After I finished reading In Christ Jesus: The Sphere of the Believer’s Life, by Arthur Tappan Pierson, I gained a greater appreciation for the salvation that Christ has accomplished for us. I highly recommend you read the free, online version of this short book here: https://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Voice/In.Christ.Jesus.1.html The thoughts in that book gave rise to a new perspective on the Armor of God for the Christian, which follows.
When the Bible tells us to put on the whole armor of God to withstand the demonic forces that are against us, it is not telling us to depend on our own ability, but to “be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might” (Ephesians 6:10). God has already given us the strength to withstand. It is up to us to believe the promise and take the armor by faith.
When we were saved, we were placed in Christ Jesus. In that “room,” as it were, is stacked every spiritual blessing we need for this life. Everything we need to make it to the end of our life in joy, in love, in triumph, is found in Christ. In Him is all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him (Colossians 2:9–10). It is a done deal. We need merely appropriate each blessing by faith and put it to use.
We have been graced with everything needed — and our untiring foe wants to take it all away. And so the order is given us to take defensive measures: “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).
The outside forces of man and nature can wear us down if they are our focus. When our attention is on Jesus, we prevail over them. The things we can see are not the enemy; rather, the enemy is using these things to tear us from God, to weaken us, introducing tension, irritation, and disarray in our ranks. “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).
We will put on the armor to the extent that we believe we have a violently strong spiritual foe. If we don’t believe in literal demons, then we will use physical measures to battle physical issues. Jesus saw that sin is the problem, so He came to save us from our sins. If we don’t see sin as the issue, we will use many other methods to “save” ourselves. We will use laws, programs, schooling, psychology, and self-effort of all kinds. The enemy will create diversion after diversion to draw us away from our true strength and power in Christ.
We don’t take the armor as though in prayer pleading to God for it. it is already available to us. We just take it by faith. We can do that during our prayer times with thanksgiving. Jesus came to save us from our sins. When we plead with God to help us overcome this sin, Ephesians 6 tells us exactly how God will do that: show us the armory He has placed in Christ Jesus within our reach. In Christ Jesus we have everything we need to resist sin. Hard to believe, isn’t it? That’s where the enemy wants us to stay — in unbelief. If you are not accustomed to walking by faith, believing the promises in the Bible and living according to them, then this article won’t make much sense to you. The enemy has you royally conned.
In Christ Jesus we have been justified freely (Romans 3:24). In Christ Jesus we have no condemnation (Romans 8:1). In Christ Jesus we are made free of the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). In Christ Jesus we can’t be separated from the love of God (Romans 8:39). In Christ Jesus we are one body (Romans 12:5). All these are just from the book of Romans. We merely accepted Jesus as our Savior and God gave us all of these for free. So it is with the armor of God. It was freely given to us to withstand temptations to sin.
Look again at your circumstances and see a spiritual enemy at work behind the scenes. “Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand (Eph. 6:13). Everything we need to stand against our clever enemy is found in Christ. The weapons are of Christ Himself. We put on the armor of God only as much as we see Christ as the Savior. Too often, we see Christ only as the one who forgives sin. He does much, much more. He is able to save to the uttermost all who come to Him. He is able to undo the ravages of sin in us, and transform us into His image. Let’s see the weapons of our warfare in a new light.
“Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist” (Eph. 6:14). Jesus Christ is the Truth. Whatever does not help us to love Christ, obey Him, honor Him, follow, believe, trust, and imitate Him, is not the truth. Jesus is the embodiment of the truth; if the teaching, law, perception, decision, dogma, finding, conclusion, hypothesis, or awareness is not lined up with the Christ of the Scriptures, it is not worth following; the enemy is at work in that area to pull us from Christ.
“Put on the breastplate of righteousness” (Eph. 6:14). We have no righteousness of our own. We are assaulted by ideas that we have to work harder to be good; we feel the urge to live so as to meet others expectations and gain their approval, in church and out. Thankfully, Christ has become our righteousness. We put on Christ before we face the day’s battles. We remind ourselves of the promise that to those who believe, righteousness has been imputed to them, though they have not lifted a finger to work at it (Romans 4:5). In Christ Jesus we are counted righteous; now we learn how Christ lived righteously so we can imitate it and show the world the righteousness of God. Where we do unrighteous works, the word of God will lead us repentance, and grace and mercy will give us a fresh start in a new direction.
“Having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace” (Eph. 6:15). The gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation. No other religion offers it; no government program champions it. If we want to see God change lives by His power, to reach in deep and break the sin that’s there, then the gospel of Christ is how God will execute His power. All other processes are false, though they appear to work with changes on the surface. Keep the gospel in view, that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. Jesus came to save us from our sins. Jesus will come again and restore a world without sin. Sin is the culprit; it is the basis of all evils in the world. All other programs dealing with issues are only addressing the symptoms of sin. While companies pay their top executives in the hundreds of thousands to flex their power and move merchandise and minds, policies and perceptions, the lowly volunteer is sharing the Good News to the poor, introducing a solution that will endure through all eternity.
“Taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one” (Eph. 6:15). Genuine faith always points us confidently to Christ. The gospel of Christ has a definite outcome in those who believe rightly: “The just shall live by faith.” We don’t examine our works to see if we are good enough. We examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith; we simply trust the direction God has given us and keep going. Our salvation is all of faith, all the time. All of our thoughts, words, and deeds are directed by the confidence we have in God’s word. Our aimlessness in life reveals our lack of faith in God. Many have strayed from the simplicity of Christ, the simplicity of faith. If God’s word is directing your life, you are going in the right direction; you are enjoying the gospel of Christ and the power of God. If you are motivated to please others, to keep up appearances, to keep the duty in a set way, to be somebody to be admired, to perform well enough to be accepted, to live for yourself, then it is not a life of just trusting God and believing Him. Whatever is not of faith is sin. Faith always points us to Christ. Faith has various expressions: There is the simple act of the will, where a person merely takes God at His word: “The Lord wants me to do this, so I’ll do it.” Another is full-fledged confidence, where a person proceeds with the expectation that God will follow through: “I can’t quit, since I know that God will help me through this.” A third expression of faith would be a person in desperation casting himself upon God: “Help, O God, for I have nowhere else to turn!” In each case, faith is expecting God to intervene in some way. Genuine faith, born from the word, expects God to work.
“Take the helmet of salvation” (Eph. 6:16). The helmet protects the head and thus the mind. The enemy is a liar. He (it) attacks our reasoning and decision-making ability. Christ is salvation. We don’t trust in our efforts to save ourselves. We abide in Him and are being saved. He saved us from the penalty for our sins and broke the power of sin. We reckon ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God in Him, and enjoy the victory. When we enjoy Christ, we enjoy the salvation He won for us; if we are distant from Him, we won’t. We learn of Christ and put off the old man wherever we find its influence. We learn of Christ and put Him on, growing in our salvation, becoming more like Him. Christ will save those who believe in Him, not in us, so we keep pointing people to Christ. Wherever we have put something in place of Christ, something more important than a strong relationship with Christ, we are moving away from enjoying the fruits of salvation. Jesus is the Savior and the salvation.
“The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:16). We are told that “All the promises of God in Him are Yes and in Him Amen, to the glory of God by us.” We are in Him, and in that position we have access to every promise that God has given to the church. When we remove them from the symbolic shelf on the wall and act on them, it glorifies God. Every deceptive work of the enemy is calculated to draw us away from having confidence in the word of God. The word anchors us in His love, power, authority, truthfulness, faithfulness, and integrity. Where the enemy says we can’t do it, we rise up and boldly say, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.” When the fiery arrows of shame and guilt start to burn us, we point to the sufficiency of Christ’s work on the cross to take away our sins. When we believe Jesus against the world, we have wielded the sword bravely.
