Introduction
In our spiritual warfare series, we are now looking at each piece of armor that a Christian is to wear to successfully stand against “the wiles” or deceptions of the devil (Eph. 6:10-13). The six pieces of armor that Paul presents to us are in the order that a Roman soldier would put them on. They are divided into two categories of three.
He introduces each of these two categories with different verbs. The first three are introduced with the verb “to be.” The last three are introduced with the verb “to take.” Why does Paul switch verbs halfway through the armament? He wants us to understand two specific, distinct orientations to the six pieces of armor. The first three relate to a state we should always be in. The last three are what we use on an as needed basis. [1]
The first three pieces of armor we have with us all of the time [2] (“having girded… put on… shod…” – Eph. 6:14-15). [3] This is the state we are always in. But the last three pieces of armor we are called to take and use as needed [4] (“taking … take…” Eph. 6:16-17), [5] especially “in the evil day” (Eph. 6:13b) when all hell breaks loose and seeks to steal, kill, and destroy us (John 10:10a).
Last time we looked closely at the first piece of armor, the belt of truth (Eph. 6:14a), which teaches us that Satan wants to deceive us or trick us to do what is contrary to God’s will. This piece of armor enables us to overcome the lies and deceptions of the devil.
Truth is the absolute standard by which reality is measured. [6] It is God’s viewpoint on any subject. We can defeat Satan by reaching out and putting on each citadel of truth God has given us through prayer: The Person of Truth (John 1:14; 14:6; Rom. 13:14), The Spirit of Truth (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13-14; I John 2:20-27), the Word of Truth (John 17:17; 8:31-32; Psa. 119:9, 11, 28-29, 43, 160; 2 Tim. 2:15; 3:16-17; and the Church, the Pillar and Foundation of Truth (I Tim. 3:15). [7]
The Breastplate
After a Roman soldier puts his belt on over his tunic (a loose, sleeveless shirt that reaches to his knees) to provide mobility in battle and serve as a place on which he could hang his armor, he then puts on his “breastplate” (thōraka). The breastplate was usually made of bronze or chain mail and covered the soldier’s body from his neck to his thighs, [8] protecting the vital organs in the chest area and below, [9] including his heart, lungs, liver, spleen, stomach, and intestines. And it also covered his back so that from the top of his spine to below his kidneys, he was protected from the thrust of the enemy’s spear or sword. [10] This is a vital piece of armor designed to protect a Roman soldier. Knowing this about the soldier’s breastplate ought to help us realize how vitally important this piece of armor is to the Christian.
The Bible instructs us, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” (Prov. 4:23). Just as the physical heart is central to our physical well-being, pumping life-giving blood and giving us functionality in every part of our being, so God has given us a spiritual heart that pumps His life throughout all our spiritual relationships. And since our battle with the kingdom of darkness is spiritual, our spiritual heart becomes the pump that gives us spiritual victory. [11]
Therefore, God has given us a special piece of armor called the “breastplate of righteousness.” This righteousness stands as our position with God which cannot be touched or altered by the enemy. It has been eternally settled in heaven’s courtroom. However, to be victorious on earth, our position in heaven must be matched with our practice on earth. Thus, once we learn what our position with God is, we can then align our practice with that position. And when we do that, God is free through the Holy Spirit to pump His life through our life, so we live life as God intended it to be lived, overriding Satan’s attempts and attacks to bring defeat into our Christian lives. [12]
What is Righteousness? [13]
Last time we discovered that we begin dressing for success in spiritual warfare by putting on the belt of truth (Eph. 6:14a). Truth is God’s viewpoint on a matter. So, in spiritual warfare, we start with truth by finding out what God thinks about a certain subject.
Then we are to put on “the breastplate of righteousness” (Eph. 6:14b). The breastplate Christians are to put on is “righteousness.” The word “righteousness” (dikaiosunē) refers to the quality of “being right” [14] as God defines it.
“Righteousness” is not “better than others,” or “good enough,” but right, as in, “right with God.” [15]
“Righteousness is the standard God requires for people to become acceptable to Him.” [16] This standard is based upon the truth. The truth is the informational base that tells me the right thing to do.
The opposite of righteousness is wrongness. Wrongness is functioning or operating in opposition to the truth. But truth is whatever God says about a subject regardless of how many people agree or disagree with Him. Righteousness is my response to God’s truth.
In basketball, the basketball hoop is ten feet high. That is the standard of the basketball goal if you are playing basketball. If we lower the basketball hoop, we have lowered the standard.
What a lot of people do in relation to God, is lower the standard and shoot, and make the shot, and think they did something that is acceptable to the Lord. They adjusted God’s standard of righteousness to a level they could attain, and concluded they are okay to God, when in reality they were not. They had lowered the divine standard to a human standard.
Until we operate on God-based truth that gives us the standard of God’s righteousness, we are not going to align with God’s standard of righteousness. Why is this so important?
How Satan Attacks Us in the Area of Righteousness [17]
Since the opposite of God’s righteousness is wrongness, when we do not align with God’s righteousness in our Christian lives, we are going to be very vulnerable to spiritual attack. Because Paul is talking about spiritual warfare and “wickedness in heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12), we need to understand that demons function on wrongness. Wrong is not just wrong. It is also an invitation to demons to join the wrongness.
Evans illustrates this by saying that when we leave trash laying around our house for too long of a time, we don’t just have trash to deal with. The unaddressed trash invites roaches, ants, mice, and rats to join the party. When food has been left out for too long of a time, one roach tells another roach that they have been invited into the house. So, in addition to the trash in the house, we now have unwanted guests.
God wants us to understand that unrighteousness (trash) is an invitation to demons (roaches) to join our “trashiness,” so we are not just dealing with unrighteousness (trash), we are also having to deal with demons who have made their home in our unrighteousness. And just as trash invites a variety of unwanted guests (e.g., ants, roaches, mice, rats, etc.,), so our unrighteousness invites a variety of demons of all sizes, shapes, and dispositions.
Our unrighteousness invites the demonic flow and blocks the movement of God. Hence, two things happen with our unrighteousness. Demons are invited into our wrongness, which makes a bad place worse. And God is blocked out. Thus, God’s movement in our lives is limited because we are not wearing the breastplate of righteousness.
Our unrighteousness gives Satan a legal right to occupy a place in our lives (cf. Eph. 4:25-27). We have invited the enemy to take up ground in our Christian lives. We have given him control over that part of our Christian lives. We can pray all we want about the roaches in the house, but until we remove the trash in the house, we are still going to have those unwanted guests. Why? Because those roaches (demons) have a legal right to be there because we are saying to them, “I am feeding you today.” As long as we continue in unrighteousness, no amount of praying is going to remove the demonic presence in our lives. They will not listen to our prayers because we are still feeding them with our trash.
As Christians, we often settle for trash management. We know we should not have the trash (unrighteousness), and we don’t want the roaches (demons), so we try to manage the trash.
For example, when we invite people to our house, we want our house to appear to be clean. So, we grab the trash and all the mess laying around, and we throw it in the closet. We want to keep our trash (unrighteousness) hidden so people will not know just how trashy (unrighteous) we truly are.
So, we present an appearance of godliness. We try to think, speak, and act righteously, but inwardly our trash (unrighteousness) is producing a stench. It’s like having a trash compactor in the house. We keep putting trash in it and it reduces the size of our garbage. But the problem is, if we don’t take that trash out, eventually it will fill the house with its unwanted stench. And our spouse will get a whiff of that trash scent, and she will know it is there even if it is not visible, because there is a standard that has a scent to it.
God can detect the scent for unrighteousness. So even if we are good at managing our trash, packing it down, hiding it in the closet, the garage, or in the attic so people cannot see it, God still knows it is in our lives. All demons have done is go to the garage, the closet, or garage – wherever we are hiding the trash. They have not left the premises because they know that the trash (unrighteousness) is still occupying the space.
One does not have to be a Christian for long to understand how tenacious the Devil is with regard to his attacks against righteousness. We mentioned last time how each piece of armor teaches us how Satan can come against us. The Devil wants to devour us and destroy us in this area of righteousness (I Pet. 5:8). He primarily does this in two ways. [18]
The first way Satan attacks us in the area of righteousness is to accuse us of our lack of righteousness. From his book, Overcoming the Adversary, Mark Bubeck shares four contrasts between the way the Holy Spirit comes to us and the way the Devil approaches us.
The first contrast shows us that when the Holy Spirit comes to us, He seeks to show us that our infinite worth and value to God makes God desire our fellowship (Gen. 1:26-27; Psa. 139:1-23; Matt. 13:44-46; I Cor. 6:20-21). He delights in spending time with us (Psa. 17:8; 18:19; 149:4; Isa. 62:5; Zeph. 3:17). But Satan wants to convince us that we are so bad and so flawed that God would not want anything to do with us.
The second contrast teaches us that when the Holy Spirit comes to us, He seeks to show us that there is forgiveness and restoration available to us no matter how often or badly we have sinned (Psa. 23:3; 32:1-11; 51:1-13; 103:3, 10-14; Micah 7:19; John 21:15-17; Acts 10:43; Col. 2:13-14; I John 1:7, 9). But when the Devil comes to us, he seeks to persuade us that there is no forgiveness nor restoration available to us. He tells us we have committed the unpardonable sin [19] and that we are so bad that Satan deserves to have us forever!
The third contrast instructs us that when the Holy Spirit comes to us, He uses God’s Word to give us hope and assurance of God’s love and forgiveness (cf. Rom. 5:1-8; 8:1, 5-6, 31-39). But when Satan approaches us, he takes God’s Word out of context to try to convince us that there is no hope for us; that God could not possibly ever forgive us.
The fourth and final contrast shows that when the Holy Spirit comes to us, He builds faith, hope, and love in our hearts and increases our confidence in the assurance of our salvation (John 6:35-40; 10:28-29; I Cor. 13:13; I Thess. 5:8; I John 2:25-26; 5:1, 13). On the other hand, when Satan comes to us, he creates doubt, despair, and resentment toward God and toward His Word and His people. He wants to convince us that no one as bad as us could ever be saved and get into heaven.
The second way Satan attacks us is to tempt us to compromise God’s righteousness. Satan seeks to convince us that it is not important to live according to the righteous standards God has given us in the Bible and even in our own conscience which many times has been made sensitive by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word.
The Devil seeks to get us to compromise the difference between right and wrong. He may say things to us like, “It won’t hurt you to try that especially if it helps you get what you want.” “Everyone else is doing it, so it must be okay.” “Go ahead and do it. It’s fun.” “No one else has to know.” “It doesn’t matter if you participate in a little worldliness. God understands your needs.” “It is only a weakness.” “This is the only way you can endure stress or face pain.” “You cannot change.”
On the other hand, when we do fail, Satan will come and try to persuade us that we have no righteousness; that we are not worthy before God at all. When we yield to sin repeatedly, without confessing or forsaking it, Satan has a right to claim that area we have compromised (Eph. 4:25-27).
Putting on the breastplate of righteousness means we combat these two ways that Satan attacks us in this area of God’s righteousness. It is at the very heart of the battle against the enemy.
But what does it mean to put on the breastplate of righteousness? What is required to put on this piece of armor? First, we need a doctrinal understanding of the three types of God’s righteousness.
Imputed Righteousness
The word “impute” is not a common word that we use today, but the apostle Paul uses it in Romans 4 when he refers to Old Testament examples of justification by faith. For example, when he refers to David and Abraham’s examples of faith alone for justification, he writes, “5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works… 21 And [Abraham] being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22 And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead… ” (Rom. 4:5-6, 21-24). [brackets added] The word “impute” (logizomai) in these verses means the perfect “righteousness” of God is “credited” or “placed to one’s account.” [20]
We may not be as familiar with the word “impute,” but the word “credit” probably speaks volumes to us. Anderson writes, “We have credit cards, we have a credit score, or we may have credit at the bank. If the bank were to ‘credit something to our account,’ we know what that means. And that is exactly what ‘impute’ means. When we trust Jesus as our Savior, His perfect life of righteousness is credited to our account in heaven.
“Philippians 4:17 says that we have an account in heaven. This account has a debit column and a credit column. As unbelievers we had an account full of debits and no credits. Isaiah 64:6 says all of our righteous deeds were like dirty rags. This doesn’t mean I had no righteous deeds. I did. That’s why they were called righteous deeds. The problem is these righteous deeds don’t go into the credit column of our account in heaven. They’re called rags by Isaiah because they‘re not acceptable to God. Why? Because they were produced by my own human energy and strength. They were deeds of human righteousness and not divine righteousness.” [21] [emphasis added]
All our righteous deeds are stained with sin according to Isaiah 64:6. Hence, all our righteous deeds cannot open the gates of heaven. For example, “When Bill Gates claims he does not believe in God, let alone Christ, and gives a billion dollars to help the problem of AIDS in Africa, that is most certainly a righteous deed. But that righteous deed would not open the gates of heaven for him. It does not go into the credit column of his account. Why? Because to get into heaven we have to be perfect.” [22] [emphasis added]
This is what Jesus taught in His Sermon on the Mount. He said, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:20). The scribes and Pharisees were considered by Jesus’ Jewish audience to be the most righteous people of that day. But Jesus says the “righteousness” of His audience must exceed the righteousness of these religious leaders to enter the kingdom of heaven. Whose righteousness would surpass these devoted religious leaders’ righteousness? Later, in the same chapter, Christ says, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48). Only the righteousness of God is “perfect.” [23]
It is important to understand that Jesus was speaking to both believers (“His disciples” – Matt. 5:1) and the unbelieving “multitudes” who had followed Him (Matt. 4:24-5:1). He was using His Sermon on the Mount to provide a standard of conduct for His believing disciples as they anticipate living in the coming Kingdom of God on earth. But Christ also uses His Sermon on the Mount to convict His unsaved audience of their need for God’s imputed righteousness through faith alone in Christ alone (cf. Rom. 3:21-4:24). [24]
Anderson adds, “Anything short of perfection will not do. There’s not a great scale in the sky on which God will put our debits on one side and our credits on the other side and accept us if our credits outweigh our debits. No, just one sin is one too many. That’s why when Satan committed one sin in heaven, he had to go. He was cast out of heaven.
“So that leaves us with a big problem. The Bible says that all men fall short of the glory of God, which includes His perfect holiness. These sins go into our debit column. In order for us to go to heaven we need two things: we need to have the debits swept away, and we need to have a life of perfect righteousness. Since none of us can live the life of perfect righteousness, we must look to another.
“Only Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, and when we trust in His work for us on the cross, our sins are wiped away because He took our sins upon Himself. But, secondly, His perfect life is credited to our account. That’s divine righteousness. When this is credited to our account, we have a new standing before God. Our new position is in Christ. And since we are in Christ, we are seated at the right hand of God the Father in heavenly places (Col. 3:1-3) [see also Eph. 1:19-21; 2:5-6]. And nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:39).” [25] [emphasis and brackets added]
Notice in Romans 4:5 that God “justifies” or declares righteous the “ungodly” person who “believes,” not behaves (“work”). It is the believing person’s “faith” that “is accounted for righteousness.” The moment we believe in Jesus Christ and His death on the cross for all our sins, God “justifies” or declares us totally righteous before Him as if we had never sinned.
Hence, when a sinner believes in Jesus, he or she is declared by our holy God to be the opposite of what they are. So, if we were deceitful before our conversion, God declares us to be truthful. If we were greedy, God declares us to be generous. If we were hateful, God announces us to be loving. If we were impatient, God says we are patient. If we were promiscuous, God declares us to be pure at the moment of faith in Christ. If we were proud, God declares us to be humble. If we were selfish, God declares us to be selfless.
However, there is a great deal of confusion today regarding the relationship between faith and works. Much of this confusion originates from a theologian and philosopher named Augustine (A.D. 354-430), who greatly influenced the soteriology (study of salvation) of Roman Catholics, the Reformers, and even Calvinists and Arminians today.
Augustine had a scant knowledge of New Testament Greek which “caused him to misunderstand diakaioō (δικαιόω), translating it in its present infinitive form, ‘to make righteous,’” [26] “as opposed to the defining truth of the Reformers that this word meant ‘to declare righteous.’ The distinction was enough to cause a schism in Western Christianity. Whereas the former meaning signified a change of character, the latter meaning referred to a change of standing. ‘To make righteous’ looked to one’s experience in life, but ‘to declare righteous’ looked to the courtroom of heaven. The temporal significance of the distinction in meanings was monumental. Augustine saw justification (the making of righteous character) as a life-long effort, whereas Luther understood that one could be ‘declared righteous’ in God’s court at a moment of time.” [27] [emphasis added]
This is extremely significant to understand. Martin Luther understood “court room” justification to mean “that one could be declared righteous (justified) in his position or standing before God, but still be sinful in his character and condition in his temporal body” [28] [emphasis added] – a truth that Augustine never understood.
Augustine was persuaded “that the character of Christ needed to be infused into the character of the sinner from regeneration at water baptism (usually of infants) until death in order for the person to be made righteous (justified) enough to enter God’s heaven. Even the vast majority of God’s elect would not pass muster, so they would be consigned to Purgatory until the final vestiges of sin could be eliminated from their character. Only then could they march confidently through heaven’s gates. So, for Augustine justification was a life-long process. In fact, Purgatory was a provision of God for those in whom the process had not been completed.” [29] [emphasis added]
What Augustine did was erroneously wed justification with sanctification. He confused entering the Christian life (justification) with living the Christian life (sanctification). This has led some teachers today to mistakenly front-load the gospel by requiring good works in order to get saved (Romanism & Traditional Protestantism). It has led other teachers to backload the gospel by requiring good works to stay saved (Arminianism) or good works as a necessary proof of genuine salvation (Calvinism), so that in each case you MUST HAVE GOOD WORKS to ultimately go to heaven. Consider these options which are taught today:
| Scenario | Faith in Jesus Christ +good works = maybe heaven | Faith in Jesus Christ =maybe heaven if you maintain good works, confess your sins, remain faithful, etc. | Faith in Jesus Christ = salvation + good works to ultimately arrive at heaven |
| Proponents | Romanism & TraditionalProtestantism | Arminianism | Calvinism |
Each of these scenarios requires good works in order to ultimately arrive in God’s heaven. This is NOT God’s grace. “But if it is of works, it is no longer grace.” (Rom. 11:6). Good works are not the means of obtaining or maintaining salvation but are designed to be the result of receiving God’s free gift of salvation (Eph. 2:8-10). When good works are required to enter heaven, how will you ever know when you have done enough? You won’t until after you die.
Wiersbe correctly states, “Do not confuse justification and sanctification. Sanctification is the process whereby God makes the believer more and more like Christ. Sanctification may change from day to day. Justification never changes. When the sinner trusts Christ, God declares him righteous, and that declaration will never be repealed. God looks on us and deals with us as though we had never sinned at all!” [30] [emphasis added]
In case you doubt that we need to be “justified” or declared totally righteous before a holy God, it is important to understand our condition before we come to faith in Christ. The Bible tells us, “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works…” (Col. 1:21). Before we became Christians, “we were enemies” of God and needed to be “reconciled to” Him “through the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10). The prophet Isaiah tells us, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6). We need to be reconciled to God because of our sin. God does not need reconciling to us, we need reconciling to God. We turned away from God. He never moved. We moved. The people God created rebelled against their Creator and sinned so that death spread to all people because all sinned (Gen. 3:1-7; cf. Rom. 3:23; 5:12-14, 18a).
The non-Christian is described in Ephesians when Paul writes, “we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” (Eph. 2:3). Because we were driven by our sinful lusts and desires, we were the objects of God’s “wrath” or displeasure before we became Christians. That is not a very likeable thought, is it?
The apostle John writes, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36). The person who refuses to believe in Christ remains under God’s “wrath.” The non-believer remains God’s enemy.
How does the Christian know he or she is justified or declared totally righteous before God? There is only one way to know this, and it is through faith in God’s promise. Justification before God is not a feeling or experience. It is a judicial, legal declaration from a holy God.
Logan explains why he believes the breastplate of righteousness refers to the imputed righteousness of God: “The reason for this is that when it comes to standing against the accuser, Christ is the only Person Who is totally blameless. Satan could point at no sin in Christ’s life (John 14:30), whereas you and I have plenty of things in our lives Satan can accuse us of, even things we have been forgiven of by Christ.
“That’s why we need to stand with Christ’s righteousness around us like a breastplate. When we stand in Christ, Satan has nothing to touch in us, nothing to accuse us of. The enemy and his underlings aren’t afraid of us, but they’re afraid of Christ.” [31] [emphasis added]
Imparted Righteousness
The second type of righteousness we need to understand from the Scripture is the imparted righteousness of God. When we believed in Christ, the perfect righteousness of God was imputed or credited to our account in heaven. We were declared totally righteous in our standing before God.
But when we believed in Jesus, God also imparted to us a new nature consisting of His righteousness and holiness. The apostle Paul writes, “20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:20-24). Paul is telling us that we are not to live the way we used to live before we became Christians (Eph. 4:17-19) because we are not the people we used to be (Eph. 4:20-24).
We “have not so learned Christ” by engaging in the activities that characterized our lives before we became Christians (Eph. 4:20). To learn Christ, we must be in a relationship with Him whereby we “heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21). Remember, “truth” is God’s viewpoint on a matter and that is where we need to start.
The clothes of the “old man” (who we were before Christ) need to be “put off” before we can put on our new wardrobe. These old clothes refer to our “former conduct” as unsaved people who grew “corrupt according to the deceitful lusts” (Eph. 4:22). Lusts or sinful desires are “deceitful.” “They promise satisfaction but bring only an aftertaste of emptiness.” [32] Christians can permit their lusts or sinful desires to direct their decisions, leaving them defeated and discouraged.
Paul is saying to take off those dirty clothes and put on the new clothes of the “new man” (our new nature) which include “true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24). This new nature “was created according to God.” When we were born again through faith in Jesus, God deposited a righteous seed (new nature) within us called the “spirit” (Eph. 4:23). [33]
The apostle John speaks of this new nature in his first epistle: “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” (I John 3:9). John had just stated that “the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3:8). The primary way that Christ destroys the work of the devil is to give believers (“whoever has been born of God”) a new sinless self (“His seed”) which “cannot sin” (I John 3:9). Since God cannot sin (I John 1:5), the divine nature He places inside His children cannot sin either. A sinless Parent cannot beget a sinful child. So, sin is never an act of the born-again nature inside us because it is incapable of sinning (I John 3:9) and because all sin is sourced in the devil (I John 3:8).
Anderson writes, “His divine nature is passed down through His divine seed. The new birth places His seed in us. Just as my physical seed cannot produce something outside its genetic code, so God’s seed cannot produce something contrary to His nature, that is, sin. God’s nature cannot produce sin. God’s nature in us (His seed) cannot produce sin.” [34] [emphasis added]
Many have wondered how this understanding can harmonize with John’s statement in I John 1:8 that Christians who say they have no sin are self-deceived. Hodges explains: “In 1:8 John warns, ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.’ But in 3:9 he says, ‘whoever has been born of God does not sin.’ As total persons, believers do sin and can never claim to be free of it, but their ‘inward self’ that is regenerated does not sin.
“In describing his struggle with sin Paul notes that two diverse impulses are at work. So he can say, ‘For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members’ (Rom 7:22-23; italics added). Previous to this he had concluded, ‘Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me’ (v 20; italics added). His conclusion is simple; ‘So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin’ (v 24). At the core of his being (in his inward man) he does not and cannot sin. The inward man (the ‘regenerate self’) is absolutely impervious to sin, fully enslaved to God’s will. If sin occurs, it is not the inward man who performs it.
“Sin does exist in the Christian, but it is foreign and extraneous to his regenerated inner self, where Christ dwells in perfect holiness. Since Christ is eternal life (1 John 5:20), the one who possesses that life cannot sin because he is born of God. The divine seed (sperma) of that life remains (menō, ‘abides,’ ‘stays’) in him who is born again, making sin an impossibility at the level of his regenerate inward self.” [35] [emphasis added]
How we see ourselves determines how we live. The apostle Paul wants his Christian readers, including you and me, to see themselves as a “new man” who possesses a new nature at the core of their being which is “created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24) so they will manifest this righteous nature by living righteously. This type of Christian is represented by the above image on the left. He or she is visibly manifesting God’s righteous nature inside them by doing what is right. However, this is not what gets them to heaven. We will only go to heaven by receiving God’s gift of salvation by grace through faith alone in Christ alone (Eph. 1:13-14; 2:8-9). But manifesting our true identity by practicing Christ’s righteous behavior will glorify God now on earth (Matt. 5:16) and reap eternal rewards in the future at the Judgment Seat of Christ (cf. I Cor. 3:8-15; 2 Cor. 5:10).
On the other hand, a Christian who is yielding to his or her sinful flesh (“deceitful lusts”) is hiding his or her new righteous and holy nature inside them. This type of believer is represented by the image on the right. He or she is concealing his or her righteous and holy born-again nature by not living righteously. Failure to manifest their new nature through their actions does not jeopardize their salvation, but it does disrupt their fellowship with God and other believers (I John 1:3-10; 2:9-11; et al.) and forfeit eternal rewards in the future (I Cor. 3:8-15).
So how does a Christian move from putting off the old man that is corrupted by deceitful lusts (Eph. 4:22) to putting on the new man that is characterized by God’s “righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24)? This leads to the third type of righteousness.
Implemented Righteousness [36]
When God makes our inside righteous at the moment of faith in Christ (imparted righteousness), He wants our outside to match (implemented righteousness). The way for a Christian to implement the righteous seed God has given him is to put off the clothes of the old man (Eph. 4:22) and put on the clothes of the new man (Eph. 4:24). How does he or she make that happen? The verse in between these two verses tells us how: “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” (Eph. 4:23).
When speaking of unbelievers, Paul uses words like “mind,” “understanding,” and “ignorance” (Eph. 4:17-18). The common denominator is their thinking. Our lifestyle too is controlled by our thoughts. So, the key to taking off the old and putting on the new is to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” (Eph. 4:23). Instead of going back to the mindset we had before Christ, we must “put on the new man,” which requires a new way of thinking, a “renewed… mind.” [37]
The more we make our home in God’s Word (Psa. 119:9, 11; John 15:7; I John 2:14b), the more the Holy Spirit brings our thoughts in line with His own so that we think thoughts after Christ (I Cor. 2:10-16). The renewing of our minds involves God’s thoughts merging with ours so we can know and do His will (Rom. 12:1-2).
What we are talking about here is the sanctification process which begins with our perfected and redeemed “spirit.” The Bible tells us, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Thess. 5:23). Notice the word order: “spirit, soul, and body.” God’s truth informs us that He has deposited a righteous and holy seed in our “spirit” (Eph. 4:23-24; cf. I John 3:9). This is our new nature.
Our “spirit” cannot receive any contaminated information because it has been sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14). Our “spirit” wants to lay hold of God’s truth. That is why Paul says, “I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.” (Rom. 7:22). The “inward man” (Rom. 7:22) is the “new man” or new nature that is righteous and holy (Eph. 4:24). It craves the Word of God.
Hence, when God’s truth says at the core of our being we were “created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24), our “spirit” snatches that truth up. As we continue to meditate on this truth from God, and our “spirit” takes it in, a release valve opens up. This release valve sends “righteousness” that is within our “spirit” out to our “soul.” Now our “soul” is becoming transformed into “righteousness,” not because our “body” has changed it, but because our “spirit” released “righteousness” into the “soul.” When the “soul” takes hold of this “righteousness” released by the “spirit,” it then tells the “body” it needs to think, speak, and act righteously. Since the “body” listens to the “soul,” and the “soul” now listens to the “spirit,” and the “spirit” listens to the truth of God’s Word, we end up being transformed into the “righteousness” of God.
Too many Christians are trying to manage “righteousness” by starting with the “body” instead of the “spirit.” They focus on behavior instead of belief. They work from the outside inward. This is backwards. We cannot fix ourselves.
How many addicts have said, “I am not going to do that anymore”? That is not a bad thing to say, but it does not work because the addict does not have the power to stop his unwanted behavior. If he did have the power, he would not be addicted.
God wants us to start with the innermost part of our being, the “spirit.” God starts with the inside and works outward. Released righteousness makes us righteous in the heart and mind first, and then in our actions. That is how the breastplate of righteousness functions.
If I told you I buried $1 million that is yours for the taking in your backyard, you would probably drop what you are doing right now and grab a shovel and run out into your backyard to start tearing it up. You are not going to answer your phone or check social media or change your clothes. You are going to streak out into your backyard and dig as deep and wide and for as long a time as it takes to uncover something of great value that has been buried deep down in your backyard. Every effort that you make to get to that $1 million will be worth it because it is so valuable. Once you dig it up, you can use it for so much more. [38]
When we trusted Christ for His gift of salvation, God deposited deep down within our spirit all the righteousness that belongs to Jesus Christ. But we cannot benefit from that righteousness unless we are willing to go down there with God’s truth and dig it up. Then God can release His righteousness within our “spirit” and send it out into our “soul” which will send it to our “body,” transforming our “spirit, soul, and body” into the likeness of Jesus Christ. That is the breastplate of righteousness. It will guard our spiritual heart so it can pump God’s life throughout our “spirit, soul, and body.”
Conclusion
How do we put on the breastplate of righteousness? The same way we are to put on all the pieces of God’s spiritual armor – by means of prayer. Paul concluded his teaching on the armor of God by inviting his readers to pray: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” (Eph. 6:18).
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for providing the breastplate of righteousness to guard my spiritual heart so it can pump Your life throughout my spirit, soul, and body. I praise You for declaring me to be totally righteous in Your sight apart from any good works I do when I believe in Jesus Christ. I praise You for freely crediting Jesus’ perfect righteousness to my account in heaven so Satan cannot successfully accuse me or condemn me of wrongdoing in Your courtroom. Thank You that my salvation does not rely on my good works, nor my ability to keep rules and regulations, but on Jesus alone Who died in my place on the cross and rose from the dead. I praise You for depositing deep down in my spirit all the righteousness that belongs to Jesus Christ. Help me to appropriate that righteousness by faith as I dig deep with Your Word of truth so my spirit can release Your righteousness to my soul, and my soul can release that righteousness to my body, transforming my spirit, soul and body into Jesus’ likeness. Please help me, I pray, to manifest Your righteous and holy nature by doing what is right in Your eyes so my heart is protected from the assaults of the Devil. I beg You to strengthen and protect the most vulnerable places in my life with Your righteousness. In the mighty name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Tony Evan’s video message at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) entitled, “The Armor of God,” on youtube.com.
[2] Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary, 2019 Kindle Edition, pg. 2665.
[3] The first three verbs in Greek (perizōsamenoi… endysamenoi… hypodēsamenoi… ) are aorist middle participles which means they have already been put on by the soldier or Christian.
[4] Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary, 2019 Kindle Edition, pg. 2665.
[5] The Greek verb translated “taking…” (analabontes) is an aorist active participle, meaning the Christian is taking the shield of faith as needed and the last Greek verb translated “take…” (dexasthe) is an aorist middle imperative which is used of the last two pieces of armor and means for oneself to take them up as needed.
[6] Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary, 2019 Kindle Edition, pp. 1820-1821.
[7] Adapted from Mark Bubeck’s video, “5. Belted Against Satan’s Belt: Ephesians 6 Series,” on the BRMinistry app.
[8] Tom Constable, Dr. Constable’s Notes on Ephesians, 2024 Edition, pg. 147 cites A. Skevington Wood, “Ephesians,” in Ephesians-Philemon Vol. 11 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary 12 vols., Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein and J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1978), pg. 87.
[9] Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature: Third Edition revised and edited by Frederick William Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000 Kindle Edition), pp. 463-464.
[10] Mark Bubeck’s video, “5. Belted Against Satan’s Belt: Ephesians 6 Series,” on the BRMinistry app.
[11] Adapted from Tony Evan’s video message entitled, “Breastplate of Righteousness,” on youtube.com
[12] Adapted from Ibid.
[13] Much of this section is adapted from Ibid., unless otherwise noted.
[14] Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 2000 Kindle Edition, pp. 247-248.
[15] Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary, 2019 Kindle Edition, pg. 2417.
[16] Evans, video message entitled, “Breastplate of Righteousness,” on youtube.com.
[17] Much of this section is adapted from Ibid., unless otherwise noted.
[18] The following eleven paragraphs in this section are adapted from Bubeck, “5. Belted Against Satan’s Belt: Ephesians 6 Series,” on the BRMinistry app., unless otherwise noted
[19] See article entitled, “Can a Christian Commit Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?” at this LINK
[20] Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 2000 Kindle Edition, pg. 597.
[21] David R. Anderson, Position and Condition: An Exposition of the Book of Ephesians (Grace Theological Press, 2017 Kindle Edition), pp. 435-436.
[22] Ibid., pg. 436.
[23] See Zane C. Hodges, Grace in Eclipse: A Study on Eternal Rewards (Corinth, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2016), pp. 33-39.
[24] Ibid., pp. 33-42.
[25] Anderson, Position and Condition, 2017 Kindle Edition, pp. 436-437.
[26] Anderson, Free Grace Soteriology, 2018 Kindle Edition, pg. 8 cites Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter, pg. 45.
[27] Ibid., pp. 8-9.
[28] Ibid., pg. 9.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Constable, Dr. Constable’s Notes on Romans, 2023 Edition, pg. 79 cites Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, 2 vols. (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, Scripture Press, 1989), Vol. 1, pg. 552.
[31] Jim Logan, Reclaiming Surrendered Ground (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), pg. 181.
[32] Anderson, Position and Condition, 2017 Kindle Edition, pg. 188.
[33] Evans, video message entitled, “Breastplate of Righteousness,” on youtube.com.
[34] David R. Anderson, Maximum Joy: I John – Relationship or Fellowship? (Grace Theology Press, 2013 Kindle Edition), pg. 159.
[35] Zane C. Hodges, “I John,” The Grace New Testament Commentary: Revised Edition, 2019 Kindle Edition, pp. 1884-1885.
[36] Much of this section is adapted from Evans, video message entitled, “Breastplate of Righteousness,” on youtube.com, unless otherwise noted.
[37] Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary, 2019 Kindle Edition, pp. 2653-2654.
[38] Adapted from Evans, video message entitled, “Breastplate of Righteousness,” on youtube.com.
