The Breastplate of Righteousness

Bible Passage: Ephesians 6:14b

The second piece of armour Paul mentions is the breastplate of righteousness. He has been teaching about the spiritual battle that we face as Christians against powers, principalities and other forces of evil in the spiritual realm. To show how God has equipped us for the fight, Paul draws on the illustration of the armour worn by a Roman soldier, The six things that he highlights are elements of the ordinary Christian life, and it is through these things that we stand firm in the fight.

Righteousness Given: For the Christian, righteousness is fundamentally a gift that is given through Jesus. In Romans 24, it is written that “God will credit righteousness – for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead”. This is not the righteousness that comes from us having done good things or avoided doing bad things, but it is the righteousness of Jesus. He lived a perfectly righteous life that we could never live, and just as our sin is taken by Jesus, so his righteousness if counted for us. The technical word for this is ‘imputation’, and it is at the heart of how the gospel works. Knowing that we have Christ’s righteousness nullifies the attacks that the enemy makes through accusation. Our standing before God is not based on our good works but on Christ’s, and so is not threatened by our failures or our sins.

Righteousness Lived Out: In addition to the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, which is the basis of our salvation, there is also a righteousness imparted to us by God that shapes the pattern of our lives as people who have been saved. Through the work of the Spirit in us, our hearts are changed and we will increasingly make choices to live in a way that lines up with God’s ways. Titus 2:12 describes how God’s grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness, but instead to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives. Spiritual warfare is played out in even the everyday decisions that we make. Wherever we have a choice to do what is right, good and pure or to do what is wrong, impure or destructive, we are choosing sides. We should not underestimate the significance of the small decisions that we make in life.

Guarding the Heart: The picture of the Roman soldier wearing armour would have been one readily available to Paul, as he likely wrote from a prison cell. However, we should not think that the specific pieces of armour were chosen randomly. Careful thought has gone into matching the different aspects of the Christian life to the parts of the armour. The purpose of a breastplate is particularly to guard the heart. As the Bible speaks of the heart, it is the very centre of our being and speaks of the essence of who we are. Paul sees righteousness as guarding the heart of the Christian in two ways. Firstly there is the imputed righteousness of Christ protecting us from accusation or condemnation. Secondly, our lived out righteousness prevents the corrupting effects of sin. Compromises and sinful choices leave their mark on us. They sear our conscience and can form patterns and habits that give the enemy a foothold in our lives. When we make righteous choices, we do not allow this to happen.

Potential Applications:

• Offer the opportunity for people to put their trust in Jesus and receive his righteousness as a gift.
• Some people might be Christians but struggle with feelings of condemnation because of things that they have done. You can assure them that because of the righteousness of Christ, there is no condemnation for those who believe.
• Perhaps you could allow space for the Holy Spirit to bring to mind for people any particular life choices where he is prompting them to choose a righteous path rather than an ungodly one.