When you go to the hospital, one of the first things they will do is send a nurse in to check your pulse and blood pressure. These measurements are called your “vitals,” because they are vital to your life. They measure the effectiveness of your heart and lungs. Without decent vital signs, you’re probably going to be dead. You can live without several of your body parts, but what happens in your chest determines if you live or die.
Deer hunters also understand this—a gut shot may maim the deer and eventually kill it, but a well-placed chest shot may drop it in its tracks.
When ancient soldiers went to battle, they would put on a breastplate. I’m sure wearing something heavy on your chest can be cumbersome at first, but it is worth it to protect your heart.
As we’ve seen, our enemy is constantly throwing darts at us, trying to destroy us. If he can hit us in our heart, he wins. Fortunately, God has given us a crucial piece of armor to protect our hearts: the breastplate of righteousness.
To understand the breastplate of righteousness, we first have to understand what righteousness is. There are two types of righteousness.
The first type of righteousness is external righteousness: what we do. Anyone can have external righteousness—we just have to obey the rules that are put on us. That’s what laws attempt to do: force upon us external righteousness so we can function as a society.
The problem with external righteousness is that it doesn’t show what’s on the inside. In other words, we can act righteous but not be righteous.
The second type of righteousness is internal righteousness: who we are.
Let’s do a little trivia. Who is the girl in this picture?
Some of you younger people will say, “I have no idea.” Some of you older folks will say, “That’s Laura Ingalls!” Others of you will catch on and say, “No, that’s not Laura Ingalls. It’s Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls.” And you’d be right. For many of you who watched Little House on the Prairie, this is your image of Laura Ingalls.
Good actors can fool you into thinking they are someone else, but internally, they are not that person. That’s the difference between external and internal righteousness. External righteousness is what others think we are; internal righteousness is what we really are on the inside.
So, how do we put on the breastplate of internal righteousness?
The answer is very simple—so simple that we often miss it. Even Abraham, the great father of the Israelites, fell short when it came to external righteousness. However, he became internally righteous, but not through his actions. Romans 4:3 says that “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” The key to internal righteousness is faith.
Remember that the enemy wants to destroy you. One good shot to the heart will do it. So, protect your heart.
First, become internally righteous by faith—which is trust in Jesus Christ. He makes you right on the inside. Then, work at becoming externally righteous by doing what is right. Set up parameters for yourself—boundaries that you will not cross. You may have to cut off a friendship, get rid of a hobby, or re-arrange your schedule. While others may ridicule you for being legalistic or a prude, you are trying to protect your heart. Don’t ever let anyone talk you out of that.
