The Breastplate of Righteousness

“… and having put on the breastplate of righteousness…” – Ephesians 6:14

The first outward piece of armor Paul mentions is arguably the most important. Sustain an injury to your extremities in battle, and you may be crippled, but you’ll live. The skull provides some measure of protection for the head, and there is possibility of recovery from concussion. But sustain a penetrating injury to your torso or gut, and you’re dead, either immediately if the heart or lungs are penetrated, or eventually but just as surely if the gut is lacerated. In the days before exploratory laparotomies or intravenous antibiotics, gut wounds meant a slow death from sepsis. Soldiers never went into battle without a metal plate worn over a leather jerkin or a coat of mail to protect the chest and the back. 

Paul says that our breastplate, the spiritual piece of armor that guards our heart and vital organs, is our righteousness. What is righteousness?

When the kids get into fights, it stops whatever we’re doing. Those involved in the fight, and often the rest of the family, can’t function as normal until the rift is repaired, which, depending on the degree of hurt, may require anything from a simple acknowledgement to a protracted discussion and handling of emotions. But it has to be addressed, because our being “right” in relation with each other is fundamental to our sense of self and ability to function practically. I think of righteousness like that: not so much “am I following God’s rules?” as “am I right with God?” 

This gets at the deepest, most vital question of our hearts. The Bible says the story of life is one of relationship. If worldviews ask the questions, “How are things supposed to be?” “What is the main problem with things as they are?” and “What is the solution and how can it be realized?”—then the Bible’s answers are that we are meant to be in relationship with God; the problem is sin which keeps us from God; and the solution is the salvation and grace we receive through Jesus to restore that relationship. Being right with God is something we receive through Jesus, that we put on, like a breastplate that covers our hearts and vital organs. If we don’t have that, we don’t have eternal life. We don’t have a story for life that really works.

Being right with God is fundamental, and it is something we receive, not earn. Yet once we are his, we also hunger and thirst for more righteousness: to walk out being right with God in our world, our community, our lives. We take active steps to do so. Resolving fights at home means being not just peacekeepers, but peacemakers: people who are willing to sacrifice, to be intentional, about restoring right relationship. Covered by the breastplate of our righteousness in Christ, we are then also able to move out into battle to live that righteousness out, even at danger or cost to ourselves.