Sunday, May 27, 2018 – Eph 6:17,
The Armor of God, Pt. 23,
The Helmet of Salvation, Pt. 2.
Past and Present Salvation.
Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard
Stand in Warfare –
Eph 6:10-20.
3. The Equipment, vs. 13-17.
Vs. 17, “And take THE
HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
In His first advent, the Lord
demonstrated the armor of God we now have the privilege and opportunity to put
on, Isa 59:17. He wore the Armor of
God to accomplish salvation for the entire world.
Isa 59:17, “He (the Lord) put on righteousness like a
breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of
vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.”
What ultimately protects believers
is that God has already rescued us from bondage to the prince of the power of
the air and seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms, Cf. Eph 2:1-10. Thinking of our salvation
in terms of a fait accompli, we gain confidence in our everyday walk in Christ.
Christ, in providing salvation, has already defeated Satan, sin, and death.
Then, by giving us this salvation, we have been given the victory over Satan,
sin, and death. By appropriating this salvation as our helmet, we have every
reason to be confident of the outcome of the battle, and every confidence that
we can win the tactical battles within our soul. When we put on the helmet of
salvation, we cannot lose the tactical battle for our thinking, we cannot sin, 1 John 3:1-11.
What adorns and protects the
Christian, which enables him to hold up his head with confidence and joy, is
the fact that he is saved. He is one of the redeemed, translated from the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. If we were still under
condemnation, if still estranged from God, a foreigner, and alien, without God
and without Christ, we could have no courage to enter into this conflict. Yet,
it is because we are a fellow citizen of the saints, a child of God, a partaker
of the salvation of the Gospel, that we can face even the most potent enemies
(temptations) with confidence, knowing that we will become more than a
conqueror “through Him that loved us,”
Rom 8:37.
As such, we are to put on the hope
that we have in Christ. To resist the Devil, we must be assured of our eternal
salvation. We need to go to God daily and be reminded of the great object of
our faith: Christ. Our hope is in Him. If you are trusting in Him, then do not
listen to the Devil’s lies. Say to the evil one, “I have been saved from sin’s
penalty, I am being saved from sin’s power, and I will one day be saved from
sin’s presence.” Say to him, “I am alive with Christ, redeemed, forgiven,
reconciled, raised with Christ, and seated with Christ.” Put your helmet on,
and do not let the evil one get to your head.
Titus 2:11-14, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing
salvation to all men, 12instructing us to deny ungodliness and
worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
13looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our
great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; 14who gave Himself for us, in order
that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people
for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”
The putting on of the helmet means
trusting in your given salvation, and as a result committing yourself fully to
the commencing struggle against the sinister powers which seek to prevent
salvation.
The general doctrine of salvation
includes the following lesser doctrines: substitution, redemption,
reconciliation, propitiation, conviction, calling, election, predestination,
sovereignty, free will, grace, repentance, faith, regeneration, forgiveness,
justification, sanctification, preservation, and glorification.
Salvation refers to the estate of
one who has been made whole, which is both an active process and its resultant effect,
both a verb (save) and a noun (salvation). Therefore, salvation is past,
present, and future. The one who is in Christ has been saved, is being saved,
and will be saved. Salvation has reference to the believer’s past, present, and
future. The Biblical images we see for salvation describe what God has done, is
doing, and will do on behalf of men and women who suffer from the misery,
mortality, and meaninglessness of the human condition inside Satan’s cosmic
system.
a. The Past Tense: When we hear the word “salvation,” this is the
aspect that immediately comes to mind and sometimes is the only aspect, except
maybe for the last aspect - the future tense. “Past tense” salvation is the one
you received at the moment that you believed in Jesus Christ as your Lord and
Savior. This salvation is the release of the guilty from the penalty of sin,
which is wholly accomplished for all in the work of Jesus Christ upon the
Cross. This salvation occurs at the time when anyone believes in Jesus Christ
as their Savior, Luke 7: 50; 1 Cor 1:18;
2 Cor 2:15; 2 Tim 1:9. That Jesus accomplished salvation is a past fact:
His death delivered us once and for all from the penalty and power of sin, John 19:30; Rom 5:8; Titus 3:5-7; Heb 9:12.
Justification, redemption, reconciliation, etc., are faits accomplis.
b. The Present Tense, This is the most neglected aspect of
salvation in the Bible. Because most Christians think they are saved in the
Past, and will be with God forever in the future, they do not think about this
aspect of salvation as being very important, or they take it for granted, or
they neglect it altogether.
This salvation is an ongoing and
progressive present experience that differs from our past salvation or
conversion at the moment we believed in Jesus Christ. Those who have died with
Jesus have also been raised with Him, and so share his life and his Spirit. The
believer’s walk in salvation is living the life of being saved; living the life
of salvation.
Though salvation is a past fact,
it must not be “neglected” in the present, Heb
2:3, but rather be “held fast,” 1
Cor 15:2, and humbly “worked out,” Phil
2:12.
Heb 2:3, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a
salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed
to us by those who heard.”
1 Cor 15:2, “By which also you are saved, if you hold fast
the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.”
Phil 2:12-13, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out
your salvation with fear and trembling. 13for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to
work for His good pleasure.”
That is why Christians are
sometimes described in the NT as “those who are being saved,” Acts 2:47; 1 Cor 1:18; 2 Cor 2:15. This
means that their “past salvation” has released them from the power of sin, and
salvation is being accomplished now in those who exercise faith, John 17:17; Rom 6:14; 8:2; Gal 5:16; Phil
2:12-13.
We have been freed from sin and the
hold of Satan over us from the moment we believed that Jesus was our Savior.
Now, we need to walk in that freedom. Not a freedom to sin, but a freedom not
to sin. Yet, our present salvation is much more than not sinning, although
without that we
would not be able to have a present salvation. Freedom from sinning means
freedom to know and walk with God presently! It means to live by His great plan
and desire for your life. To walk in our present salvation is to glorify Him,
as we keep His mandates for our lives out of love for Him, as we love and serve
one another, Rom 6:5-14; 1 John 2:1-6;
5:1-5, 12-13; 1 Peter 2:2.
2 Cor 2:15, “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among
those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”
1 John 5:12, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does
not have the Son of God does not have the life.”
1 Peter 2:2, “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk
of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.”
The “present tense” Salvation is
the message of Titus 2:11-14.
Titus 2:11-14, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing
salvation to all men, 12instructing us to deny ungodliness and
worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
13looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our
great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; 14who gave Himself for us, in
order that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a
people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”
In our next lesson, we will learn
about our “Future Tense” Salvation.
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