“I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name;
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand,”
“This is a very common condition,” says Lloyd-Jones. “Every pastor, every physician of the soul,
will have met this with greater frequency than perhaps anything else. People complain, ‘I cannot feel anything any
longer; I used to, but I cannot now.’
They are dejected and downcast, and querying whether they are Christians
at all. The answer to all of this is,
‘Put on the breastplate of righteousness.’
It is the only answer.”
This is the second piece of equipment Paul admonishes us to
put on in the spiritual war in which every Christian finds himself/herself. (If
you can’t remember all we said last week about the belt of truth, check last
week’s Enewsletter entry and the podcast.)
The truth is our highest, sweet frames, our best feelings,
can be the most treacherous and may desert us at any moment. When this happens we break free of our moorings,
our foundation vanishes and you begin to wonder, like Cowper, whether we’re a
Christian at all.
Some have even built a theology on this phenomenon. They
maintain that we are saved by grace, but we must stay saved by our works. It is as if, to them, we are born of the
Spirit of God, but then left to our own devices. Such “theology” is rooted in a
misapprehension of the Gospel and typically some painful experience.
Paul knows all about the vicissitudes of human emotions (See
Romans 7). The only remedy is not law,
but grace! Indeed, the only remedy is
the breastplate of righteousness! While
we are to enjoy feelings, they are to be subservient to, and the outcome of,
our standing with God. They are to be
the product of our justification. It is
the righteousness of Jesus Christ that saves me and secures me, not any
feelings I may have with respect to it.
As we said last week, there is an inevitable order apparent
in Paul’s writings. The subjective must
always follow the objective. The
imperative always follows the indicative. (We saw the perfect application of this fact
in Thomas’ post-resurrection encounter with Christ.”) Paul knows that when this order is violated or
ignored, Satan comes in and has a field day.
This week we turn to the second of the six pieces of
equipment Paul tells us to “put on” or “take up” – the Breastplate of
Righteousness. If the belt of truth –
the Gospel (John 8:31,32) is the protection for the loins of the mind (I Peter
1:13), the Breastplate of Righteousness is the protection for our heart, the
seat of our affections.
We will be seeking to cover the heart of the Christian faith
this Sunday – so much to say – so many truths to explore – so little time. You want application? Start now by digging into “the Breastplate of
Righteousness” and consider the following:
1. What
does Peter mean in I Peter 1:3-9?
2. Do
you think Lloyd-Jones is right when he says, “…to believe in the possibility of
falling from grace is to believe in the possible defeat of God by the
devil. That is unthinkable and utterly
impossible”?
3. Why
is Polybius right when he says, “It would be difficult to strike a death blow
to the torso of a soldier wearing the breastplate”?
4. What
is the breastplate of righteousness?
What does it protect?
5. How
does it protect us from the fiery darts of Satan? What is Satan attempting to do?
6. How
does The New English Bible render the
word “righteousness”? Why is this so
misleading and dangerous?
7. What
did the Puritans (following the sound exegesis of the Reformers) say about the
righteousness of Christ given to the Christian?
8. How
is the righteousness of Christ a breastplate for us?
9. How
does what Paul writes in Philippians 3:1-9 relate to Ephesians 6:14?
10. How can you
tell the breastplate is on?
