Tuesday, 4/10/18 - The Armor of God,
Pt. 6,
The Breastplate of Righteousness, Pt. 2, Justification Means Eternal Security, Lesson
# 18-040
Grace Fellowship
Church
Pastor/Teacher,
Jim Rickard
Stand in Warfare –
Eph 6:10-20.
3. The Equipment, vs. 13-17.
Vs,
14b, The Breastplate of Righteousness, Pt. 2
Eph 6:14; Rom 4, 5:1-19; 8:1,
10, 30; 9:30; 10:4; Gal 2:21;
3:21-22
In Eph 6:14, we now
address the second piece of armor, “the breastplate of righteousness.” This
verse reads, “Stand firm therefore,
having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of
righteousness.”
The noun “righteousness,” DIKAIOSUNE, its related adjective
“righteous,” DIKAIOS, and the verb “to justify, to pronounce/treat as righteous
or put right,” DIKAIOO are found in Paul’s writings over 100 times. The sheer
volume of occurrences in their various usages and meanings indicates the central
place they had in the theology of the apostle.
For the believer, there are three aspects of righteousness that we
see within the Bible.
1. The righteousness of God that is imputed to the believer at the
point of salvation.
2. The walk in righteousness post salvation.
3. The ability to be blessed in time and eternity because of
righteousness in us.
1. The Righteousness of God Imputed to
the Believer at the Point of Salvation.
The imputation of God’s righteousness to the believer at salvation
is one of two judicial imputations of God. They are judicial because
there is no affinity between the thing imputed and the one receiving the
imputation. It is judicial because in God’s perfect righteousness and justice
He is able to impute something to someone that does not have a natural
coalescence for or identification with the thing being imputed.
There are two judicial imputation of God:
a. The personal sins of every
member of the human race to Jesus Christ on the Cross.
b. The perfect righteousness of
God to the believer at the point of salvation.
God’s perfect justice allowed for both as part of His plan of redemption.
Because of the first, the second was made possible.
2 Cor 5:21, “He (God the Father) made
Him (Jesus Chsit) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, (as a
substitute for us), so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Christ accomplished what the Law could not do: through His
spiritual death upon the cross, believers are made righteous, Rom 8:3-4; 10:4; 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 2:21; cf.
Gen 15:6.
Rom
10:4, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who
believes.”
Gen 15:6, “Then he (Abraham)
believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
There is also another category of Divine Imputations called “Real
Imputations” that includes 5 imputations:
1) Human life to the soul, 2) Adam’s original sin to the Old Sin Nature,
3) Eternal life to the human spirit, 4) Blessings in time to perfect righteousness,
and 5) Blessings in eternity to the resurrection body.
Because of the judicial imputation of righteousness to the believer at
the moment of salvation, God is also able to provide the real imputation of
blessings in time to the believer because he possesses perfect righteousness in
his soul, and He is able to provide blessings in eternity to the resurrected
believer. Some of those blessing are based on the imputation of God’s
righteousness giving us Positional Sanctification, and others based the
application of righteousness in our lives, our Experiential Sanctification. We
will discuss this further below.
Paul states that righteousness in believers is the result of a
word, or declaration, of God. In Rom 4,
where Paul interprets Abraham’s relationship with God as a scriptural
foundation for his understanding of believers’ “justification by faith,”
explained in Rom 1-3, righteousness
is said to be “reckoned to or credited to” Abraham by God on the basis of
Abraham’s faith, (i.e., believing / trusting in God), Rom 4:3, 5-6, 9, 11, 22, rather than on the basis of his works. In Gal 3:6, Abraham’s faith in God is
“reckoned to him as righteousness.” Here, Abraham’s trusting submission to God
is evaluated as “righteousness.”
Closely related to the above are those passages where
righteousness is stated to be a gift of God reigning in the believer, Rom 5:17, 21. Here it is seen as a
reality which dominates or directs the life in Christ, cf. Rom 8:10.
Rom
8:10, “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the
spirit is alive because of righteousness.”
This righteousness results from God’s grace, for if it were
possible to achieve it via obedience to the Law, Christ’s death would have been
in vain, Gal 2:21.
Gal
2:21, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through
the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”
In addition, in Gal 3:21-22,
righteousness is equated with life, which the Law is powerless to produce.
Gal
3:21-22, “Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For
if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would
indeed have been based on law. 22But the Scripture has shut up
everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given
to those who believe.”
Therefore, righteousness is first a grace gift of God, given to the
believer at the moment of faith in Christ as your Savior.
Knowing that we have the grace gift of the perfect righteousness of God
is a part of “putting on” the breastplate of righteousness. Having the perfect
righteousness of God means you have the perfection of God in you and you are
eternally saved. Both factors should give you tremendous confidence going
forward in life. Knowing that regardless of how you sin or fail, you have
perfection inside of you, and God will never abandon you, regardless of how
badly you may mess up, Rom 5:1, 9, 18-19.
Rom 5:1, “Therefore, having
been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Rom 5:9, “Much more then,
having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God
through Him.”
Rom 5:18, “So then as
through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through
one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.”
Rom 5:19, “For as through
the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the
obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”
Rom 8:1, “Therefore there
is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
This also tells us of the importance of justification. Justification,
“the establishment of a right relationship with God,” is based upon God’s gift,
Rom 3:21-24, to be received by faith,
not by man’s actions, Rom 3:25; 4:3-22;
9:30; 10:3, 6ff; cf. Gal 3:6; Phil 3:9; Titus 3:5.
You see, justification is the result of the imputation of perfect
righteousness at salvation. God sees His own perfect righteousness in us and
justifies us by virtue of possessing that perfect righteousness. Justification
is God recognizing perfect righteousness wherever it resides. It is God
recognizing His own perfect righteousness imputed to you at the moment of faith
in Christ, Rom 3:24; 8:30; 9:30; 1 Cor
6:11; Titus 3:7.
Rom 3:24, “Being justified
as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
1 Cor 6:11, “Such were some
of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
Rom 8:30, “And these whom
He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified;
and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
Rom 9:30, “That the
Gentiles who did not strive for divine righteousness have attained divine
righteousness, that is the righteousness from the source of faith in Jesus
Christ.”
When we truly realize that God has given us His perfect
righteousness from the moment of our salvation, and that He will never take
that Divine righteousness away, we realize we are also justified in God’s eyes
to be members of His eternal family. Therefore, when Satan accuses us, it is the
righteousness of Christ in us that assures us of our salvation. With
the knowledge of the position we stand in, and the Divine blessings of
righteousness and justification, we stand confidently before God, angels, and
man. We stand confident in the position and relationship we have with the Lord.
Standing confident in the knowledge of our positional righteousness is part of
“putting on the breastplate of righteousness.”
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