Grosey's Messages

EPHESIANS 6:14  THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

How To Guard Your Heart

¹⁴ Stand therefore,… having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

Imputed righteousness produces imparted righteousness.

The conquest of Canadian Quebec was accomplished, in one sense, at the Battle of Quebec in 1759 when General Wolfe beat General Montcalm; and yet we know from history that it took many decades to possess that portion of North America. There was one decisive battle, the Battle of Quebec, and from that moment Canada became British; but there were still pockets of resistance which had to be dealt with, and it took until the 'thirties' of the nineteenth century before it could be said that the British Crown really had taken and possessed that great piece of territory. It is much the same here. We start by putting on the 'whole truth'—our acceptance and our understanding of the whole way of salvation. But having put that on, we are taught by Paul that it is equally important for us to be clear about the particular aspects and applications.

A Roman breastplate was usually made of bronze, or, if you were a more affluent soldier, chain mail. It covered the midsection, from just below the neck to the thighs. And they called it a heart protector—for obvious reasons. It guarded the vital organ that keeps us alive.

This 'breastplate' generally extended from the base of the neck to the upper part of the things, so it covered what we would now call the thorax and abdomen. That is actually the term that is used here in the Greek—the 'thorax'. But it also covered the abdomen, the abdominal cavity. So here Paul is talking about the portion of the armour that is to be put over the whole of what you may call in general 'the trunk'

So the Apostle, here, when he tells us to put on the breastplate of righteousness, is concerned that in this conflict, this wrestling that we are engaged in with the world, and the flesh, and the devil, there should be no part we should be more careful about in regard to protection than that where the feelings and the affections are controlled. And not only the feelings and the affections, but the conscience also, and the desires and the will.

Now the important aspect here is the heart, where the desires are.

Psalm 37:4  Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Yep don't follow your heart. It only reflects your inner desires. And those desires may not be good.   Trust your heart? No way!

There is nothing wrong with the desires as such. It is God who has given us our desires. The desires may be good or bad; they are a part of life, a part of our human nature and constitution. But what the devil does is to come and to create 'inordinate desires', he inflames the desires. Through these desires the will is affected. Thus it is of high importance for us to see that that part of our life, that part of our personality where these vital forces and factors are centred, should be adequately protected.

Prov 4: 4 he taught me and said to me, "Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.

20 My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.

21 Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.

22 For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.

23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

24 Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.

25 Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.

26 Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.

27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

Because we can never attain to God's standard of righteousness, God sent His only Son into this world, in order that He might be able to give us His righteousness. He came, the spotless, sinless Son of God, and He rendered a perfect obedience to God's law, obeyed Him in every jot and title of the law. He lived a perfectly righteous life. But more than that; He made Himself responsible for our sins, He bore them in His own body and was crucified for them. 'God laid on him the iniquity of us all.' And at the Cross God smote His dear Son as our sinbearer. And in raising Christ again on the resurrection day God has proclaimed to us that Christ's death was more than sufficient to satisfy His righteous demands. 

Imputed righteousness is defined in 2 Corinthians 5:21: 'God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin'. In other words, God took our sins and 'imputed' them to His Son, put them on Him, put them to His account. That is the meaning of 'imputation'—that you take something that belongs to one person and you put it to the account of another. A man owes a debt; you take it out of his page in your ledger and you put it into the page of another man in the ledger. You have 'imputed' the debt to another. That is what God has done with our sins. He has imputed our sins to His Son, and He has punished them in Him.

But that has not exhausted the meaning of the term. That leaves me, as it were, with my sins taken away; but that is not enough. Before I can stand in the presence of God I must be positively holy, I must be positively righteous. God is righteous, and just and holy. 'God is light, and in him is no darkness at all'. To stand in His presences I need to be positively righteous. And this is how it happens. As I believe on God's Son and His work for me, He 'imputes' His righteousness, His perfect observance of the law, to me. I have not kept the law; Christ has kept it perfectly and He is righteous before the law. God puts to my account, imputes to me, the righteousness of His own Son. He clothes me with it. So, as I stand in the presence of God, God does not see me, He sees the righteousness of His Son covering me, clothing me completely. That is what I now rejoice in, says the Apostle. 'I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith' (Philippians 3:8, 9).

Salvation by 'imputed righteousness', means that Christ's perfect righteousness is put to my account, imputed to me, put upon me by God. And, looking at me, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, God pronounces me to be a just man, a righteous man; and the law cannot touch me. 'There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus' (Romans 8:1). The law has nothing to say against me because I am covered by this perfect, spotless righteousness of the Son of God Himself, and have on 'the breastplate of righteousness'.

That is part of righteousness, but it is not the whole. There is also what the Puritans called 'imparted' righteousness, and it is equally important for us to lay hold on that also. The difference between 'imputed' and 'imparted' righteousness is, that if we stop at imputed righteousness, I am left where I was before. I have no righteousness inherent in me at all, although I am clothed and covered by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the beginning; that is what makes me a Christian; that is the foundation. But God does not stop at that, He now begins to work in me the righteousness of His own Son. He 'imparts' it to me, He makes it a part of me, He puts it into me. This happens of necessity as the result of the rebirth, regeneration, the new file. There is a new seed of life 'implanted' in me.

The seed has been put into me, and that seed grows and develops. This is what is meant by the idea of 'imparting' righteousness. Another term that has sometimes been used states that the righteousness is now 'infused' into me. It is not only put upon me as a cloak and a covering, but also 'infused' into me. It is comparable to a blood transfusion where the blood from one person is put into the circulation and the blood from one person is put into the circulation and the blood of another. It can be 'transfused' or 'infused', 'injected', 'imparted'—these are all terms which stand for the same operation.

Imputed righteousness is justification—that which God gives us by faith.

Imparted righteousness is sanctification—that which we live out in our daily lives.

This is how the Apostle expresses the truth to the Philippians: 'Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure' (2:12, 13). We are to 'grow in grace', and in the knowledge of the Lord. These are different ways of expressing 'imparted righteousness'.

The word righteousness in Ephesians 6:14 means "uprightness, right living, integrity in one's lifestyle and character." It is a matter of conforming our will to God's will. It is rooted in the objective righteousness that we already possess in our standing before God through Christ's work. That righteousness cannot be taken away. It is complete because we are in Christ and he is in us. But while the righteousness of this verse flows out of that objective reality, this is really the practical application of truth to our lives. In other words, the righteousness referred to here is submitting to the lordship of Christ. Put simply, it's putting into practice what you know is right.

Protecting Your Heart Against Satanic Assaults

Satan is called the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10). When we fall into sin, the Holy Spirit will convict us and draw us through repentance and forgiveness back into fellowship with the Father. But Satan will counterfeit the conviction with accusations. The whisperer who laughs, "You call yourself a Christian?" is not the voice of the Holy Spirit. That's demonic, and it is designed to drive you into false comforts to ease your guilt. For example, buying seventy-five pairs of shoes because when it's too painful to face the truth and you feel condemned, shopping will give you an adrenaline rush to take care of it—for a while. Or stuffing yourself in order to drown your pain in pleasure—and then throwing it all up as you kick yourself for being so addicted to food. Or becoming the dispenser of personal information in your congregation because you need to feel significant.

Remember:  'they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony' (Revelation 12:11).

1. Guard Your Heart With the Gospel of Grace

Each day we need to put on the breastplate of righteousness by faith and reaffirm our position in Jesus Christ. We must depend on the righteousness of Christ rather than our own good deeds.

Why do we need this righteousness? Because Satan is the accuser. He is continually denouncing God's people. We desperately need this breastplate, because apart from the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, we cannot stand against the Evil One.

2. Guard Your Heart With the Governance of God's Word

3. Guard Your Heart With the Grace of the Holy Spirit

Job 4: 17  'Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?