Breastplate of Righteousness- Part 1: What Is Righteousness?

This is the third in the series of posts on the armor of God. If we want to have an even if faith (a faith that endures no matter what our circumstances may be-click here to read the first post on this topic), then we need to be intentional about strengthening and growing our faith. In the first post in this series I talked about the need for putting on the full suit of God’s armor (click here to read the post). We are in a spiritual battle. There are events in our lives that challenge our faith. It’s normal, but making sure we are clothed in our spiritual armor can help us flip that around so that we challenge our circumstances with our faith. That is why we have been intentionally studying each piece of armor.
    The previous post was about the importance of the belt of truth. The second piece of armor that Paul talks about in Ephesians 6 is the breastplate of righteousness. In verse 14 (NIV), Paul wrote, “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,”. The breastplate is important because it protects most of our vital organs. The word righteousness is mentioned 211 times in the Bible (when looking at the NIV translation). This is a topic important to God. It is no coincidence that it is placed on the same level of importance as protecting our vital organs. But, what does it mean to be righteous or to have righteousness?
    Paul wrote in Romans 2:13, “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.” Those who follow God’s commands are the ones who are righteous. We talked about clothing ourselves with Truth when we talked about the belt in the last post. We need to do that if we are going to put on the breastplate of righteousness as well. 
    In Psalm 119:137 it says, “You are righteous, Lord, and your laws are right.” In order to be righteous, we need to know what God commands and Who God is so that we can live according to both. Remember, putting on Truth also means putting on the character of Christ. It is no different when it comes to righteousness. Jesus was tempted in every way, but did not give in to that temptation by sinning (Hebrews 4:15). He lived a life in obedience to God and His law.
    We can never be perfect; only Jesus was perfect and lived a sinless life. But, we are made righteous through Jesus. Paul wrote in Romans 3:22-24 (NLT), “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.” When we accept salvation through Jesus, we are made right in God’s sight. This is because Jesus took the penalty of our sins upon Himself when He was crucified (Romans 6:23).
    While Jesus did the work to make sure we could have righteousness, we still have to guard it. The Bible is filled with commands to repent and turn away from our sinful ways. Forgiveness comes when we repent (Luke 24:47). Peter wrote, “‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed’” (1 Peter‬ ‭2:24‬, NIV‬‬). Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross on our behalf does not negate our need to live righteously. Rather, it frees us to do so. Because of our sinful status, we had no chance of being seen as righteous by God, but now we can be. Therefore, we need to go against our sinful nature and do what is right in order to guard the righteousness Jesus was crucified to provide us with. This means we’re going to need the help of the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit is righteous and leads us to doing what is right. He helps us to go against our sinful nature (Galatians 5:16-17). This guards the new life Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection provide us with. 
    To put on the breastplate of righteousness we need to receive salvation, repent, put on the nature of Christ, and live according to the Spirit. I spent so much time talking about what righteousness is in this post because it is a Christian term that can easily be glossed over as something we already know about. But, in order to put it on, we need to have an understanding of what it actually means to have righteousness. In the next post, I will talk about how the breastplate can be used to guard our faith so that we can still maintain it no matter what our circumstances may be.