The Breastplate

Ephesians 6:14 Breastplate of Righteousness

Character of Righteousness- What makes up the Breastplate?

The armor is not our own righteousness, but he righteousness of God. If we enter the battel relying on our righteousness- that is feeling confident in how good we are, how spiritual, how prayerful, how knowledgeable in Scripture- then the devil will challenge our righteousness by showing us how tarnished our righteousness is (Is 64:6), so we are easily demolished, and left defenseless without a breastplate. What we need is a righteousness that God provides which is invulnerable (Phil 3:9) (Jeffery)

There are two types of righteousness that make up the armor. Imputed righteousness, which is that which is wrought by Christ for the believer; and imparted righteousness, which is that which is wrought by Christ in the believer.(Gurnall)

Positional Imputed -Righteousness brought by Christ for the Believer

Imputed Righteousness (also known as justification-made right with God) - imputation is an accounting term it means that you take something that belongs to one person and you put it to the account of another. A man owes a debt; you take it out of his page in the ledger and you put it into the page of another man in the ledger. You have imputed the debt to another. (Jones). In a biblical sense it is the placing or imputing of our sins on Jesus and his righteousness being credited or imputed to our account. (2 Cor 5:21). When you become a believer, you reach out your hand of faith, take hold of the hand of God through Jesus Christ. At that moment, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you. God clothes you in the righteousness of Christ. God puts over you, as it were, a canopy of the absolute holiness of Jesus Christ. (Phil 3:9) (Mac Arthur) When God looks at me clothed in the righteousness of Christ, He pronounces me to a right with him because of Christ. I don’t become righteous, but because of my union with Christ, I am seen as righteous. God looks though Christ to see me. I am positionally righteous before God, but practically I am still unrighteous and sinful. Why did a solider put on a breastplate when going into battle? Though he might strong as an ox and fit, he realized that, for all that, his natural body could not withstand a spear, sword or arrow. So, he covered himself with another body, a much stronger one- a breastplate. His protection then was no in him but upon him (Jeffery)

Practical Imparted- Righteousness brought by Christ in the Believer

Imparted righteousness (Also known as sanctification -being made right for God) is a supernatural prin­ciple of a new life planted in the heart of every child of God by the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit, whereby they endeavor to please God, by obedience to the word of God.(Gurnall) It is growing in Godliness. Once we have believed in Christ we receive imputed righteousness, but God begins to work in us the righteousness of his son. He imparts it to me, he makes it part of me. (Jones) Having been saved by grace and covered with the imputed righteousness of God, the Holy Spirit of God now begins to work within us to change or sanctity us. Gradually our thinking, our desires and our outlook on life all begin to change. The Holy Spirit works to conform us into the image of Christ, to make us Christlike (Jeffery), This is the practical righteousness which is expressed in daily living as we strive to be obedient to God in all things.

We have to “put on the breastplate of righteousness.” While we cannot be righteous on our own and so need the imputed righteousness of Christ, we then need to live in accordance with that and put on practical righteousness. It is the imputed righteousness of Christ that makes practical righteousness possible, but practical righteousness will only be a reality when we daily live in obedience to the Lord. Our changed standing before God is to result in a changed manner of living too. Imputed righteousness must result in imparted righteousness (Heb 10:26) This practical life of righteousness results from a pursuit of holiness, a life set apart unto God, and it will keep you from sin. (Harris) When you were saved you were given the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That righteousness will cover you for all eternity. But in order for you to live the kind of life that wins the battle over Satan, you must apply righteous principles available to you in his righteousness to the matter of your daily living. I’ve been given the righteousness of God, but that doesn’t mean I’ve attained ,. . . or arrived. You can live a righteousness life. It’s a matter of daily, moment by moment choices. Practical righteousness puts the armor on. Like Paul, we should want to reach the prize of Christlikeness. Phil 3:10 We should desire a practical righteousness to match our positional righteousness. (MacArthur)

Covering of Righteousness- What does the Breastplate protect?

A breastplate covered two vital areas: The heart and the bowel area.

Heart – will, conscience The heart was used to symbolize the seat of volition, which is the ability to understand and make choices (Pro 4:4; Matt 15:18-19) (Harris) The heart is the center of our desires and our conscience . (Jeffery) Thinking is associated with the heart. (Mac Arthur)

Bowels- emotions

the Hebrew word racham, which we translate as “compassion” or “tender mercies” is literally “bowels” (Ps 69:16). It talks about the bowels of compassion (Harris) The bowels are associated with feelings and emotions. (Mac Arthur)

The heart then means the thinking process, and the bowels refers to the emotions. Satan wants to attack a believer in two areas, primarily. One, in his thinking; two, in his emotions. One in the way he thinks and feels, another in the way he responds emotionally. And the believer must be protected, because this is where Satan makes his attack. He feeds your thinking processes with false information. He feeds your emotions with false feelings. He wants to cloud your thinking with lies, untruth, anything he can, and he wants to appeal to the wrong parts of your emotions. He wants to illicit evil emotional responses. He wants to twist and pervert your affections. He’ll also, try to confuse your thinking with falsehood, or he’ll try to confuse your emotions that make you long for, lust for, feel after, and have affection for the wrong things. If you just take our thoughts and emotions together they encompass everything that causes us to act. He moves to destroy your conscience, to get you to do things that you shouldn’t do to sear a conscience that once warned you that soon will not warn you any longer. He wants to debilitate your will, breaking down your will. He wants to confuse your emotions by causing you to feel wrongfully toward things. He wants to corrupt your desires. He wants to draw your affections to the wrong things. Understanding, conscious, will, desires, drives, affections, feelings, emotions, all those things that cause us to act are protected by the breastplate of righteousness. (Mac Arthur) Feelings are important but we should never base our life upon them. That is one of the wiles of the devil. Our faith is not dependent upon our feelings, but the love and grace of God to us in Christ. Our assurance is in what God has done for us once and for all and not in the particular feelings of the moment (Jeffery)

Confidence because of Righteousness

Assurance –When a soldier entered battle wearing his breastplate, he had a great sense of confidence and assurance. He knew he had protection. (Jeffery) Our assurance is in the finished work of Christ on our behalf. Christ has done everything necessary to make us right with God. Our breastplate is the imputed righteousness of Christ on our behalf. It is his eternal work of his sacrificial death for our sins that makes the breastplate strong against any and all accusations the enemy will hurl against us. The Breastplate of righteousness helps us by giving us a sense of confidence which is essential for warfare. If you enter into this fight with the devil uncertainly or hesitantly you are already defeated. We need confidence. I am aware of these sensitive organs within me which are exposed to the enemy’s attack. Until I have a feeling of confidence that they are covered I cannot possibly stand and be ready for some particular onslaught that is coming. But the moment I have this breastplate I know that all is well. In a sense this means my assurance of salvation; a realization of our whole standing a position before God. (Jones) Heb 10:22, 1 John 5:13, Rom 8:16)

Conflict with Righteousness- What does the Breastplate prevent?

It seems best to understand the breastplate as the righteousness of Christ, which being imputed by God, and received by faith, is a guard against, and repels the accusations and charges of Satan, and is a security from all wrath and condemnation. (Gill) Against the slanderous attacks of the Devil (Job 1:9-10), the faithful Christian knows that he or she stands innocent in the sight of God (Romans 8:1). In addition, the faithful Christian realizes that God does not demand flawless living. Forgiveness is always available for the Christian who slips and is willing to honestly admit such in repentance and prayer (1 John 1:8-10). Therefore, the Christian has powerful incentive to never give up. (Caldwell) The breastplate of righteousness is absolutely essential as a protection against the accusations of the devil. He is the accuser of believers and he accuses us night and day (Rev 12:10, Job 1:9) He accuses us in many areas, but two forms of accusations seem prevalent: Our worthiness to be accepted as a child of God and be in the presence of God and our waywardness from God when we feel alienated from him because of our failure in times of temptations and trials.

Worthiness- There are times when we are praying or serving God, when the enemy comes and suggests that we are in no condition to pray or serve him. He reminds us of our unworthiness to come before a Holy God. He might rake from our dim and distant past something we did and hold it before us. He says, “How can a person like you pray to God? What access, what entry, has such a miserable sinful worm into the presence of a Holy God? When he assails us with these accusations we must respond in two ways: Agree with the accusations and appropriate the breastplate of of righteousness to silence the accusations. We must not to try to justify our self, because we will never be able to argue the devil out of his position. He will defat us every time. He knows us well, he has a record of our past; he knows our present; he knows all about us. So rather than argue with him, agree with him. Agree that he is right and that on your own accord, by your own goodness that you are absolutely unworthy to be called a child of God or come into His presence. Affirm that you are utterly unrighteous and should be damned to the vilest hell. But then affirm that you never intended to go in the presence of God on your own righteousness. When he attacks you must appropriate the truth of the breastplate that you are wearing. You must proclaim that you are completely justified (made right) not because you are right or live right, but because you were make right and have eternal unchanging peace with God through Jesus (Rom 5:1, 2) Our acceptance before God is based on the imputed righteousness of Christ (the breastplate that we now wear) not ours and our access to God is based on the Lord Jesus Christ. (Heb 4:14-16). We wear this breastplate of righteousness! (Is 59:17). Jesus Christ himself! It is His righteousness that is put on me and that righteousness is sufficient for all my needs and will dispel all the accusations of unworthiness. We are worthy because in Christ we are made worthy. (Jones).

Waywardness The devil will accuse us when we fall into sin. We are saved, but we are still fallible. (Jones) Although we have been saved, we still struggle with indwelling sin, and because of this we are liable to sin and do fall into sin. It is then that devil comes to us and tries to make us feel a sense of utter condemnation and complete hopelessness and despair. He hurls accusations at us to say that our spiritual failure has forfeited the saving work of Christ and that God should never forgive us. This is when again, we do not argue the point, but rather agree that we have sinned. Then affirm that God though the sacrifial death of Jesus once for all has paid the penalty for your sins. (Heb 9;11, 10:9-14). But We have forgiveness (1 John 1:9) and we are no long under condemnation (Rom 8:1) We must realize and understand what the righteousness of Jesus Christ has done for us. It covers us like a breastplate. It is our security. My position does not depend on what I am doing or not doing, it is always dependent on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. My relationship to God is not a variable one. The case is not that I am a child if God one day and not a child of God the next day. That is not the bases of my standing. When God had mercy on m, he made me his child, A very sinful, and very unworthy one perhaps but still his child, though the righteousness of Christ.

Paul clearly connects the belt of truth to the breastplate of righteousness (2 Cor 6:6-7). We must have right motives if we are to defeat the enemy of our souls. We're to have our loins girded about with truth and have on the breastplate of righteousness. That right motive of life is a heart occupation with Christ and occupation with the righteousness of God. Saturate your mind with the Word of God. Have your loins girt about with truth. Put on the breastplate of righteousness—not only imparted and imputed righteousness, but a practical righteousness in your own life where your motives and your very life will be led and directed and guarded by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. (Mitchell)