EPHESIANS 6: 14-15
THE SPIRITUAL WARRIOR’S DIVINE ARMOR
[Colossians 3:15- 17 / ]
Satan opposes believers in many ways, some of them direct and
obvious and other methods are indirect and subtle. He is too deceitfully powerful and ferocious for any of us. The promise of Scripture is that in the Lord Jesus Christ we can become victors instead of victims. Through Christ we can stand up against Satan, hold our ground and resist him successfully.
Paul employed the imagery of a soldier equipped for battle to help us understand that we are in a war. He asserts that the Christian through using the whole armor of God and the practice of unceasing prayer finds not only protection but victory in this spiritual conflict. Satan loses the battle with us when we learn to stand our ground against him in the grace and strength provided by our Savior.
This morning were going to learn to appropriate God's ongoing protection for daily living (CIT). God's given us some armor. You need to know how to put it on and how to use it.
Paul uses the armor to represent something that is spiritually real. To understand the reality we must look beyond the figure. So let’s examine the resources at the Christian’s disposal which insure ultimate victory if used correctly. The pieces of the Christian warrior’s armor are listed in various places but are concentrated in Ephesians 6:13-18. By analyzing each piece we will gain a greater understanding of the armor’s purpose and usefulness.
1st, THE BELT OF TRUTH
The Bible has just commanded us to "Take up the full armor of God." It is an urgent command of our General, the Lord Jesus Christ, to all of His children. Everything you need to defeat the enemy, He is putting at your feet. You though are responsible for grasping it and wearing it. Your appropriation of your spiritual armor is a prerequisite to standing firm and fearless against demonic attack.
Paul lived in a different day, so he’ll use the picture of a Roman soldier to depict our Spiritual Armor. If it was a Marine or a soldier it would be a certain kinda rifle, flap jacket, helmet, backpack, etc. God is drawing on what they're familiar with so they understand and remember the kind of protection necessary to stand firm.
Today we’re going to unpack the first three pieces of our spiritual armor. These specific pieces of real spiritual armor believers must “put on” themselves.
The first piece of spiritual armor we must put on is God’s Truth found in verse 14. “Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth.”
The first thing a Roman soldier would do when he went on duty was to put on his belt. If he was to be active in his duty sation he would tuck his tunic into his belt. To gird up your loins is sort of a weird expression. What it really means is to lift up and tuck your tunic into your belt, so your ready for action, ready for battle.
So the spiritual battle gear listed first is the belt of truth. Jesus said “I AM... the truth” (John 10:6). Soldiers in God’s army must be faithful to Him and to His truth. As children of the light we must love and live the truth. Our lives must be free of any falseness or hypocrisy. We will not be successful in resisting and overcoming the evil of Satan if we are hypocritical or dishonest.
Jesus lives in you, therefore the truth is in you. Yet you are not consistently going to choose the way of truth if you do not abide in the Word of truth, the Holy Scriptures (John 15:10). Christ prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth, Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17). The truth is the only authority that God will support. The Bible is the truth (2 Timothy 2:15, James 1:18). We must accept the Bible as the truth, as the only and final authority, without error as originally written.
Satan is the promoter of lies (John 8:44), and he uses them so that we might fall under the power of his kingdom. The believer that is controlled by the Holy Spirit actively embraces Jesus and His Word of truth as His protection against the deception of the devil. We prepare our self for battle by taking hold of God’s truth and living it out in our daily life.
[The loins represent the lodging place of strong desires and longings. We gird our loins with truth so that our desires and longings, both material and sensual, are protected, cleansed, and controlled by God’s truth.]
[The Roman soldier would chinch his belt in order to keep the breastplate in place and to support the back and to protect the kidneys. The belt was placed over the tunic and the ends of the tunic were tucked under it for greater mobility. The sword was also attached to the belt to keep it close to the body.]
The wide, thick leather belt was not an offensive weapon but provided support and protection. When we practice the truth daily, its support and protection cause us to love it more and more until we live with such transparent honesty that we give no place for the enemy. God’s truth keeps us from being deceived and from deceiving our self. Living in the truth frees us from the destructive debilitating lies of Satan. If we do not believe his lies, we are not under his power and he does not have an open door to do damage to us or through us. Girding our self with God’s truth will not prevent our being attacked by lies or liars but will protect the believer from being destroyed by them.
2ND, THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
A most important piece of divine armor for God’s warrior is righteousness. Thus we’re commanded to “Put on the breastplate of righteousness,”
Another essential part of a soldier’s equipment was the breastplate. It was made of metal plates, chain links or shaped metal. A full breastplate covered the torso from the neck to below the waist both front and back. It protected vital organs like the heart, the lungs and the intestines. The Jews called the stomach cavity the entrails or bowels. The entrails symbolized the emotions because of the way the stress and strains of our emotions affect the digestive organs. The heart frequently represented our affections and/or will, and was thought of as the seat of our intellect. Even the intentions and attitudes of the temperament or disposition were thought to lodge in the heart. In order to protect these vital areas of life we need to put on the breastplate of righteousness.
On the day of our salvation, we surrendered our life to the Lord Jesus Christ. On that day God justified us by placing the righteousness, or the sinlessness, of Jesus Christ to our account. The justification of Jesus was imputed (Philippians 3:9) to us as a legal act by the Father. Positional or imputed righteousness can occur because God placed all our sins upon Christ and charged Him with them and then punished Him for them on the cross. He “who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). This is the reason God turned His back on His Son [and Jesus experienced being forsaken (Matthew 27:46)]. God also takes the righteousness of Christ and accounts it, or applies it to the account of repentant sinners (Romans 3:24-25; 4:25; 5:18, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 John 3:5). Justification is God’s act of grace when He declares the believer just by the acts and merits of Jesus Christ. Our position before the Judge of the Universe is one of vindication in the shed blood of Jesus. Our refuge against the attacks of the accuser of the brethren is that we are justified by the imparted or imputed righteousness of Christ. This justification is an unalterable historical event based on Christ’s death for us on the cross.
This righteousness of Christ is not only over us it is in us also, because Jesus who is our righteousness lives within each person who has surrendered to His lordship. As we believe right, think right, and behave right we will become more and more experientially or conditionally righteous or sanctified.
As the righteousness of Christ is properly worn and properly experienced it produces holy living and God’s righteousness protects the spiritual warrior’s life. Even though we are positionally saints, it does not mean we are conditionally or completely sanctified (Philippians 1:6) and will not be until the return of Jesus (1 John 3:2-3). In order to develop relational righteousness, santification or personal holiness we must win the internal war to follow God’s will and way. The battle to develop experiential or personal holiness is an intense daily fight. Satan looks for a weak area in the believer’s spiritual armor so that he might exploit it. Without this personal sanctification vital areas in the believer’s life will be vulnerable (Ephesians 4:24).
If there are problems in the vital areas of the emotions, priorities, attitudes or actions, there is a problem properly putting on the breastplate of righteousness. If your ambitions, decencies, loyalties, or affections are incorrect, you are vulnerable and the enemy has entrance into your life to detour, exploit, and destroy.
The process of sanctification occurs thought daily obedience to the revealed will of God for your life. God has provided the breastplate of righteousness to protect the vital areas of our spiritual life, but we are responsible to dress our selves in the righteousness of Christ by our own desire for personal sanctification. In the Christian’s battle against enemy forces, righteousness or integrity (Proverb 28:6,18) and a pure life (Titus 2:7) are armor for keeping an enemy spear from hitting you directly in the heart of your life.
3rd, SHOD IN THE GOSPEL OF PEACE
The third piece in verse 15 deals with the Christian warriors feet. “Having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”
The shoes of the Roman soldier were thick, reinforced, and had nail studded sole. The metal nail protrusions helped give the warrior greater stability and quickness of movement. The shoes covered from the middle of the leg down with wide strips of leather that securely fixed the shoes to the soles of feet. They were fitted securely to facilitate the rapid, non-slip foot movement necessary for hand-to-hand combat.
The ability to stand firm without slipping or falling was a great help in battle. The soldier who lost his footing could lose his life. The Christian with his feet firmly planted in the Gospel of peace will have confidence and assurance when he confronts the enemy of the abundant life. To attempt to stand against the enemy on any other ground than the Gospel of Jesus Christ is precarious footing sure to cause defeat.
The Gospel is the way of peace with God because it is from God. When you receive Christ you are united with the Prince of Peace. To walk after the way of Christ is to put on the sandals of peace. “He is our peace” (Ephesians 2:13-14a). Every true Christian has positional peace with God both now and always (Romans 5:1-2). This peace is objective and legal, for we have been justified by God through Jesus Christ and no longer an enemy to Him. God changed our position from enemies to friends and adopted sons when we placed our faith in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:9, 10). No one or nothing can change this reconcilatory positional peace with God through His Gospel. The Christian can lose his relational peace though by not daily walking in the straight and narrow path of the Gospel.
The peace of Christ must rule in our hearts if we are going to experience the conditional peace of God which surpasses all comprehension which guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:5-8). This peace does not depend on your circumstances but on your relationship with Jesus Christ. When you permit the Word of God to reign in your life more abundantly, you will have such peace (Colossians 3:15, 16). When we walk in submission to Christ, we walk in obedience and we walk in His peace.
A soldier must be trained and prepared for God’s work and the Christian soldier must be trained and prepared in this most important ministry of sharing the good news of peace with God to others. We call it “the Gospel of peace” because it can destroy the hostility that resides in man and replace it with the tranquility of God (Isaiah 52:7). Each day we must be ready to share the Gospel of peace. First, as ambassadors of peace (2 Corinthians 5:17-21) we share the good news with those who do not personally know Jesus so that they can establish relationship with Him and walk in His path of peace. There are persons and families living in the agony of anger, hate, fear, and mistrust. God wants to establish His reign of forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace there.
Second, those who walk in the peace of God reach out to restore peace in relationships among the brethren. The accuser of the brethren practices the old proverb “divide and conquer.” The infiltrator Satan provokes dissension, distortions, distrust, and disloyalty in the army of God. His demons uses rumors, cursings, misinterpretation of facts, and suppositions to separate within the local church. Those who walk in the peace of the Gospel calm the roar of the lion in situations and lives by applying the Word of peace (Colossians 3:15, 16).
Realize, you can not give to others what you do not possess yourself. If you live in the peace of profound fellowship with Jesus you can jump into a spiritual attack with settled determination and calm security of your position. A soldier who cannot maintain his footing is useless in battle. The Christian who does not walk in the Gospel of peace is useless to God.
The Christian soldier fights to establish the peace of God, not to make war. He spiritually fights against the malignant in order to bring the peace of God to persons and situations. Satan is the principal cause of agitation and division in the world. The peacemaking Christian makes peace by opposing Satan and his works and by promoting reconciliation and fellowship with God and man. The peacemakers can claim the promise that “the God of Peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20).
CONCLUSION
Although the believer is assured of victory in this war because of Jesus’ victory on the Cross, we must engage in the spiritual struggle for daily victory until our Lord returns. You may walk away from the fight, but Satan will not. He will constantly defeat all who are not equipped with the spiritual armor of God. We need supernatural armor to simply stand our ground against Satan. God has provided us His Holy Spirit and His spiritual armor that we might stand in the strength of His might. The question is, are you? And if not, will you?
Renew your commitment to stand with Him as we stand and sing our song of initiation.
