Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Ephesians 6:14 | Date: April 3, 2016 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

We’re two and a half. Wonderful singing this morning, wonderful songs, and a blessing. Open your Bibles, please, to Ephesians chapter 6. We continue our study of the armor of God. Today we look at, again, the breastplate of righteousness. We did this last time. And as I mentioned then, I’d like to come back—having identified what the breastplate of righteousness is—come back now and learn what it is to use it as a breastplate.

Let’s begin our reading with verse 10 again: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 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 firm. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of the faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.”

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, we are thankful for this, your word. We are thankful for this great theme of the breastplate of righteousness. We pray that you will give us ears to hear, give us a heart to receive and to believe, to love and to appreciate the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is ours by faith. In his name we ask, amen.

Well, we come then to verse 14 again, the breastplate of righteousness. Paul here is drawing some analogies from the ancient Roman soldiers and the battle gear that they would have had to protect them in battle, and here he speaks of the breastplate. The Roman soldier wore a breastplate, which was a piece of metal that was extended basically from the neck down to his waist. It was attached on the sides with hinges or with leather straps and buckled on the other side. It was two pieces of metal wrapped around the body to protect them in battle.

You might have heard, and it has become popular to point out in reference to the Christian’s armor, that there is no armor given for the back. And so there is no room for retreat, only for offense. And I think that’s marvelous counsel. And actually that counsel was given from, I think originally, from John Bunyan in The Pilgrim’s Progress, where he speaks of Christian in the Valley of Humiliation fighting against Apollyon. And there he decided—he’d considered to retreat—but then decided that there was no armor for the back so that he better keep on with the fight. It’s wonderful counsel, but the fact of the matter is the armor does have… the breastplate was two pieces of bronze wrapped around the front and the back.

It was an essential part of the armor, in a sense maybe the most essential part of the armor. Without it, you might as well be naked in the fight. You’ll be vulnerable to everything from spears to stray arrows, to swords, to clubs, beating of whatever kind. Without the breastplate in battle, death was all but certain. It was a matter of life and death. You must have this protection, this breastplate, this bronze metal put around you, protecting your entire abdomen. Well, this is Paul’s point of analogy that God has provided us with a breastplate for spiritual warfare, and the breastplate that he has given us is a breastplate of righteousness. I think to be understood rightly, this is an apposition there: the breastplate which is righteousness. So righteousness is given as a breastplate.

Definitions First

Now we have to work then at definitions first. I mentioned this last time, so I don’t have to spend much time on it now, but just as a reminder, it is common in popular usage here to speak of our own righteousness as a breastplate and to have the people of integrity, and so as people of integrity that protects us in warfare. And again, there’s no question that’s wonderful counsel, but I don’t think that’s what Paul has in mind here.

First of all, I think it gets the cart before the horse. We don’t fight with our own integrity and our own righteousness. That’s precisely what we are struggling for, to maintain our own integrity, our own righteousness and such. And more to the point here in this passage, Paul is speaking of armor that is given to us from God. This is the armor of God that is provided to fight against an enemy that is far superior to us. And so for that we need something, of course, much more stable and much stronger than our own righteousness.

And so if it is not personal righteousness then that Paul has in view here—our own righteousness, our own integrity—the only other option left then is to see that he is speaking of God’s righteousness, the righteousness of God or the righteousness of Christ, which is continuously the sense that Paul gives this term “righteousness” in his writings, speaking of the righteousness of God that is found in Christ.

Now you might remember last time for sake of review, we’ll just mention it, that we looked at how this theme of righteousness developed in certain ways in the Old Testament. We saw that God himself is righteous. That is, he is always acting and behaving in keeping with his own perfections. He’s a righteous God, always acting in keeping with who he is. He also then, being a righteous God, demands righteousness of all of his creatures. He demands that we imitate him in that way. So, for example, a just balance is a delight to the Lord. He demands of his people, of all of his creation, that we be righteous and reflect his righteousness in our own behavior.

Also because God is a righteous God, he not only demands righteousness of his rational creatures, he will punish all unrighteousness in his rational creatures. They know better, they should do better, and they’re held accountable accordingly. And so we have this theme of God is righteous, God demanding righteousness, God judging in righteousness. And in fact, that theme of God judging in righteousness is itself developed in terms of God judging justly. No loopholes, no exceptions. He judges righteously and honestly. He’s a just judge who cannot be bought off. And he can’t just overlook sin. Sin must be judged. God is righteous. God demands righteousness. God judges in righteousness.

And then we saw a strange turn with the use of this theme in the Old Testament. At the same time, we find God’s righteousness spoken of in terms of his salvation. God’s saving in righteousness, which is a strange term because we expect this theme of righteousness to be associated with judgment, condemnation even. But then we find God saving in righteousness. And in fact, we find that the salvation that God then accomplishes for his people is itself called righteousness. And in fact, the people whom he saves, these sinners whom he has rescued from their sin, they are called righteous.

And so we have this strange mix of themes of how this theme develops. God is righteous, he demands righteousness, he judges in righteousness, and yet he saves in righteousness, and he saves righteously, and those whom he saves are righteous. And then at the same time we find statements like, this is what his people will be known by, this is their name: “The Lord our righteousness.” The Lord is our righteousness. Well, this becomes something of the riddle of the Old Testament. How can all of these things fit together?

And we saw last time that, of course, that comes together to give us the gospel of Christ. Paul speaks of it in Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17. He boasts in the gospel. “I’m not ashamed of the gospel.” That’s a dramatic understatement. He exalts in the gospel. Why? Because in it the righteousness of God is revealed. What causes Paul to glory in the gospel is not just that it is a revelation of the love of God, the kindness of God, and the patience of God, although it is all that. But what causes Paul to exult in the gospel is that it is a revelation of the righteousness of God. That God has found a way to rescue sinners from their sin and yet remain righteous as a just judge and bring them into a righteous standing before him in judgment.

And of course he develops that, as we saw last time just briefly in his letter to the Romans, that because God has sent forth his son and put him forth as a propitiation, making satisfaction for all of our sin, standing in our place, taking the punishment, the justice of God is satisfied in Christ, thereby liberating us, redeeming us, freeing us from the bondage of sin, from the guilt of sin, and God is just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus. That’s Romans chapter 3.

Romans chapter 4, he fills in a little bit more. And he speaks of this big word, imputation. God imputes righteousness to us. The righteousness of Christ is credited to us. In Romans chapter 5, the figure changes just a little bit. We are constituted righteous in Christ. By his one righteous act, we are made righteous. So God has found this righteous way to save unrighteous people. He provides Christ to stand in our place, giving us the righteousness that we need, taking the punishment that we deserve, our sin credited to Him, His righteousness credited to us by association with Christ in faith. We are constituted righteous, as righteous as He. And so it is what we’ve called so many times—this has been called this, I think since the very early centuries of the church—this great exchange. We give him our sin, he gives us his righteousness. We stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And God is righteous in justifying ungodly people. It’s a marvelous gospel.

Let’s take just a couple of minutes to look at a couple of other passages just so we see that very well. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. A marvelous passage on the cross of Christ and Paul resting in it and the great things that God has accomplished by putting Christ in our place and Christ taking our place. And it is summed up for us in verse 21, 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake, He [God] made Him [Christ] to be sin, who knew no sin.” That is just an amazing statement. He made Him, who knew no sin, to be made sin for us. Christ was made the great sinner. Isn’t that an awful thought? But here he tells us, for our sake he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. Why? So that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Again, the idea of the great exchange, joined to Jesus Christ in faith. What is ours becomes his, what is his becomes ours. And just as he was made sin, so we are made righteous. And so here we have another expression of this whole idea. We saw it in Romans chapter one, it is righteousness from God. In Romans chapter 4 it is righteousness imputed to us from Christ. In chapter 5 of Romans we are constituted righteous in Christ. And here it is not only that we have the righteousness, but we are identified with that righteousness. We have become the righteousness of God. Not only have I received it, but it’s such a tight union with Christ that just as he has become sin for us, we now have become righteous in Jesus Christ.

Now there’s a sense in which, and I’ve said this very often, there’s a sense in which we have to see then that the gospel is outside of us. That was Martin Luther’s expression, the reformer. He loved to press that the gospel is wholly outside of us. That is to say it has to do with something that has been done for us by someone else. Christ has done the work, and on account of what he has done, we are delivered. The gospel is outside of us in that sense. Now, there’s another sense, of course, in which it’s inside. It’s part of who we are, being joined to Christ in faith. We become righteous because he is righteous and we are joined to him. But still, at the end of the day, it is his righteousness that has made us righteous, not our own. It is his work, his merit, His suffering, His law-keeping, His righteousness that has become ours through faith.

Paul illustrates this in a marvelous way. Let’s just look at it quickly in Philippians chapter 3. In verses 4 and following, Paul speaks of the righteousness that he would have thought could have been credited for him in his standing before God. “For though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” So Paul says, I had it all, and everybody knew my reputation. I had the right heritage. I had the right track record. I was a rising star in Israel, and everyone knew that this is a model follower of God.

But then something happened, verse 7: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I’ve suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God that depends on faith.” That is then, Paul said, I saw all this that I thought would have been credited for me, of what I had accomplished and what I had done, but I saw that all that was inadequate, and so I turned on it all, refusing it all, in fact, estimating it as rubbish, so that instead by faith I would be found in Christ and now not have any righteousness of my own, but I would be found in Him having a righteousness which is from God.

And so now the language has changed just a little bit again. Not only has righteousness been imputed, and not only are we constituted righteous for being in Christ, and not only are we identified with that righteousness (2 Corinthians chapter 5), but now he says we have this righteousness. I don’t have a righteousness of my own; all that I might have considered righteous and credit for me, I’ve rejected it all. And instead I have a righteousness that is from God found in Jesus Christ. And that is my standing before God.

Now note here also that righteousness here is not contrasted with Paul’s sin. That’s not the contrast here. Now of course that’s an important point of the gospel. Because of my sin I need someone else’s righteousness to be given mine and I have Christ’s righteousness in place of my sin. But that’s not the point of contrast here. It is Paul’s righteousness that is put in contrast to Christ’s righteousness. My own righteousness had to be rejected. Whatever I thought would have been of value before God had to be rejected as refuse and instead take the righteousness of Christ.

We read of that in the Old Testament briefly. In Isaiah chapter 64, verse 6, familiar verse: “All of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” And you might have expected all of our sins are as filthy rags. But there it is: all of our righteousnesses, good as they may seem on some level, are unacceptable to God. And they have to be rejected. This is why in John chapter 16 the Holy Spirit is said to be sent to convict the world of sin and of righteousness. Interesting thing. Why would he convict the world of righteousness? Isn’t righteousness a good thing? Yeah, but the world thinks its own righteousness is so good and the Spirit of God has to come and expose the unworthiness and the unrighteousness of the best thing about us.

And the great glory of the gospel is that in Christ we have all of the righteousness that the righteous God can righteously require. Pardon the redundancy. Christ satisfied all the demands of divine justice, and righteousness now becomes ours through faith alone. And here the faith alone issue becomes so important. It is not that I have earned any standing. No, I’ve turned on all that. I’ve rejected it as refuse, and I have instead entrusted myself to Christ and I have in him the righteousness that God requires of me.

That is to say you may have a very religious background like the Apostle Paul did, you may be an upstanding citizen, you may be a good civilian in the society, you may contribute to society in many ways, you may participate in religion, you may even participate in a good religion, maybe even a right religion, you might have a right profession that you can sign. But all of that will not get you a standing with God. What we need is someone who can do better and someone who has done better. The only man who has ever impressed God is his son, the Lord Jesus. And Paul says, “I’ve learned to just toss away all of those, all of that which I would have thought was of value and turn in faith to Christ and have in him the righteousness that God requires of me.”

Joshua the High Priest

Do we have time to look at one other passage? Look at Zechariah chapter 3. This is the wonderful Old Testament picture of this theme. Here we have Joshua the high priest standing before God in judgment, and Satan standing there to accuse him. We need to see how this scene plays out. Zechariah chapter 3—that’s Old Testament, and it’s one of the minor prophets, so I’ll wait. If you’d like to start at Matthew and just go backwards a little ways, you’ll find it.

Zechariah chapter 3: “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, O Satan, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?'” Isn’t that a great expression? A brand plucked from the fire? “Now Joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments. The angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Remove the filthy garments from him.’ And to him he said [and here’s the interpretation], ‘Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.’ And I said, ‘Let them put a clean turban on his head.’ And they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.”

So here’s this great scene: Joshua the high priest standing in what appears to be a judgment scene before God, and Satan the accuser standing there also. And Satan accusing Joshua, “Look at all of his sins!” And the Lord rebukes Satan. The Lord rebukes Satan. He says, “Isn’t this what I’ve snatched from the burning?” And then we got this great scene where you take off those filthy garments and give him clean ones. And just in case you missed the point, he gives the interpretation: your iniquity is taken away and you’ve been given pure vestments. What a wonderful depiction of this great transaction of the righteousness of Christ given to us, clothing us as it were.

And of course the scene is picked up in the New Testament in terms of the priesthood of Christ. Paul speaks of the intercessory work of Christ in Romans chapter 5. We have it in Hebrews chapters 7 and following expounded in just marvelous ways: that Christ, on the basis of the work that he has done, stands before God the judge, pleading on our behalf, saying, “All that you require of them, I have given them.”

An Advocate with the Father

There’s one more passage, then, that we need to see in that regard: 1 John chapter 2. And it’s almost as though John was speaking, or was thinking, in terms of Zechariah chapter 3 here. 1 John chapter 2, beginning with verse 1: “My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” And just if you don’t get the point, he’s the propitiation for our sins. He’s made satisfaction to God’s justice.

And so John here writes, verse one: “I’m writing that you don’t sin, of course.” And he’s speaking of God’s grace, and he’s speaking of the holiness of God and the justice of God, and “I write this so you don’t sin.” But—and aren’t you glad for this next phrase, this next clause—”but if anyone does sin,” what? Well, you can try to do better, and maybe God will accept you. No, “but if anyone does sin,” recognize this: “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Not just Jesus Christ the loving. Jesus Christ the righteous, who stands in our place, who has taken our sin, who has rendered satisfaction to God in his propitiatory death, and who has become for us the righteousness that God requires of us.

The point here is that it is precisely in the face of our sinning that we must learn to use the gospel in our defense. We say it again: it’s precisely in the face of our sinning that we must learn to use the gospel in our own defense. On one level, you think, well, duh, of course. Substitute righteousness, that’s the whole point. We don’t have it, we sin, we need righteousness. But our point here is we must learn to use it in our own defense.

Now here’s how it works out in individual experience. God commands us not to sin. He writes the Bible and shows us all the provisions that we have in Christ and all of this great motivation from the gospel and everything else. Don’t sin. I’m not going to sin. I’m going to live for Christ. I’m going to be holy. And how long is it? And we failed again. And sometimes pretty significantly, again. And so doubts arise. Can I really be saved? And then we go to prepare a Sunday school lesson or sermon. The thought comes to mind, you know, I’m really not worthy to be preaching this sermon, to be teaching this lesson—like it’s a newsflash. Or you bow to pray and you’re reminded of those sins. I really have no right to be here.

And it’s in just those kinds of cases that we must learn to think in terms of the righteousness of God given, given, given to us in Jesus Christ. And we put on the breastplate of righteousness and we face our sins, face our sins squarely and say, “Yes, of course I don’t have a right to be here when I pray. That’s why I pray in Jesus’ name. Of course I don’t have worthiness to teach or preach this. It’s the glory of the gospel that I’m exalting in. Of course I have sinned. But I have someone who has stood in my place to answer for all of it. And I stand before God as righteous, as righteous as His Son.”

A Christian church has had a long history of describing even believers as miserable sinners. It’s written into our confessions. It’s written into our hymnology. We sing it. We’re miserable sinners. And it’s so prevalent in especially Reformed Christianity, but really in all of evangelical Christianity. It’s so prominent that Christianity has been criticized for it. It’s been a point of criticism from those who oppose us. And what they don’t appreciate is that at the same time, this very same tradition that has this long history of telling us that we are miserable sinners, at the very same time tells us we are righteous in Christ.

And both, both are important, and both are necessary. The gospel does not pretend, and it does not come to us and say, “Well, you’re really not that bad. You really haven’t sinned that much. You haven’t sinned enough for God to condemn you, actually.” The gospel makes no pretension like that. The gospel comes to us and says, “You are worse off than you ever thought you were.” But not to worry, we have a Savior, Jesus Christ the righteous, who has stood in our place and answered for all of our sin, and who has provided all the righteousness that God requires of us.

It was Luther’s great theme that we are semper iustus et peccator—at the same time, at the same time, always righteous and a sinner. We are both. In myself considered, in myself considered, I have no ground whatever. But the great glory of the gospel is that by faith I am joined to Jesus Christ, who is the righteousness that God requires of me.

A couple of scenes in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress that have been puzzling for many—was puzzling for me for a good time—reading through and trying to put them together. You read through the Pilgrim’s Progress, and again, I’ll give a plug here: if you haven’t read it, you gotta do it. You gotta do it. Sometime this side of heaven, you gotta do it. There’s that wonderful scene at the Wicket Gate, which certainly appears to be his conversion. Christ is the gate. He goes through, and it’s the point of the pilgrim’s conversion. But yet later, it’s later he goes to that hill. And he sees the cross, and looking up to the cross, the burden rolls off his back into the mouth of an empty tomb. So which is it?

And of course the answer then finally, we finally learn, is that if you read John Bunyan’s Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, which is his own spiritual autobiography, he’s simply reflecting in the Pilgrim’s Progress his own experience. He came to Christ, but he couldn’t quite grasp this notion that all that God requires of me is Christ. Until one day it’s pointed out to him and he realizes from reading the scriptures, “My righteousness is in heaven.” My righteousness that God requires, the righteousness that I have, is Christ. And that’s the scene of the hill, where Bunyan now coming to this realization that Christ is for him all that God requires of him, and finally, clearly grasping that, he looks to the cross, as it were, and that burden of guilt falls off.

That is the Christian’s defense. There is now, therefore, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. How could there be? If I’m in Christ, I have all the righteousness that is His. B.B. Warfield pointed out, and that was just a fascinating observation, that Paul does not write, “If anyone be in Christ, there is now, therefore, no more sinning.” Ah, great. But there is now, therefore, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

The Breastplate of Righteousness

And brothers and sisters, that means, if we’re going to wear the breastplate of righteousness, that means that we’ve got to learn to talk to ourselves. We’ve got to learn to preach the gospel to ourselves. We’ve got to learn to take the scriptures and its teaching of the gospel and bring it to bear personally. “Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.” And learn to take verses like Romans chapter eight, verse one—”there’s now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus”—and make them ours.

I hear the accuser roar of ills that I have done. I know them well and thousands more. Jehovah findeth none. Though the restless foe accuses, sins recounting like a flood, every charge our God refuses, Christ has answered with his blood.

This is what we saw last time in Psalm 51, where David makes his famous confession of sin. His sin with Bathsheba and he’s in this—he has this marvelous repentance before God over his sin. And asking for forgiveness, asking for atonement, he says, “Then will I sing aloud of your…” you remember it? Mercy? “Then will I sing aloud of your righteousness.”

This is open to all kinds of misunderstanding. This is open to all kinds of abuse. But brothers and sisters, if we’re going to learn how to use the breastplate of righteousness, we’ve got to see when we sin, yes, there must be confession, repentance of it. That’s David’s model. And yes, we must see that. But if we’re going to follow David’s model, we’ve also got to recognize that every occasion of sin becomes, at the end of the day, an occasion to sing and to exalt in the righteousness of Christ given to us.

I realize it’s open to all kinds of misunderstanding and abuse, but isn’t that the gospel? When we sin, it is our tendency to put ourselves through what I call Protestant Purgatory. You know what it is. We don’t believe in purgatory. We think that’s heresy, and of course it is. We don’t need to be purged of our sin. That’s what Christ did. We don’t need a purgatory to be cleansed. We understand all of that. And yet, when we sin, the temptation and the tendency is to put ourselves through some kind of a morbid time of mourning until finally we’ve mourned deeply enough and mourned long enough and well enough until finally we can enjoy salvation again. And we think too much in terms of what we have done instead of in terms of the righteousness of Christ that has been given to us—that we have in Jesus Christ a breastplate that is wound proof.

And I have a standing before God that is grounded in nothing whatever to do about me. I have a standing before God that is grounded wholly in what Christ has done. We sing about grace. We say we believe in grace. We talk about grace. But we think too much in terms of our own merit.

I remember once when I was in junior high school. I was 13. And I was riding on a motorcycle with my dad. He was driving. My dad, as you know, is a pastor. My brother was on a motorcycle behind us. We’re out for a ride one Saturday. And we’re driving down this road, a major road in the city, a four-lane road. And we’re driving down, and a guy pulls out from our right out of a gas station right in front of us. My dad turned to the right. We weren’t going to make it. He laid the bike down. We slid under the back end of the car. Thankfully, we had helmets. That was the law. And we banged our heads, and we got banged up. And dad was walking with a cane for a couple of weeks. And I was bruised and battered, but we’re all right.

After it’s all over, of course, the police came to take care of the report. And my dad is sitting in the car with the guy who was driving the car, sitting in the police car, and they’re giving their reports. And the guy who hit us, the guy who pulled out in front of us, said that he had just gotten a commendation from the insurance company of 20 years of safe driving and no accidents. And then, here’s what bothered him. Here’s what bothered him: “I get in a wreck, and it’s a preacher that I pull out in front of.” And then he says, “And I go to church every Sunday.”

And you know, we tend to think just like that, don’t we? If I’ve been good, and I’ve been behaved, and I’m a joyful Christian, and I can pray, and I can go to God, and I can study my lesson, and I can give it, if I’ve been good. And when I’ve not been good, I don’t know if I can pray. I’ve got no right to be here. And we ground our confidence too often—ultimately, we ground our confidence and our assurance in ourselves.

But this is how we put on the breastplate of righteousness. We meditate deeply on the gospel. We think long and hard on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We think long and hard on the value and the glory and the beauty of Jesus Christ, so that in our heart of hearts, in our heart of hearts, Christ truly becomes our only hope. And we say, from our heart of hearts, we say, “Christ is all I need.”

Some of you remember that chorus? We used to sing it years ago. Love it. “Christ is all I need.” That’s the whole song. Christ is all I need. It’s repeated six times, but that’s the whole song. Christ is all I need. Christ is all I need. All, all I need. Christ is all I need. Christ is all I need. All, all I need. And after six times, you start to get the point!

And Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within. Upward I look and see Him there who made an end of all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my guilty soul is counted free. And God the just—mark it—God the just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me.

There is without doubt no more terrifying thought than the thought of standing before God, the just, in judgment. And it is in that day still we will have this same hope, the breastplate of righteousness. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God who justifies. It is Christ who has died. And all of our hope is in Him. When the Apostle Paul tells us, put on the breastplate of righteousness, this is what we must do. Think deeply and long on the glory of the gospel in Christ until finally our whole hope from our hearts is truly in Him alone. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, we thank you for the great righteousness of Christ that has made ours. Lord, if there’s anyone here who is still depending on his own righteousness, thinking he will make it, oh Lord, open his heart and convict him of his righteousness. For all of us who have been in faith come to Christ, give us increasingly a joy that comes from knowing that we have in Christ all that you require of us. We pray in his name. Amen.