Thursday, June 28, 2018 – Eph 6:14-17
Summary & Conclusion to the Full Armor of God, Pt. 2
Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard
Stand in Warfare –
Eph 6:10-20.
Summary and Conclusion to The Full Armor of God, vs. 14-17,
Pt. 2.
What about the soldier’s back?
Although the breastplate had to be wrapped around the backside, Paul does not
make note of any equipment for the backside. It is interesting that in the book
“Pilgrim’s Progress,” Bunyan says because the Christian has no armor for his
back, the best option is to hold his ground. And when we put on the armor of
God, we too can hold our ground against the evil one, as we advance spiritually
in our own lives and advance the gospel into the world, (Satan’s cosmic system).
But, if we turn our back to the enemy and run away in fear, worry, anxiety;
sin, we are most vulnerable. Therefore, when we face our enemy, (temptations in
our soul), head on with the armor of God, we are able to hold our ground,
defeat the enemy, and win the victory of the battle over our thoughts, mind,
heart, and soul, experientially.
As we have noted at the beginning
of this study, these virtues connected with the Armor of God have previously
been mentioned by Paul in the Book of Ephesians.
1. Truth, Eph 1:13; 4:15, 21, 24-25; 5:9.
2. Righteousness, Eph 4:24; 5:9.
3. The Gospel, Eph 1:13; 3:6; of Peace, Eph 2:14-18; 4:3; 6:19, 23.
4. Faith, Eph 1:13, 15, 19; 2:8; 3:12, 17; 4:5, 13; 6:23.
5. Salvation, Eph 1:13; 2:5, 8; 5:23.
6. The Word of God, Eph 1:13; 5:26.
Likewise, the OT speaks about “The
Armor of God,” as most commentators observe, the clearest allusion made by Eph 6 is to Isa 59:17, where the Lord God Himself puts on His battle garments
including righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation. The Lord
has a sword in Isa 34:5-6; 66:16,
and the coming Christ has righteousness and faithfulness, (EMUNAH, also meaning
“truth”), as a belt around his waist, Isa
11:5, and with a mouth like a sharpened sword (CHADH CHEREV), Isa 49:2. Looking at the wider OT, we
find that the Lord is often found giving Himself to His people as their shield,
Gen 15:1; 20 times in the Psalms,
even as their shield and sword together, Deut
33:29.
Gen 15:1, “After these things the word of the LORD came to
Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your
reward shall be very great".”
Psa 3:3, “But You, O LORD, are a shield about me, My glory,
and the One who lifts my head.”
Psa 5:12, “For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O
LORD, You surround him with favor as with a shield.”
Psa 18:2, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my
deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my
salvation, my stronghold.”
Psa 18:30, “As for God, His way is blameless; The word of
the LORD is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.”
Psa 28:7, “The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart
trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, and with my song I
shall thank Him. “
Psa 33:20, “Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and
our shield.”
Deut 33:29, “Blessed are you, O Israel; who is like you, a
people saved by the LORD, who is the shield of your help and the sword of your
majesty! So your enemies will cringe before you, and you will tread upon their
high places.”
As such, we see that the “whole
armor of God” is a picture of Jesus Christ. And, the important aspect of this
armor that we have available to us is that the pieces of equipment are all
Christ-like virtues that we are to take on as we grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For example:
He is The Truth, John 14:6,
He is our righteousness, 1 Cor 1:30; 2 Cor 5:21.
He is our Gospel of peace, Mark 1:1; Eph 2:14.
His faithfulness makes possible
our faith, Gal 2:20.
He is our salvation, Luke 2:30.
He is the Word of God, John 1:1, 14.
And because of our union with
Jesus Christ from the moment of our conversion, this means that when we
believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we received the armor of Christ. Yet,
at that time we did not know how to use it. Therefore, God has given us instruction
in both the OT and NT regarding how to put it on and use it.
Paul told the Romans what to do
with the armor, Rom 13:11-14: wake
up, cast off sin, and put on the armor of light. We do this by putting “on the
Lord Jesus Christ.” By faith we put on the armor and trust God for the victory
by our daily appropriation of it; His Word, the mind of Jesus Christ, cf. 1 Cor 2:16.
1 Peter 1:13 (NKJV), “Therefore gird up the loins of your
mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought
to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
The Armor of God is Christ the
LORD. William Gurnall who wrote 1700 pages on the armor of God put the matter
very succinctly when he commented: “By
armor is meant Christ.” Paul’s whole letter to the Ephesians, as all his
letters, has been dominated by Christ. This is in continuity with the OT where
we find that the LORD is our salvation and our righteousness, Ex 15:2; Jer 23:6.
Ex 15:2, “The LORD is my strength and song, and He has
become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and
I will exalt Him.”
Jer 23:6, “In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will
dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, 'The LORD our
righteousness'.”
It is perfectly consistent with
Paul’s thought that we should put on Christ and clothe ourselves in him, Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27.
Gal 3:27, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves (positionally) with Christ.”
Rom 13:14, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ (experientially), and make no
provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”
As we have seen in our study of
these passages, the R.oman Soldier analogy tends slightly towards seeing the
pieces of armor as passive instruments with the soldier (you and I) as the
active fighter. In contrast, if we see the Armor of God as the OT armor of God,
(The YHWH / Lord Himself, Christ Jesus the Lord), then it is closer to the mark
to see us as the passive ones and God as the active One. He has given and is
giving us His armor. He is giving us Himself. He is surrounding us as a hedge,
wall of fire, a fortress, and a shield. Yes, we have seen the imperative moods
in these passages to “put on” and “take up” and “stand firm.” We do need to
walk in the calling we have received, Eph
4:1. But, it is first and foremost something received, a gift, the gift of
Jesus Christ in our lives because of God’s greater grace for the Christian.
Therefore, do not turn Ephesians 6 into a series of things for
us to do. That is “fig leaf” armor. We need the armor of God. We need to put on
Christ and glory in His sovereign grace.
“According to Ephesians
6 believers need to be armed with God’s own righteousness if they are to be
protected against the blows and arrows of their spiritual enemies… The position
of power and authority with Christ to which they have been raised is greater
than that possessed by their mighty supernatural enemies. As they appropriate
this salvation more fully and live in the light of their status in Christ, they
have every reason to be confident of the outcome of the battle.” (Peter O’Brien, The Pillar New Testament Commentary.)
When, King David put off his armor
and returned to his palace, he was in greater danger than when he was on the
battlefield, 2 Sam 11, (Operation
Bathsheba). As it notes in vs. 1, “Then
it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, …. But
David stayed at Jerusalem.” The point is, we are never out of the reach of
Satan’s schemes, so we must always be prepared to stand firm and never be
without the whole Armor of God.
Therefore, what has been written
and taught from the illustration of the Roman soldier is spiritually true and
edifying. Let us rejoice in what Ephesians
6 is clearly saying about the Divine armor that we, the Church, have been
given and let us put on Christ. The soldier is to dress, and to stand, and to
handle shield and sword against the world-rulers of this darkness and their
leader, the Devil himself. And, as we will see in the next section of Eph 6, we, the soldiers, are enabled
and commanded to keep in ceaseless communication with The Lord’s own blessed
Commander, God the Father; a communication which no siege can interrupt, the
wireless connection we have with heaven that we call prayer.
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