June 06, 2020
Last week we came face to face with the reality that we are engaged in spiritual warfare:
• Our foe is powerful and all of the forces of evil are arrayed against us in a single-focused effort to destroy us. Maybe part of the Christian problem is that we think we should be fighting against causes we disagree with or people whose lifestyle or choices go against our deeply held beliefs – when in fact we should be spending a whole lot more time fighting against the power that seeks OUR personal destruction.
• We cannot stand toe to toe with him – he will eat us for lunch.
HOWEVER, heaven has not left us unequipped for battle – we have been provided with powerful spiritual resources - The Armor of God – which we MUST to put on
Our first piece of combat gear is – The Belt of Truth – which holds the rest of our Spiritual Armor in place and makes it secure.
With the Belt of Truth around our waist, let’s move on to the 2nd piece of combat gear - The Breastplate of Righteousness.
Righteousness is found in the position of the “Breastplate”. Why?
Roman soldiers wore a Breastplate – made of bronze and leather – because it provided protection to the vital organs, especially the heart, from sword thrusts, arrows, spears and javelins.
Now Paul takes this essential piece of protective gear and attaches it to Righteousness {to be morally up-right, faultless and just} – But whose Righteousness?
God is Righteous – it is an attribute of His character. His Righteous Acts are the things He does as a result of who He is – He will ALWAYS do the right thing and He will ALWAYS judge on the side of right. That’s Good News, friends!!!
• Psalm 36:6 - Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast.
• Psalm 50:6 - And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah
• Psalm 89:14 - Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.
• Psalm 97:1-2 - The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice. 2 Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
• Isaiah 5:16 - But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.
Our righteousness:
• Isaiah 64:6 - All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
• Romans 3:10-12 - As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."
Christians are called to be righteous and in Scripture that happens in 2 phases through Imputed Righteousness and Imparted Righteousness.
Imputed Righteousness {Justification} – In the legal sense, “Imputed” is used to describe a fact or quality that is credited to one person based upon the actions of another person. It’s to be declared not guilty – as though we had never sinned – based solely on Christ’s actions - both His life of obedience and His sacrificial death.
We can never make ourselves right before the God of the Universe – in fact left to ourselves, we don’t even care to try. So, knowing that we wouldn’t come to Him, He came to us:
• Genesis 3:8-9 - Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
• Romans 5:8-10 - But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
When we come into a saving relationship with Jesus and are baptized, we are wrapped in the robe of HIS righteousness. When God views us, He does not see our record of disobedience and sin - He sees Christ’s perfect record of obedience and righteousness. It cannot be purchased – is freely given – we receive it by faith:
• Romans 1:17 - For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
• Romans 3:22-24 - This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
• Romans 5:17 - For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 5:21 - God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
• Ephesians 2:8 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--
• J.C. Ryle {Holiness – “Christ Is All” 256} - Christ is ALL in a sinner’s justification before God. Through Him alone we can have peace with a Holy God. By Him alone we can have admission into the presence of the Most High and stand there without fear….. The garment of our Elder Brother—the righteousness of Christ—this is the only robe which can cover us and enable us to stand in the light of heaven without shame.
We must be very careful here because this is not the end of Righteousness for the Christian. The free gift of salvation and reconciliation through Jesus does not suddenly become a “get-out-of-jail free” card – in that suddenly it doesn’t matter what I do, because grace covers me. This thinking is in no way Biblical and actually falls within the definition of the Sin of Presumption.
• Ellen White {COL 315.2} - The man who came to the feast without a wedding garment represents the condition of many in our world today. They profess to be Christians, and lay claim to the blessings and privileges of the gospel; yet they feel no need of a transformation of character. They have never felt true repentance for sin. They do not realize their need of Christ or exercise faith in Him. They have not overcome their hereditary or cultivated tendencies to wrongdoing. Yet they think that they are good enough in themselves, and they rest upon their own merits instead of trusting in Christ. Hearers of the word, they come to the banquet, but they have not put on the robe of Christ's righteousness.
Being declared “Not Guilty” because of what Jesus did gives us a right standing before God and is the foundation and motivation of “Practical” Righteousness. A Christian is now responsible to live-out what is already true of him/her – that they are a new creation in Jesus. We must let the righteousness of Christ be seen in our attitudes, words and actions – which have their origins in the heart.
Imparted Righteousness {Sanctification – a Transformed Life} – “Imparted” - To pass on; transmit.
When we come to realize all that God has done for us, we desire to live a life of obedience as an act of gratitude and worship. As we do this, the Spirit passes on to us all that is necessary to be obedient and as we walk the road with Jesus, we become more like Him and begin to speak and act righteously:
• Galatians 5:22-25 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
• Philippians 1:9-11 - And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-- to the glory and praise of God.
• John Ortberg {The Life You’ve Always Wanted}: When morphing happens, I don’t just do the things Jesus would have done; I find myself wanting to do them. They appeal to me. They make sense. I don’t just go around trying to do the right things; I become the right sort of person.
So, how does Righteousness – a Right Standing before God AND a Transformed Life – help us in the Spiritual Warfare we find ourselves in?
If Satan is to conquer us, he must control our hearts. He must get us to think, feel, speak and act unrighteously.
2 weapons he will use against our hearts are self-righteousness {I don’t need God} and despair {I’m so bad God will never accept me}:
• Self-righteousness leads us to think that we can work our way into heaven and that our efforts will force God to accept us. I’m good – God owes me = I’m saved. We feel proud of our spiritual accomplishments and look down on others who have not yet reached our perceived level of spiritual maturity. The bottom line to that way of thinking is that a self-righteous person does not NEED God’s righteousness because he is satisfied with his own. Satan rejoices over a self-righteous person.
Righteousness is only a weapon against Satan if it is Christ’s Righteousness that we are putting on. If we try to use the fake armor of our own righteousness, we will NEVER survive the violent spiritual attacks of Satan. However, as we put on the Righteousness of Jesus, we are reminded that our standing before God depends entirely on the perfect life and sacrifice of Jesus AND that our righteousness amounts to a pile of trash ---- by doing this we will be protected from the destructiveness of self-righteousness.
• Despair occurs when a person believes that they must constantly earn God’s acceptance and approval. They always feel that they just aren’t quite good enough no matter how hard they try and when they stumble and fall Satan is right there to remind them of just how bad they are – not only for what they’ve done in the moment, but also for EVERY sin they’ve EVER committed in their ENTIRE lives:
“Do you really think God will accept someone like you? He is holy - you are bad. He is pure - you are rotten. Look at the sort of person you are! Look at the things you’ve done! You might as well forget about God loving you let alone accepting you."
So many fall victim to this attack because they don’t know how to repel it – because their heart was not protected by the Righteousness of Jesus – and they quickly accept Satan’s verdict – “Too bad to be loved by God – why bother”. However, when we are wearing the Breastplate of Jesus’ Righteousness, we can tell Satan, "Yes, what you say about me is true HOWEVER – I am a sinner WHO HAS BEEN SAVED AND COVERED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS!!! Now… Go…. Away” This will make Satan crazy because there is no weakness in Jesus’ Righteousness and ….. Satan. Will. Tuck. Tail. And. Run!
o James 4:7 - Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
o Romans 8:1, 31-39 - Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Once again this requires action on our part. We cannot open the door to our closet and point out to Satan the Breastplate of Righteousness hanging on the hanger – he’ll just laugh at us – “you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup” ….. We MUST put it on:
• Genesis 15:6 - Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
• Proverbs 21:21 - He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.
• Matthew 5:6 - Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Wrapping Up –
With the Armor of God we can live STRONG & VICTORIOUS LIVES.
• Philippians 4:13 - I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
We must be diligent to fill our heart with righteousness - so that there is no room for unrighteousness - and Satan cannot penetrate and wound and destroy…... More than that, he’ll run!!
• Proverbs 4:23 - Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
• Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-- think about such things.
