“with the breastplate of righteousness in place”
-Ephesians 6:14
“OH VICTORY IN JESUS MY SAVIOR FOREVER HE SOUGHT ME AND BOUGHT ME WITH HIS REDEEMING BLOOD”
Those powerful truth filled words from the hymn “Victory in Jesus” makes me want to SING at the top of my lungs and RUN and JUMP and DANCE and DECLARE VICTORY TO THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD. It fills my heart with OVERWHELMING JOY! The words “Victory in Jesus” are so electric. HE IS OUR BANNER OF VICTORY.
The whole verse of Ephesians 6:14-18 is teaching us how to equip ourselves for VICTORY over the devil and his schemes. The breastplate of righteousness started with the cross. He “bought me with His Redeeming blood.” We needed him to “buy” our righteousness, because we can not face Satan’s temptations on our own. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” We are completely and utterly lost without Christ. Let me say that again just so it sinks in, we are completely and utterly lost without Christ. I don’t say that for you to feel guilty. I say that so you can REJOICE, and praise God for giving us this righteousness.
Realizing it is in Christ ALONE is very essential. Without this realization, everything you do is just you trying to impress God. Our human tendency is to be prideful and make it known to everyone ,even God, how good we are. We like to think when we have done one good thing that we deserve a noble prize from God. Pride comes before the fall. Salvation comes from faith NOT works. All of our righteous acts for own advancement are like “filthy rags” to God.
“We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.”
-Isaiah 64:6
In my previous blog ,I mentioned how the belt of truth holds everything together. If the belt is loosened ,the breastplate just falls right off. We first and foremost have to have the Word of God. We need to “put on.” That is an action. It is a decision to take advantage of God’s everlasting grace. Yes, the grace God offers us is free, but we never experience it FULLY until we set out and seek first Him and His Kingdom. His Word is where we learn what living like Christ looks like. We see it in the way Jesus lived , the Ten Commandments and in the disciples.
The Holy Spirit also walks along us and gives us commands or convictions. Whenever we ignore what God is trying to tell us, we are putting an open target on our back for Satan. The breastplate is covering our vital organs, most importantly the heart. When there is a hole in our breastplate, we are allowing Satan to come in and contaminate our hearts. The more we experience and rest in His righteousness, the more our hearts evolve and develop purity. Righteousness needs to influence our habits. It needs to surround our day to day life. Any good health coach will tell you it is not a “diet, but a lifestyle.” To live a truly healthy life, we need to have on the breastplate of righteousness 24/7. We have all grown up with W.W.J.D. As your going through life, continually ask yourself “What Would Jesus Do,” and live in VICTORY.
“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” -Ephesians 6:10-18
