We are engaged in a spiritual battle. There is no escaping it. The question is: do we want to win or lose on the battlefield of life?
Let’s consider the breastplate of righteousness. If this piece of our spiritual body armor is missing, we will be cut down quickly in the spiritual war.
Paul speaks of the breastplate of righteousness in Ephesians 6:14: “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness” (NKJV).
For the Roman soldier, the breastplate was essential. It was basically a tough piece of leather with animal horn or hoof pieces sewn into it.
The piece went from the neck to the abdomen, and it protected the vital organs, including the heart. One well-placed blow here or to the head and it’s done—party’s over—and you just became a casualty.
Our modern equivalent would be body armor or the bulletproof vest.
To wear the breastplate of righteousness is simply recognizing we have Christ’s righteousness in our life. The Bible says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19 NKJV).
This simply means that when a person puts his or her faith in Jesus and is saved, His righteousness is transferred to that person’s “spiritual bank account.” This is not personal morality, and it is certainly not “self-righteousness,” but something that God does for us.
For instance, Paul was a moral man, but he wrote that his desire was to “be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ” (Philippians 3:9 NKJV).
In other words, we stand right before God, regardless of the way we feel. It is a part of what we call justification.
When a person is justified by God, all of their sins are forgiven. But, as they say in those commercials on TV, “Wait, there’s more!” We also have the righteousness of Christ transferred to our account, so to speak.
This is important because the devil will say to us, “You are not worthy. You are weak. You are going down!” When he does, we can say, “I stand righteous before God because of the finished work of Jesus Christ!”
Scripture says Christ has “made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6 NKJV). In other words, if you have put your complete faith in Jesus Christ alone as Savior and Lord, you stand positionally righteous before Him.
You are both loved and accepted by God.
Satan tries to defeat us with accusations, but we can be confident of our standing before God, because of the righteousness of Christ.
So today, make sure that your breastplate of righteousness is on because, frankly, if it isn’t, then the other pieces will not do you much good.
