How important is righteousness to God? (Lev. 11:44; Psa. 99:3,5,9; Isa. 40:25; Hab. 1:12-13; Jn. 17:11; 1 Pet. 1:15) Are you righteous? (Rom.3:10-12, 23; 5:12) If so, how did you become righteous? (Phil. 3:9) Why can’t religion make us righteous? What is “the righteousness of Christ”? (2 Cor. 5:21; Eph. 2:8, 9; Phil. 3:9) How does the righteousness of Christ protect you?
2. The Believer’s Battle Commands:
Ø “Be Strong in the Lord
Ø “Put on the whole armor of God”
This Attic vase painting (490
B.C.) depicts Odysseus giving
the armor of his father Achilles
to Neoptolemos.
3. The Believer’s Battle Commands:
Ø “Be Strong in the Lord
Ø “Put on the whole armor of God”
1) “having girded your loins with truth”
2) “having put on the breastplate of righteousness”
3) “having shod your feet with the gospel of peace”
4) “taking the shield of faith”
5) “take the helmet of salvation”
6) “(take) the sword of the Spirit”
4. The Believer’s Battle Commands:
Ø “Be Strong in the Lord
Ø “Put on the whole armor of God”
Ø “Stand” (ἵσταμαι – histamai)
Ø “Withstand” (ἀνθίστημι – anthistēmi)
HOLD YOUR
POSITION
NEVER
RETREAT
5.
6. Elements: white linen +
3 colors
Size: 2¼” wide, 48’ long
Function: Service
Indicated: Readiness Truth
According to the Talmud, Rabbinic literature
(B. Zevachim 88b) and Maimonides
7. 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the
Lord and in the power of His might. 11
Put on the whole armor of God, that
you may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not
wrestle against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of
this age, against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places.
8. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor
of God, that you may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and having
done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore,
having girded your waist with truth,
having put on the breastplate of
righteousness,
9. “breastplate” θώραξ (thōrax) = corslet
Ephesians 6:14 Stand therefore, having
girded your waist with truth, having put on
the breastplate of righteousness,
“having put on” (aorist participle)
10. “Under the Roman republic all the legionaries
wore a bronze cuirass consisting of a breast
and back plate with a border of pendent
leather straps defending the lower part of the
body.”
(The Encyclopedia Americana, 1903)
A. To a Roman Soldier:
15. B. To the High Priest:
2. Its Function:
• Hebrew: חֹשֶׁן (ẖošen) = a sacred
breastplate worn only by the High
Priest of the Israelites, according to
the Book of Exodus.
• In the biblical account, the breastplate
is sometimes termed the breastplate of
judgment, because the Urim and
Thummim were placed within it.
16. URIM: “lights” = an
emblem of complete
LIGHT
Thymmim:
“perfections” = an
emblem of compete
TRUTH
17. B. To the High Priest:
2. Its Function:
Protect the
People
21. δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē) =
צדיק (tṣǎd·dîq) = righteousness, justice
primarily
describes conduct in relation to others,
especially with regards to the rights of
others in business, in legal matters, and
beginning with relationship to God. It is
contrasted with wickedness, the conduct
of the one who, out of gross self-
centeredness, neither reveres God nor
respects man.
22. A. Self-Righteousness:
Matthew 5:20 For I say to
you, that unless your
righteousness exceeds the
righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, you
will by no means enter the
kingdom of heaven.
23. A. Self-Righteousness:
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all
like an unclean thing, and
all our righteousnesses
are like filthy rags; we all
fade as a leaf, and our
iniquities, like the wind,
have taken us away.
24. B. Christ’s Righteousness:
Isaiah 59:16–17 16 He saw that there was
no man and wondered that there was no
intercessor; Therefore His own arm
brought salvation for Him; and His own
righteousness, it sustained Him. 17 For He
put on righteousness as a breastplate, and
a helmet of salvation on His head; He put
on the garments of vengeance for clothing
and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
25. Isaiah 53:11–12 By His knowledge, My
righteous Servant shall justify many, for He
shall bear their iniquities. 12...He poured
out His soul unto death, and He was
numbered with the transgressors, and He
bore the sin of many, and made
intercession for the transgressors.
B. Christ’s Righteousness:
26. B. Christ’s Righteousness:
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who
knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might
become the righteousness of God in Him.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been
justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
27. 1 John 2:1–2 My little children, these things I
write to you, so that you may not sin. And if
anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He
Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not
for ours only but also for the whole world.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
who do not walk according to the flesh, but
according to the Spirit.
28. Ephesians 4:22–24 that you put off, concerning
your former conduct, the old man which grows
corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and
be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and
that you put on the new man which was
created according to God, in true righteousness
and holiness.