Putting on the Breastplate of Righteousness: Living in the Righteousness of Christ

When you think of “righteousness”, what comes to mind first? Self-righteousness? The righteousness of God? Jesus, who lived a life of perfect righteousness? In Ephesians 6, Paul instructs us to “put on the breastplate of righteousness”. But what does that even mean?

Righteousness and Contempt

​Righteousness is a loaded word with multiple meanings. Righteousness, overall, is the state we are supposed to be in. Here, in Ephesians 6, it means integrity, virtue, purity of life, uprightness, and correctness in thinking, feeling, and acting. In the Greek, the word is “dikaiosýnē”, and is in direct contrast to “anomia”, meaning a condition of violating the law either out of contempt or ignorance. In other words, unrighteousness. We look at these contrasting conditions because when you give your life to Christ, you lay down your unrighteousness. You are no longer ignorant of the law and can no longer walk in your sinful, lawless ways.

Let’s dig into that.

The 3 Parts of the Law of God

As a Jew, Paul understood the Law of God, which outlined the upright way man was supposed to walk to please God. The law of God is divided into 3 parts: civil law, ceremonial law, and moral law (read Leviticus for the laws in their entirety).

​Civil laws included marriage, property rights, and criminal offenses. These laws were intended to govern Israel’s social and judicial rights fairly and create harmony in their community for Jews and the sojourner. This area of theology can get messy for some. It touches on theonomy, Christian Nationalism, and political areas I personally don’t know enough about to address.

​Ceremonial laws focused mainly on rituals and worship. These laws concerned cleansing, purification, sacrifices, and the human condition required to enter the tabernacle. These laws pointed to the Messiah and therefore have been fulfilled.

​Moral laws were the laws given to live by for all time. The most popular being the 10 Commandments. These laws, once written on tablets, are now written on the hearts of men. (Jeremiah 31:33). This is confirmed in Romans 2:14-14: “14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness…” Paul is saying that even though God did not give the law directly to the Gentiles as he did to the Israelites after the Exodus from Egypt, they are still well aware of right and wrong. Their conscience testifies to the morality written on their hearts.

Fulfillment is not Abolishment

In addition, in the letter to the Romans, Paul points to the love of Jesus that fulfilled the Law, but at the same time defines love for Jesus by obeying the moral law.

“For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet’, and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”’. -Romans 13:8-10

Paul is pointing specifically to moral laws to demonstrate how the moral law connects to Jesus’ command to love your neighbor. When what you do stems from genuine love for the person, it does not include sinning against them. We are not under the Law, but under the Law of Grace. In that, we are to abide by that law.

Sear a Steak, Not your Conscience

​The challenge with our human nature is that we can sear our conscience (1 Timothy 4:2). To sear (kaustēriazō) is to render insensitive. It’s very similar to building a callus on the pads of your hand from lifting weights. When you first start lifting weights, your hands are sensitive, and you feel the pain of your skin tearing open. But the more you do it, your skin hardens and calluses over. It becomes tough and desensitized. You can no longer feel in that part of your hand. When you sear your conscience by living contrary to the law written on your heart, you become desensitized to the pain of conviction. The pain you feel when you consider doing something morally wrong grows less and less the more you do it. In other words, the more you sin against God, the more you sear your conscience and become callused over.

​In 1 Thessalonians 5:19, where Paul warns us not to quench the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a guide to all truth (John 16:13). To quench the Spirit is to suppress the divine influence given directly from God.

The Pain of Conviction

Being callused over, or having quenched the Holy Spirit, is a dangerous place to be. Once you are there, you can’t tell right from wrong. You live by your own standards of morality, which are typically self-serving and contrary to God. We see in Romans 1 and Ephesians 4 that those who trade truth for a lie are given over to their desires and places them in a position for judgement.

At this point we need to address what one does if they get to this point. A weightlifter knows how to treat their calluses so they don’t tear off and expose a gaping wound that is not only painful but also hindering. This is where my analogy breaks down. As a believer, we need that. We need to feel the pain and conviction of our sin to remember why we need Jesus. The pain of conviction leads to repentance, confession, forgiveness, redemption, and righteousness. He is our righteousness, and apart from Him our righteousness is nothing but filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). In His righteousness we can accept the forgiveness that follows our repentance and continue to walk faithfully with God. There is no need to allow our past to hinder us from moving forward, in Christ. But we cannot resist the life-giving light that is in Him.

The Human Need for the Light of God

“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” ​ 1 John 1:5b-10

​John is drawing a correlation between the truth of Jesus and the Gospel and how we live our lives. When you give your life to Christ, you are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Since you have the righteousness of Christ, you need to let go of the old self and live in the newness of Christ (Romans 13:14, Ephesians 4:24).

Put on the Righteousness of Christ

​To put on the breastplate of righteousness is to live a life according to the righteousness you have in Christ. We have no righteousness apart from Him; therefore we need to wear His. Here on earth, He lived up to the definition of Righteousness: integrity, virtue, purity of life, uprightness, and correctness in thinking, feeling, and acting.

​I think Paul, as a Jew, draws on the significance of Jewish tradition in the breastplate of righteousness analogy. A breastplate was the part of armor that protected the internal organs. Although called a “breastplate”, it covered the front, back, and sides of the soldier. In Jewish tradition, organs held (and still do in some cultures) significant symbolic meaning. Mainly the heart and kidneys.  The breastplate shows how righteousness protects these major organs, which were synonymous with one’s true self and moral discernment. If we identify with the truth of Christ (see the Belt of Truth) and base our moral walk on that truth, you are putting on the breastplate of righteousness and walking in the righteousness imputed to you by God in Jesus Christ.