Spiritual body armor
July 15th, 2009 Posted in Pastor's corner, essentials, sermons | No Comments »We are engaged in a spiritual battle. There is no escaping it. The question really is, do we want to win or lose on the battlefield of life?
Having already looked at the utility belt of truth that the Roman soldier would wear, and what that would mean to us, let’s consider our first piece of actual body armor. Honestly, if this one is missing, we will be cut down quickly in the spiritual war.
I am talking about the breastplate of righteousness.
Protecting vital organs
Paul speaks of it 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.
What is the breastplate or righteousness?
To wear the breastplate of righteousness is the simple recognition 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 their faith in Jesus and is saved, His righteousness is transferred to our “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 a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ” (Philippians 3:9 NKJV).
Justified!
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 commericals on TV, “Wait, there’s more!” We also have the righteousness of Christ transferred to our account, so to speak.
Why is this important?
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 and Him 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 stand in our relationship with God through Christ. Confident of our standing before God, because of the righteousness of Christ that has been deposited into our “spiritual bank account,” we know we have God’s protection in our lives against the accusations of Satan.
So today, make sure that piece of your armor is on because, frankly, if it isn’t, then the other pieces will not do you much good.
