2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
God leads me to continue writing about the full armor to combat spiritual warfare that He gives us in EPH 6: 10-20. We have looked at truth (the tight belt we should wear around our waists), righteousness (our breastplate), and our readiness to announce the Gospel of peace (our shoes). Today, let's look at salvation (the helmet God gives us). When I read this metaphor from EPH 6: 17, I thought about how a helmet is there to protect one's head. This is an issue that was brought up on the Protevangelium, which is a fancy Latin term for GN 3: 15. Let me show how the connection that the Spirit put in my mind here. GN 3: 15 [God speaking to the serpent, Adam, and Eve in the Garden of Eden], "I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite their heel." This is the first announcement in the Bible of the conflict that will go on between mankind and Satan. If we look carefully at this verse, we will see that God's plan (already in place since before the Creation) has mankind doing something that will surely destroy Satan and Satan doing something that will bring pain to mankind, but not destroy them.
If we look at the way God's plan has been gradually revealed to us throughout our history, we know that God called Abram out of Mesopotamia in an effort to establish a nation, the Jews, who would eschew idolatry-thus being unique from all their neighboring nations-and put God at the center of their spiritual and political lives. Their very culture was to find its basis in the One and Only True God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This was God's first step in dealing with the problem that the original sin caused. But, that step only allowed mankind to know what pleases God and what doesn't by the Law [RO 7: 7]. The really important issue was yet to be addressed, salvation. That came with the death of Christ, His blood shed on the cross, and it wasn't automatic [1 COR 23-24]. I say this because an individual must repent of his sin first and then come to faith in Christ before he is saved. Thanks be to God, many people have done this. But the task is long from being completed. Salvation really is an impenetrable helmet which protects the head of the one saved. That helmet is not available to Satan or the people he leads to reject Christ and embrace a lifestyle of sinfulness. That is why those who endure in faith and put up valiant spiritual warfare against the challenges to faith will, indeed, help Christ to crush Satan's head.
One further picture of this helmet of salvation is seen during the Tribulation when God places His mark on the saints, those who come to faith during that time in REV 7: 2-3 [John speaking], "And I saw another angel coming up from the east with the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels to whom God had given the power to damage the earth and the sea. 'Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, until we mark the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads.'" If we understand this overall picture, we will know that in REV 5: 5 we are told that the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, Whose blood was shed for our salvation, is the Only One Who is worthy to open all the seals on the scroll. That scroll represents the mortgage to dominion over the earth which has been in Satan's hands since the time of the original sin back in GN 3: 6. Christ is given the authority to wrest that dominion over earth and place it back in God's hands. That is what the story of the Tribulation is all about. Part of that process is the "separation of sheep and goats" discussed in MT 25: 32. The other part is seeing to it that all the faithful in Christ are brought to an eternal life of joy and fellowship with the Father and with each other in God's Kingdom, i.e. salvation.
The next part of God's full armor is mentioned in EPH 6: 16, and that is faith, which is described as the shield. This is a big issue. Christ spoke about it in the Parable of the Sower in MT 13: 1-8 & 18-23. MT 13: 18-23, "Listen then, and lean what the Parable of the Sower means. Those who hear the message about the Kingdom but do not understand it are like the seeds that fall along the path. The Evil One comes and snatches away what was sown in them. The seeds that fell on rocky ground stand for those who receive the message gladly as soon as they heart it. But it does not sink deep into them, and they don't last long. So when trouble or persecution comes because of the message, they give up at once. The seeds that fell among thorn bushes stand for those who hear the message; but the worries about this life and the love for riches choke the message, and they don't bear fruit. And the seeds sown in the good soil stand for hose who hear the message and understand it; they bear fruit, some as much as one hundred, others sixty, and others thirty." This gives us a vivid picture of the degrees that faith is implanted in people. Weak or non-existent faith are not God's doing. They are the problems that come when a man's response to God's sovereign, loving, invitation to come to faith is either rejected or not taken seriously enough. The thorns represent false prophecy to which a believer not well grounded in his faith is subjected. Because he isn't well grounded in his faith, he begins to do what the Galatians to whom Paul was writing were in danger of doing, being deceived by false teaching.
Faith is crucial to our salvation, and that faith must be in the unadulterated teachings of God. That is why it is so essential that no human intermediary is allowed to get in the way of God's word or our prayerful communication with God. It is God's agenda which should always take precedence over human agendas that don't agree with it. Our best defense is remaining daily in God's word and in prayer with Him. There is no better source of discernment than that. As this series unfolds, it is my sincerest hope that it will help build confidence in God's word and the preparation He has outfitted us with to successfully battle spiritual warfare. This is particularly true in the face of the events of 9-11-01. When we heard Osama bin Laden's tape, we saw hard evidence of his guilt, his premeditation, and his lack of a conscience. He is a vivid example of why we must have the faith to battle Satan and endure through whatever the battle requires. That man is truly Satan's agent. We are stronger than him when we remain in Christ!
PRAYER: O Lord, the war against terrorism truly makes EPH 6: 12 true. "For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age." We have been told in the first chapter of Romans how the mechanism for evil works in some people. This is what You wanted us to see, so that we would be motivated to don the full armor You have given us and fight valiantly for the cause of righteousness. The devil deceives as he deceived Adam and Eve. He wrested dominion over the earth temporarily from You, making it necessary for us to be saved by repenting and coming to faith in Christ, and for us to wage spiritual warfare with the adversary and his followers. You give us hope by revealing to John who reveals to us the story of how Your Son, Jesus Christ, will eventually wrest dominion over earth from Satan and how the latter will be vanquished. We don't need to know the exact time and date to know that we must be ready for His call to us to a meeting in the air. We pledge to put on the full armor you have given us and to stand ready, willing, and able to meet the Evil One on whatever battlefield he chooses to assail us. We go into this battle knowing that You are there with us and will guide us to eternal victory over him. The salvation You have given us through Christ's blood shed on the cross is the proof that enduring in our faith in You will bring us eternal life. As Your faithful foot soldiers, we humbly approach Your altar to offer You our worship, adoration, obedience, trust, loyalty, diligence, glory, honor, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at the sword of EPH 6: 17, which is the word of God. From there, we will take a closer look at exactly who we are fighting against as discussed in EPH 6: 12. If God didn't love us so much would He have sacrificed His Son on the cross, given us His Spirit to dwell within us, or plan to mark the foreheads of the Tribulation saints to claim ownership and willingness to protect them? I think not! We are being given special blessings every day of our lives, because we have agreed to join our Lord in His work against the adversary. We must be bold in Him and obedient to Him. He deserves nothing less from us. God loves each of us more than we can ever fully understand. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn