The Breastplate of Righteousness - Part 1 — Tim Conway

Spiritual Warfare and the Whole Armor of God

Spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. This is what we find in Ephesians 6, verse 10. These forces are real. They withstand the Christian. And we've got to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

We've got to live in the power of the Lord if we're going to have any hope at all of having victory. So, we tap that power by putting on the whole armor of God. And that's what we see here. Let's read verse 10.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness.

Against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand firm. Okay, that's the general exhortation.

The Breastplate of Righteousness

Now we get into the specifics. And last week we looked at the first. Stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth. Or having your loins girt about with truth. Today, having put on the breastplate of righteousness.

That is the title of my sermon. The Breastplate of Righteousness. So let's pray before we dive into this. Father, I would ask You once again, Lord, we're needy to be able to bring this forth in a clear way, in a profitable way, in a powerful way.

Lord, I'm cast upon You to make that happen. Father, I pray that You would indeed speak. Allow me to speak the truth. Allow me to speak Your Word. Allow me to say the right things as they need to be said.

And I pray for Your help, amen. So breastplate. If you look at the armor that was worn by a Roman soldier, they basically put it on two pieces, front and back, and they tied it together at the sides. Now if you think about it, the breastplate of righteousness.

A breastplate covered the vital organs. In fact, if you look at, what do you have? You have like an SAS here. Is there like a 22nd SAS? Like our SEAL Team 6? I mean, they're the elite of the elite. But if you look at these guys, what do they have on?

They wear body armor. They wear basically bulletproof vests. What do they cover? Well, really the same thing that these Roman soldiers put on the breastplate to cover up the vitals. I mean, typically these things, but why is it so important?

Because look, if you get hit in this area, you typically don't put armor. I know maybe some of the knights did. You see suits of armor. But a lot of times, soldiers don't have their arms covered up. They don't have their legs covered up.

It gives them mobility, but they cover the mid part. Why? Because the vitals are there. The lungs are vital. The heart's vital. You don't want to lose these integral organs. So that's the idea. That's the picture.

It covers the vitals. Now, look, I don't want to push the analogy too far. Like, okay, breastplate of righteousness and in some spiritual sense, how does it protect the spiritual vitals? I mean, I don't want to get into it.

Paul is relatively loose with his metaphors, his analogies. If you go over to the book of Thessalonians, the first book, what you find is that Paul says, let us be sober. And he says, having put on the breastplate of faith and love.

So what's my point? My point is that Paul's analogies are not real precise. He can talk about a breastplate of faith, a breastplate of love, and also a breastplate of righteousness. So he's loose with these things.

Look, the real issue is not that you dive into all the intimate details of go examine the Roman soldier and try to pull all these little, you know, you get too meticulous and mechanical about the imagery here.

You go astray. Listen, what's really important to recognize is this. For him to call righteousness a breastplate means that somehow righteousness is protective. We're talking about cosmic powers. We're talking about spiritual forces.

We're talking demons here. There's something about righteousness that protects us from demonic attack. That's the issue. So that's what we need to think about. It protects us from the devil harming us in ways that he would otherwise harm us if we didn't have this on.

Four Uses of Righteousness in Paul

So what is it? Christian, what does this look like? What is it that you're supposed to put on? Because we're supposed to put on the armor of God. Righteousness. Well, that's wonderful. Paul, you know, Paul just says breastplate of righteousness.

And he doesn't give us any detail. He doesn't explain himself. And you know what's frustrating about that is with no explanation, he uses the term righteous or righteousness in different ways. At least four that I can find.

So I'm going to show them to you because then we have to sort out, okay, among these four, is he talking about which one? Or is he talking about more than one? Let's first just see how righteousness is used, not just all through Scripture, but just by Paul, because he's the one using the terminology.

So let's see, what does he have to say here? The first way that Paul uses it, I want you to see this. Open up in your Bibles to Romans 3. So I want you to look at this. I find at least four ways that Paul uses the term righteousness.

And I want you to see them for yourself. Because listen, if this is armor that we're supposed to put on, I want you wrestling with, well, what's he talking about? Which one of these is he talking about?

Does he really use... I mean, what's the term righteous even mean? What are we talking about here? Certainly righteousness has to do with aligning ourselves with what pleases God. Aligning ourselves with God's standard.

God is the standard of righteousness. If you want to know how you measure righteousness, there's no other standard outside of God. God is the standard for what is right. Because that's what we're talking.

When you talk righteousness, you're talking right. You're talking just. Okay, so notice here. Romans 3 .25, God put forward Christ Jesus as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness.

Because in His divine forbearance, He passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Now, what you need to recognize is this.

How does God be just and look at a sinner and declare the sinner just? That does not sound like a just action. And you've often heard. You go into a court of law, if a judge just simply says to a guilty man, not guilty, you see, now it's a problem with the judge.

The judge isn't being right. Well, what's being said here is God has a righteousness to uphold. This righteousness right here is God's righteousness. This is God's attribute of being right all the time.

So that's one way Paul uses it. Paul uses it to describe what God Himself. See, this isn't for us to put on. This is for something for God to wear. This is His righteousness. This is Him acting in a right way.

And the question is, how can God act in a right way and declare bad people good? You see, that's the whole question of the Gospel. So let's look at the second. The second one, now you need to turn over to Philippians 3.

Philippians 3. Now we're going to get the term righteousness again. Now Paul says we're going to jump into his argument midstream. Philippians 3, verse 8. Paul says, indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For His sake, I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Christ, not having, here it is, a righteousness of my own that comes from the law.

So the first use, Paul uses righteousness to describe God being right. Just like God is holy. God is omniscient. God is omnipresent. It's an attribute of God. It's a characteristic of God. God characteristically is righteous.

That's the first way he uses it. The second way he uses it is a righteousness that is gained by the law. Now, when he talks about a righteousness that is not my own, he's saying I'm choosing a different kind of righteousness other than this righteousness that is my own.

A righteousness that he specifically says that comes from the law. What kind of righteousness is that? That is a kind of righteousness where we see God's law and we keep it perfect. Now that's not for us either.

That's not for us to put on. That's not for us to defend ourselves with. Why? We've all broken the law. None of us have this righteousness. That's why Paul tried to trust that righteousness. That problem with this righteousness, it's the righteousness that the lost is putting all their stock in.

But it's gonna fail them in the end. They think they're good people. You know what the problem is? You've gotta actually keep it. Not just try, not just think that it might be a good thing. You've gotta actually keep it.

And nobody's done that except Christ. And so the first righteousness, that's for God to put on. The second righteousness, no man has ever put on. Adam had it on before he fell. Only the Lord Jesus Christ has ever worn that righteousness.

Imparted Righteousness Through Regeneration and Sanctification

Okay, but now there's two other uses of the word. Now, turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 4. Right here in the letter that we're dealing with, Paul uses the term, and I think you'll see this very clearly for what it is.

Ephesians 4 .24, put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Now, what I would call this, the old divines called this imparted righteousness. I would call this that righteousness that flows out of regeneration and sanctification.

Why? Well, because it says, created. Put on the new man, created. You see, we're new creations. In other words, old things have passed away, all things become new. And what is it that's new about the Christian?

God puts new desires. Do you remember what God does? Doesn't God write the law in our heart? Isn't that what we heard? Isn't that the promise of the new covenant? The law is written here. That means that we have a disposition to keep it.

If you say that you know him and you don't keep his commandments, John says, you're a liar, the truth isn't in you. And so, keeping his commandments, doing what he says, his word abiding in us, being written in there, us having a disposition to do it, wanting to do it, a hunger and thirst to do it.

That's what this is. This is, you remember what Paul said in his Roman epistle? He said specifically that we are to present our members to God, not as instruments of unrighteousness, but instruments of righteousness.

That's it. Righteous, do righteous things. That's, Christians are enabled. The Spirit is within them. The law is written on their heart. It says that sin won't have dominion over us. By the Spirit, we put to death the deeds of the body.

We are people who he's given himself to make us a people who are going to be zealous of good works, righteousness, good, children of light. The fruit of that is righteousness. It says there in Ephesians as well.

Imputed Righteousness by Faith

Okay, now there's one more kind of righteousness. And here's what's interesting about the last category. It is actually the kind of righteousness that Paul talks about more than any of the others. You say, what is it?

Look in Galatians chapter three. This is what the divines have always called imputed righteousness. And we're going to talk a lot about that and what it means. Galatians chapter three, verse six. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Now notice that, counted. Abraham believed God and it was counted. Some translations say accounted or credited or reckoned. Do you know what reckoned means? We talk about, I reckon, you reckon something.

You reckon the books or to reckon is to calculate or to reckon is to take account of. Or like I say, theologically oftentimes the word impute is used. This is accounting language. It's numbers kind of language.

Imagine your bank account statement. Because this is what we have here. An accounting, there's an imputing. There's a crediting that's taking place. Imagine a bank account statement. Your bank account statement.

You get it in the mail. You know, you open it up. Is that old school too, to actually have a bank account? And you look at it and it's like, oh no, I'm bankrupt. In fact, the statement actually has negatives there.

What? I'm in debt. I owe the bank. You see, someone else, this is the idea here, to count. Somebody else takes money from their ledger and transfers it over to yours. That's what's happening here. It's a crediting.

You get funds from somewhere else into your account. That not only takes care of your debt, but puts a whole lot of extra money there besides. That's what happened to Abraham. Abraham was counted righteous.

Not because he was, he was counted that. That righteousness came from somewhere else. Paul uses righteousness this way more than any other way. Now, because only two of the four are even a righteousness that you and I have ourselves, then I'm going to deal with both of them.

Because Paul isn't specific. And I believe that both of them end up being essential to our battle with the devil. And today I'm going to concern myself with the imputed righteousness, because that Paul deals with more than any others.

Oh, and I'll tell you, this will defend yours. You know what's so beautiful about this? Is it defends you when you fall. Because remember, the devil is an accuser. And so you know what he's in the business of doing to Christians?

Any fall, any failures, any bad words with your wife or your husband, any kind of ill disposition that you feel, any kind of horrible thoughts come in your head. You see, the devil is in the business of accusing.

And this is such an answer to the accuser. Because our standing with God does not depend upon our performance. And as soon as you have a grasp of this, you can arm yourself in a way against the devil that is extremely profitable and victorious.

Now, we need to understand this. We need to look at this. We need to study this. Look, I'll tell you this. This is the truth that is at the heart of the Gospel. This is the greatest of all truths. How can God save sinners?

It comes right down to this. How can God save people who are not righteous? You know how He does this? He does this by making them righteous. He declares them righteous. He counts them righteous, even when we're not.

You say, whoa, how can God? Isn't that deceitful? Isn't that deceptive? Isn't that a lie? Isn't that wrong? You see, that is the great dilemma of the Gospel. How can God say to an unrighteous individual, righteous, and still Himself be righteous and just?

That is the great dilemma of the Gospel. But I'll tell you, if you get a grip on this, you'll arm yourself against all the slanders and the temptations and the accusations. This is a tremendous way to arm yourself.

The Righteousness of God Revealed in Romans

Now, we need to dive into this. We need to look at this. By faith, Abraham, a sinner, is counted righteous. This is it. This is the breastplate of righteousness that's so protective and that I want us to look at today.

Now, what I want you to do is I want you to actually go back to Philippians chapter three, because even though we were looking at the righteousness, which is my own, by the law, he was actually saying he has rejected that approach, which everybody must do if they're going to be saved.

And I want you to see this. This is the righteousness described in Philippians three, verse nine. He wants to be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law. No, Paul, what kind of righteousness do you want?

He says, I want that which comes through faith in Christ. Now, notice this. The righteousness from God that depends on faith. What you don't want to do is say that our faith makes us righteous, or that our faith is righteous, or that our faith has merit.

That's not it. You see, where does the righteousness come from right here? Where does it come from? Does it come from ourselves? That's the question. Is it from ourself? No, you see, that's what he's rejecting.

Anything that's based on your performance, that is a righteousness that is of yourself. Faith is what God, you see what faith glorifies God, because faith is trusting him. And if he finds somebody trusting him, then what happens is there's a faith that comes from him and is given to the sinner.

You need to recognize this. God is the possessor of this righteousness and he gives it to the sinner. That's, I trust you all see that. Breastplate of righteousness. Here it is. This is the truth at the center of the gospel.

Imputed, it's passed from God to us. Listen, imputed righteousness is the whole foundation of our standing before God as Christians. And you know, the world hardly knows anything about this truth. I tried, I remember being out on the streets and I found a guy and his girlfriend.

And so I'm talking to them about this. Imputed righteousness. I sought to explain it to him. When I got done, I said, have you ever heard anything like that before he and his girlfriend said, no, we have never heard anything like that.

Of course not. The world doesn't know this, but it's precisely what they need to know. This is the gospel. This is the heart of it. And my fear is not just that it isn't known out there, but that it isn't known in here.

And if we don't know it, we can't arm ourselves with it. If we don't know it, we can't be saved in the first place. I wonder how clear it is even in the church in England. I just don't know. I don't know the makeup of your country and where things are at spiritually, but if we're going to take up the whole armor of God to ward off the devil, then it's my business as a preacher.

I've got to make this clear. I've got to make this known. We've got to strive to grasp the meaning of this righteousness that is not my own, but it comes from God. So we want to look at this. This is the righteousness that you want to be armed with in your mind, that you want to know about in your thoughts.

So, would you know what this is? Would we come to a place where we've got to grasp on this? Well, let's not play around. That's what I thought when I was preparing for this. Let's look at the greatest treatment of imputed righteousness and all the Word of God.

And I'm talking about Paul's mighty epistle to the Romans. We are going to track right now this doctrine of the imputed righteousness of God through Paul's epistle. I want you to see it. Now, Paul uses the term righteousness in these different ways that we've looked at.

You know, four different ways? Paul uses it in all those different ways in his epistles and in Romans. And so you've got to pay attention to context. That's so true of Scripture. There are words that have variable meaning and you have to pay, sometimes you don't know what exactly is meant unless you look at the context.

So here we go. We're going to dive in right at this point, starting in Romans chapter one. And you got to see this. We need to know about this. This needs to be fresh in our mind. If we're going to ward off the things of the devil that we need to ward off, by way of this breastplate of righteousness, we've got to know what we're dealing with.

We've got to handle righteousness. Got to be well acquainted with it. It's got to be fresh. And remember, this battle happens in our thoughts, folks. It's a mind battle. And so you've got to be stayed on this truth up here.

What is this? And I trust that in these next few minutes, you'll be able to see. Okay, Romans chapter one, verse 16. Very familiar verses. I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

For in it, the righteousness of God. There's our term. Now, the righteousness of God. That sounds like the attribute of God being righteous, but it's not. The righteousness of God here is a righteousness that's for us.

And you get a feel for it. Look at it. In it. Now, let me ask you this. What's it? The gospel. So in the gospel, remember this. The gospel is good news. What makes it so good? This. Out of all that Paul could say about the gospel, do you know what he picks out?

Do you know the one thing that stands out above everything else? He says, in the gospel, this is what's revealed. What, Paul? What's revealed? The righteousness of God is revealed. But notice, he's clearly talking about the righteousness that is for those who believe.

It's revealed. Now, if you've got any question about this, I'm going to prove it beyond any shadow of a doubt. So you just hang with me. I know that as it's used right here, can leave you kind of wondering, hmm, what's he talking about?

What exactly? What is this? The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. If you, listen, if you've got an ESV and it says faith for faith, just scratch for, put to, every translation has to, I don't know what ESV people were doing, faith for faith.

I mean, I don't even know where they're going with that. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the righteous. Now notice, whose righteousness is actually on the table here?

It's the righteousness of us. And you're going to see this in just a few moments. Now watch what happens. Verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed. Whoa, what just happened? Here's Paul. He says, I want to tell you about the most wonderful aspect of the gospel.

It's the righteousness of God is revealed in it. But now what he's going to do is he's going to tell us what the problem is. Now you need to see this. The wrath of God. You know what Paul does? From chapter one, verse 18.

And he just keep going. He condemns all of mankind. They are, notice, notice what he says. He says, they are without excuse. Look at verse 20. Last words in verse 20. So they are without excuse. Man is without excuse.

Why? What does he do? Well, because he suppresses what can be known about God. This is mankind. You go down to verse 29, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slanders, haters of God.

Insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless, though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

This is the pagan in the world. And then you know what he does? He directs his attention to the Jew. He says, therefore you have no excuse, oh man, everyone of you who judges. You know, the Jews like to look at the rest of mankind, all the heathen, all the pagan out there, all the Gentiles, and look down at them.

And he says, you have no excuse, you who judge others. And he talks. He says, verse three, do you suppose, oh man, you who judge those who practice such things and you do them yourself that you'll escape the judgment of God?

He keeps going. You see, he says in verse 17, you call yourself a Jew, you rely on the law, you boast in God, you know His will, you approve what's excellent. But what? He says, you're instructed from the law, you think that you're a guide to the blind and you're a light to those in darkness, but what's the problem?

The problem is that verse 21, while you preach against stealing, do you steal? You see, that's the problem. Verse 23, you boast in the law, that's what the Jews do, but you dishonor God by breaking the law.

And you see, as he's moving through here, he's just condemning the whole lot of us. He says in verse nine of chapter three, what then, are we Jews any better off? Not at all. We've already charged all.

It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or you're a Gentile Greek, you're all under sin. There's none righteous, there's not one. No one seeks for God, all have turned aside. He's just, he's showing the wreckage of mankind, whether you're Jew or Gentile.

Justification Apart from the Works of the Law

And you know what? In verse 21 of chapter three, he now is done condemning us all for our unrighteousness. And he comes right back to his subject at hand. Notice, but now the righteousness of God. Oh, that's what he was talking about back in 117, before he got sidetracked.

He's not being sidetracked really. He wanted to show why is this righteousness so necessary? What's the problem? Now he comes back. Now the righteousness of God has been manifested. Isn't that what he said in 17?

He said in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. It's manifested, revealed, manifested, same. He comes right back to the same thing. How? Apart from the law. You see, there's a way for man to be right before God, according to the law.

There is a righteousness of God. It doesn't mean the righteousness that God himself possesses. This is the righteous standard he demands of us. It can be had through the law. Do you remember what Jesus said to the rich young ruler?

He said, how do I obtain eternal life? What did Jesus tell him? What did he say first? Keep the law. And he said, you know, I've kept them. He said, which ones? And Jesus went through and he described, and the guy's like, well, all these I've kept from my youth up, not so much.

And he was very quickly exposed. But you see, is there a righteousness? Is there a righteousness with God by law keeping? You better believe there is. What's the problem? You know what the problem is?

The problem is, look at verse 19 of chapter three. Whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped. Why is every mouth stopped? Well, verse 20, by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight.

Why? Well, because the law doesn't, it was never given to be a way to God. You know why God gave it? To show us how desperately we need another way to God. That's what it does. That's what it says in verse 20.

You know what happens by the law? The knowledge that you've broken it. The knowledge of sin. This is our problem. I can't get to God by the law. Okay, but look, it's been manifested apart from the law.

Look at verse 22. The righteousness of God. Oh, now this is where it gets good. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Now you want to catch that. Notice this, for all who believe.

Did you catch that? Notice that little three-letter word in verse 22. Do you see it? What is this? It is the righteousness of God, but this isn't speaking about His attribute. This is His righteous standard for mankind if you're gonna be set right with Him.

This is what He demands of us and He gives it to us. It's for us. It is a righteousness of God that is for the believer in Jesus Christ. Oh, you've got to catch that little word, for. That changes everything.

Do you see it? This is where the epistle to the Romans takes a massive turn after condemning and holding all mankind accountable and shutting all of our mouths. There's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that does good.

There's none that seek after God. He just closes Jew and Gentile. No distinction. Closes all of our mouths. And then He says this. Now here is the heart of the gospel. In the gospel, this is what's revealed.

That there is a way to attain the righteousness of God for yourself. Not by the law. Oh, that is good news because we can't get there by the law. You see that? The law of God. The law. You know what that is?

That's God saying thou shalt, thou shalt not. That law, it comes face to face with the rebellion of man. And you know what the result always is? Condemnation. Hell, you get hell. That's this world. You see, people don't recognize they're walking around in this world.

They're objects of God's wrath. They are under the wrath of God. Why? Because they've broken His law. And you know what? If you ask them, yeah, we're pretty good people. You know what they're doing? You know, every single person in this world that'll tell you that they're a good person, you know what they're doing?

They're putting their confidence in a righteousness which is by the law. But you're cursed if you haven't done everything written in the book of the law. That's the problem. Nobody gets right with God through the performance of the law.

And that's what verse 20 says. On that basis, no one can be justified. What's that? Justified. That means it's one or the other. It's justification or condemnation. You know what this is? This is legal terminology.

You stand in God's courtroom. You're justified if you're found not guilty. See, if you are found guilty of any crime, you're condemned. You come face to face with the law and you know what the law says to all mankind?

Condemned. You're undone. This is not the way to God. You better find another way. So, this major turning point. This is called the righteousness of God because it's the righteousness that He demands.

It's His standard. This is God's divine requirement of righteousness for us. If you have any hope of standing before God on judgment day and God saying, well done, or God saying, you're just, or God saying, you're righteous, or God saying, come in.

Come into the kingdom prepared for you. If you want to be accepted by God, you will only be accepted one way on one condition. And that is that you, yourself, have this righteousness of God to your account.

If you don't have it, you're undone. You will die the death of that eternal fire forever. And there's no exception. There's only one way to God. And it's not through the law. That is the beauty and the truth of what is being set forth right here.

You have to recognize what this is saying. We might have achieved the righteousness of God by way of the law, if any had actually kept it. But you see, you see what it says? Every mouth may be stopped.

Verse 19. See what the problem is? When man says, you ever heard somebody? I've heard this. Oh, when I get there on judgment day, I'm going to say to God, you know what, that verse tells me nobody's saying anything.

The mouth is going to be stopped. To come into the presence of this holy God, men are going to recognize immediately we are in trouble. Their sins are going to stare them in the face. And there's no path.

What you find right here is there is a path to righteousness apart from the law. It's possible. This is the thing. It is possible to receive a perfect righteous standing that is not through the works of the law, but a righteousness that is for you if you believe in Jesus Christ.

Abraham, Faith, and the Gift of Righteousness

Now, Paul says put on the breastplate of righteousness. This is what you need to put on and gird yourself with. But he's not done. Go to Romans 4. Not by a long shot is he done explaining, expressing to us.

Romans 4 .3. For what does the Scripture say? This is the same truth that we looked at over in Galatians 3. Paul likes this. Why? Because Abraham. Abraham. The Old Testament bears witness. Did you catch that?

Back in verse 21? The law and the prophets bear witness. Again, if you've got an ESV, strike that although out. It is not in the original and why they ever put that in. It isn't necessary. In fact, it only confuses it and it distorts the meaning.

You know what he's saying here? The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. And he says this isn't just a New Testament reality. The law and the prophets bear witness to this. You say, they do?