Eph. 6:14, Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.
Eph. 6:14 says, Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.
After we are being empowered by God with the might of His strength (Eph. 6:10-11), we need to realize that our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, the authorities, the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces in the heavenlies (v. 12).
For the spiritual warfare we as the Body of Christ need to take up the whole armor of God that we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand (v. 13). What is the whole armor of God? It is Christ in many aspects experienced by us, enjoyed by us, and being wrought into us to become our enjoyment and living.
First, we gird our loins with the truth. This doesn’t mean only that we need to know the truth and be constituted with the truth in the Word of God but it means that we are learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus – we experience Christ and live Christ today, and this Christ lived out of us girds our loins, strengthening our whole being to withstand the enemy.
To put on the breastplate of righteousness is to take Christ as our righteousness subjectively, applying His precious blood to our conscience, and overcoming the enemy not because of our merits but because of the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 12:11).
How wonderful it is that Christ can be our experience subjectively (as the reality, the truth, that girds our loins) and His blood covers us from the enemy (as our subjective righteousness, the breastplate)!
Girding our Loins with the Truth
What does it mean to “gird our loins with the truth”? When we gird our loins, our entire being is strengthened. Our whole being needs to be strengthened with the truth. And this truth is not merely the objective truth in the Word, but it is the reality (see Eph. 4:15, 21, 24, 25). Truth is God in Christ as reality in our living.
As Eph. 4:20-21 tells us, we are learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus – we are learning Christ according to the actual condition of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels. If we read the Gospels, we see that Jesus did everything in God, with God, by God, through God, and for God. God was in His living, and He was one with God – Jesus lived a God-man living. This living is being reproduced in all the members of His Body.
We see this also in the apostle Paul’s living – for him, to live was Christ (Phil. 1:19-21). Because Paul’s living was conformed to the pattern of Christ, he had the strength to face the opposition, persecution, and rejection, and he could more than overcome through Jesus Christ in all the adverse circumstances.
If we don’t live Christ, if we don’t have a daily walk in God and with God, we are not strong to stand in the spiritual battle. But if we read the Bible, pray-read the word of God, and seek the Lord to experience Him according to the truth, we will learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus and our whole being will be strengthened to stand! Christ lives in us today, and He makes us one with God.
“The truth with which we are girded for spiritual warfare is actually the very Christ we experience” (Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 64).
God doesn’t want us to somehow pick ourselves up, brace ourselves, and hold on for what’s coming against us…God wants us to experience Christ and know Christ subjectively so that we may learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus.
Our Christian living with all its activities and things we do should be in God, with God, by God, through God, and for God. Then, we will have our loins girded and we will be able to stand.
Lord Jesus, we want to know You and experience You subjectively. May we learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus. Lord, in all our daily living we want to be with You, live by You and in You, so that Christ may be lived out of us. Give us the experiences we need that we may live Christ and magnify Christ in our living. Lord Jesus, be lived out in us as our reality.
Put on the Breastplate of Righteousness
photo credit: Instagram – the precious blood of Christ.
The breast needs to be covered in battle. What covers our conscience before God and Satan is Christ Himself as our righteousness – Christ with His precious blood.
In Jer. 23:6 it was prophesied that Christ will be Jehovah our righteousness, and today God made Christ our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30). We need to daily put on Christ as the breastplate of righteousness. Satan is our accuser, and he can trouble our conscience if we don’t apply the blood.
If we have a problem with God or with any man, our conscience has an offense and Satan has a way to accuse us. If we don’t deal with the offenses in our conscience, we have “holes in our conscience” and our faith and boldness leaks out. But when we apply the blood of the Lamb through confessing our sins (1 John 1:7), the Lord is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from any unrighteousness.
This means that we are cleansed from EVERY sin – not every other sin. Whether it is a great sin or a small sin, a recollected sin or a forgotten sin, a visible sin or an invisible sin, a sin we think can be forgiven or a sin we think it can’t be forgiven, as long as we confess our sins and apply the blood of Christ, we are forgiven and cleansed by God!
We need to apply the blood and purify our conscience to serve the living God (Heb. 9:14), and have our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience (Heb. 10:22). At all times, we need to exercise ourselves to have a conscience without offense toward God and man (Acts 24:16).
This is the way we are protected from the enemy, and we even overcome him – because of the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 12:11). We overcome the enemy in the spiritual battle not because of our merits or lack of failures, but because of the blood of the Lamb.
The overcomers know the power and value of the blood of Christ, and they know how to apply the blood. When we apply the blood of Christ, we put on the breastplate of righteousness – Christ covers us as our righteousness. Christ Himself covers our conscience and guards us from Satan’s accusations.
We are not covered by our own righteousness but by Christ as our righteousness. Under the covering of His blood, as the blood of Christ cleanses us, He becomes our righteousness covering our conscience. Praise the Lord!
Lord Jesus, cover us with Yourself as our righteousness. We hide under Your precious and prevailing blood. We have no merit in ourselves, but we come to You and we stand before You on Your blood. Lord, apply Your blood to our being according to Your evaluation of it. Satan, we overcome you not by our merit but by the prevailing blood of the Lamb! The Lord Jesus is our breastplate as our righteousness. Hallelujah!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians (msg. 64), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Entering into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life to Arrive at a Full-Grown Man for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose, week 5 / msg 5, The Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life (4) – Spiritual Warfare.
- Further reading: recommending brother Witness Lee’s, Perfecting Training (chs. 14-15).
- Hymns on this topic:
# God’s Christ, who is my righteousness… / Bold can I stand in every way, / For who aught to my charge shall lay? / Fully, by Thee, absolved I am / From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.
# We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender; / We go not forth alone against the foe; / Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender. / We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.
# By the blood of Christ the Victor / Overcome the enemy: / By its virtue and its power / You will win the victory. / By the blood of Christ the Victor / Counter him who doth accuse; / By the blood for you defending / All the sland’rer’s blame refuse.
