose experience is now the fourth beatitude: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied” (Matt. 5:6).  In Jesus, “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us” (Eph. 1:7-8). 

 

What is the Breastplate of Righteousness?

The Roman soldier’s breastplate was most likely form fitting and extended from the base of the neck to the top of the thighs, covering the thorax and abdomen for the purpose of protecting the vital organs such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, and bowels.  The breastplate is the second piece of God’s armor we are told to put on, but what kind of righteousness does it represent? 

 

Is the breastplate of righteousness the righteousness of Jesus that has been imputed upon you the moment you were saved through faith by Christ alone?  The imputed righteousness of Christ is when the righteousness of Jesus is applied to you the moment you believed the gospel as we are told in verses like 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  Here, consider another passage that concerns the imputed righteousness of Christ from Romans 5:18-21,

So then, as through one offense [Adam’s sin] the result was condemnation to all mankind, so also through one act of righteousness the result was justification of life to all mankind. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the offense would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, so also grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

In other words, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness is good news because God the Father no longer sees you as a sinner because of your sinfulness but sees you as righteous because Jesus’ righteousness has been applied to you permanently.   

 

Do you remember last week when I showed you that the belt of truth includes your identity in Jesus and that He is now your truth?  The One we follow is, “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), and now we follow His way, we walk in His truth, and we are united to His life.  Some of you, like John Bunyan, really struggle with the tension between what you know the Bible says about your salvation and your very real frustration over your sin.  John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, a book he wrote while in prison for preaching the gospel, it has now been translated into more languages than any other book, except the Bible.  Bunyan also wrote other books, and one such book so profoundly helped me with my own struggle of desiring to live for Jesus while struggling with my own sin. One day, while Bunyan was taking a walk, he discovered something that we dare not miss concerning the righteousness of Christ; he wrote about it in his book, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners:

One day, as I was walking in the field, my conscience still somewhat wounded and still fearing that all was not well, these words suddenly entered my soul: “Your righteousness is in heaven.”  And I thought, moreover, that I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God’s right hand.  I say, my righteousness was there [in heaven]; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, ‘He is in need of my righteousness,’ as my righteousness was right in front of him.  I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good state of heart that made my righteousness better, nor even my bad state that made my righteousness worse, since my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, ‘the same yesterday, today, and forever’ (Heb. 13:8).

 

Now indeed the chains fell off my legs, and I was loosed from my afflictions and irons. My temptations fled away too, so that from that time those terrifying Scriptures of God stopped troubling me; I now went home rejoicing in the grace and love of God.  So when I got home I looked to see if I could find that verse: ‘Your righteousness is in heaven,' but I could find no such statement. So my heart began to sink again; the only words which came to mind were these: ‘Of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).[1] 

 

Bunyan’s book was first published in 1666, but his words echo what so many of us struggle with today as we seek to “walk in a manner worthy of our calling” (4:1).  But is this the breastplate of righteousness that we are to put on along with the belt of truth?  The answer to that question is yes... and no.  The answer is “No” in that if you are a Christian, you do not need to apply the righteousness of Christ to your life, that is something that only God can do and already has been done for you (see Eph. 1:7-12)!  If you are a Christian, you can say with the apostle Paul, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith...” (Phil. 3:8-9).

 

So in what way is the breastplate of righteousness the righteousness of Christ then?  We put on the breastplate of righteousness when we live and walk in the confidence and reality that all we have is Christ, and His righteousness is righteousness enough!  John Bunyan said that after he realized that all his righteousness was before the Father because Jesus is our righteousness and sanctification before God. He went on to say, “Having reached this point, I rested very comfortably here, for some time, at peace with God through Christ. ‘Oh,’ I thought, ‘Christ, Christ!’ There was nothing but Christ before my eyes.... Oh, I saw my gold was in my trunk at home, in Christ, my Lord and Saviour.  Now Christ was all – all my righteousness, all my sanctification and all my redemption.”[2]  This my dear brothers and sisters is what it looks like to take up and put on the breastplate of righteousness.  It is God’s to give, and it is now yours to rest, stand, and walk in! 

 

Why is the Breastplate of Righteousness Needed?

I am not sure I need to say much to convince you why the breastplate of righteousness is needed, but to be sure that you not only understand why it is needed, but that you are able to celebrate that it is yours to wear, I feel the need to point out a few more things. 

 

One of the great expositors and pastors of the 20^th century, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, said of this piece of God’s armor: “You do not put on ‘the breastplate of experiences’, you put on the breastplate of ‘righteousness.’”  The breastplate of righteousness, like the belt of truth, is not something you generate or create out of your own strength. 

 

When Paul described the armor of God, he didn’t invent it based on what he saw the Roman soldiers wearing around him while in prison, his understanding of the armor of God came from various passages in the Old Testament such as Isaiah 59.  In Isaiah 53 we are promised a suffering servant who would be “pierced for our offenses and crushed for our wrongdoings” and that suffering servant was Jesus who was punished for our sins (see Isa. 53:5-10).  Then when we come to Isaiah 59, the suffering servant is now the divine and righteous warrior who will come to rescue His people from their sins.  Isaiah 59 begins with these words: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short That it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear. But your wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear” (vv. 1-2). 

 

As we read on, we discover similar language that is used in Ephesians 2:1-3 used in Isaiah 59:12-13, “For our wrongful acts have multiplied before You, and our sins have testified against us; for our wrongful acts are with us, and we know our wrongdoings: Offending and denying the Lord, And turning away from our God, Speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lying words from the heart.”  Now listen to how desperate the condition of sinful humanity according to Isaiah: “Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the street, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and one who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey. Now the Lord saw, and it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice” (vv. 14-15).

 

So what does Yahweh do to address the unrighteousness of His people?  He made salvation possible for those who could not save themselves!  It is in Isaiah 59:16-17 that Paul was referring to in Ephesians 6:14, “And He saw that there was no one, and was amazed that there was not one to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a cloak” (vv. 16-17).

 

The Divine Warrior promised in Isaiah 59 is He who would conquer our sin by suffering the wrath of His Father for our sins in our place!  The only truly and perfect righteous One hung on a cross for unrighteous sinners!  Upon His head was a crown of thorns to serve as a reminder of the curse of sin that He bore in our place, and once He declared that it was finished, the Divine Warrior bowed His head in death to become our salvation! 

 

Oh, dear brothers and sisters... do you see how critically important the breastplate of righteousness really is?  Jesus is not only our Divine Warrior who is qualified to save rebel sinners, but He is the One also promised in Jeremiah 23, “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will live securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The Lord Our Righteousness’” (vv. 5-6).   

 

Jesus is our righteousness and to put on the breastplate of righteousness is to walk in confidence that He is enough because His mercy is rich, His grace is sufficient, and His love is great!  Charles Spurgeon described it this way: “Saints are so righteous in Jesus Christ that they are more righteous than Adam was before he fell, for he had but a creature righteousness, and the Christian has the righteousness of the Creator. Adam had a righteousness which he lost, but believers have a righteousness which they can never lose, an everlasting righteousness.”   To put on the breastplate of righteousness is to stand, walk, live, and run in consideration of Jesus as your truth and as your righteousness.  The breastplate of righteousness is important because when you put it on, it protects the vital organs of your faith, such as your heart.

 

Your hope and salvation are not bound to a nation, or whoever the next president will be.  Whatever happens today, tomorrow, on Tuesday, or any day before you, your Sovereign is Jesus, and it is He,

Who walks on the waters

Who speaks to the sea

Who stands in the fire beside you

He roars like a lion

He bled as the Lamb

He carries your healing in His hands!

 

He has said, “I am the first and the last, and the living One; I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades” (Rev. 1:17-18).  Amen.

 

[1] John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (Auburn, MA: Evangelical Press; 2000), pp. 113-14.

[2] Ibid, p.114.