november
The Body Armour of God’s Righteousness
Having read this wording in the New Living Translation we looked at how important body armour is to people in violent or battle situations, e.g. policemen or soldiers. It protects people physically from dying when they are stabbed or shot. As Christians we are in a spiritual battle (see Ephesians 6:10-20; 2 Timothy 2: 3,4) we need to put on spiritual body armour to protect our hearts from attacks of the enemy.
God created us, loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. However God is righteous (see Psalm 7:17) and we are not (see Romans 3:23), so he can have nothing to do with us. That’s why God sent Jesus. On the cross Jesus had all our sin poured into him and when we trust in Jesus i.e. we become Christians, all Jesus’ righteousness is poured into us (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). This means we can be friends with God.
This is the first part of the righteousness we are to wear as body armour. It is justification (can remember this because it sounds a little bit like just-as-if I never sinned – which is what it means!!)
One way we can do this is to remember what God says about us now that we are Christians (the Bible calls that being ‘in Christ’):
In Christ…
- I am righteous and holy (Ephesians 4:24)
- I am new person. My past is forgiven and everything is new (2 Corinthians 5:17)
- I am chosen by God, holy and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12; I Thessalonians 1:4
- I am an enemy of the devil (1 Peter 5:8)
- I am born again in Christ, and the evil one – the devil – cannot touch me (1 John 5:18)
- I am a slave of righteousness (Romans 6:18)
- I am a child of God (John 1:12)
- I am a saint, a holy person (Ephesians 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2)
- I am God’s building project, His masterpiece, created in Christ to do His work (Ephesians 2:10)
The second part is the righteousness that grows in our lives as we try to live a life that pleases God. This is known as sanctification, being made more like God by the Holy Spirit living in us. This process will take a lifetime!!
We need to read our Bibles and pray so we can hear about God’s view of the world and of us. We also need to spend time with other Christians so we can encourage one another and build up our faith.
And we must remember that this is not a tug of war between God and the enemy. They are not equal; Jesus won the victory on the cross. The enemy is defeated, but not yet destroyed. The enemy will try to distract us from God and make us live a life that doesn’t please God, but we don’t have to listen to him.
So when the enemy attacks our hearts (our emotions, our self-worth and our trust) it’s like he’s firing bullets at us, and we need to put on the body armour of God’s righteousness to protect our hearts and know that God approves of us and we can trust him and not be afraid.
