Seven Weapons of Spiritual WarfareSýnishorn

Breastplate of Righteousness

When soldiers go into battle they wear protection over their chests to protect their vital organs. If an arrow, bullet, or shrapnel were to pierce the chest cavity, then the consequences will be dire, and death is almost a certainty.

When Paul wrote about the armor of God, equating different parts of the armor to different parts of the gospel message, he did not do this without reason. The breastplate of righteousness is a good example of his thinking.

In Christ, we have been given the free gift of righteousness by faith; as long as we believe it. He has taken our sinful lives and cast away our sins by the power of His blood, and declared us righteous by faith. When we believe that we are righteous by faith, then the power of sin cannot touch us.

Through the power of Jesus’ death, which we take on in baptism, our sins have been removed and we have been set free from the law. We are reckoned righteous by faith, just as Abraham was reckoned righteous when he believed the words of God.

But we have to hold fast to that belief. We have to remember at all times we are set free from sin and reckoned righteous, holding that thought in all situations.

The weapon that the devil will throw at us to destroy our faith is doubt. When we doubt that we have been set free from sin and have been released from the law, then the devil will use that doubt to make us believe we are still sinners. Or he will try to make us feel guilty. Or he will push us into self-condemnation. Or he will try to convince us that we are still a sinners under the law, contrary to what the scripture says and the power of the blood of Jesus. As it says in Romans chapter 4, verse 25:

“[Jesus] was put to death for our trespasses, and raised for our justification.”

His death took away our sins, and His resurrected life justifies us, making us righteous by faith.

Faith is how we put on the breastplate of righteousness. We believe we have died with Jesus and been reckoned righteous by God through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So, test yourself. Do you believe or call yourself a sinner? Do you believe you are still under the law? Do you think that doing the works of the law will give you salvation? If so, then you are not yet wearing the breastplate of righteousness.

Call to action:

If you have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, recognize that you have already received the free gift of righteousness. Cast off the shackles of sin and law and believe in the power of God to make you righteous through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ.