 |
| Put on the full armour of God |
| Ephesians 6:13 wherefore take unto you the WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD, that ye may be able to withstand in the EVIL DAY, Spiritual strength and courage are needed for our spiritual warfare. Those who would prove themselves to have true grace, must aim at all grace; and put on the whole amour of God, which He prepares and give. The Christian armour is made to be use and there is no putting off our armour till we have done our warfare, and finished our course. The combat is neither against human enemies, nor against our own corrupt nature only; we have to do with an enemy who has a thousand ways of tempting unstable souls. The devils attack us in the things that belong to our souls, and labour to deface the heavenly image in our hearts. We must be determining by God's grace, not to yield to Satan. Resist him, and he will flee. If we give way, he will get ground. If we distrust either our cause, or our Leader, or our armour, we give him advantage. The armour is employed in the English Bible to denote military equipment, both OFFENSIVE and DEFENSIVE. The different parts of the armour of heavy-armed soldiers, who had to sustain the fiercest assaults of the enemy, are here described. There is none for the back; nothing to defend those who turn back in the Christian warfare. LOINS GIRT WITH THE TRUTH: (defensive) Ephesians 6:14 LOINS GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH Truth, or sincerity, is the girdle. This girds on all the other pieces of our armour, and is first mentioned. There can be no religion without sincerity. Loins are the symbolic of our sin (nakedness). The meaning of to girt our loins with truth is to cover our sin with the blood of Jesus and the truth of the cross. Psalms 38:7 For my LOINS are filled with a LOATHSOME disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh. After an unbeliever accepts Christ then Satan comes with lies to him. One of the first lies that this new Christian has to withstand is that he is not really saved, or that his sins are too many to be really forgiven. God knows the attacks of Satan and therefore He made provision for us by providing the LOINS TO BE GIRT BY THE TRUTH. (Blood of the Lamb covering our sins) 1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS according to the scriptures; The girdle of truth is to cover/protect us from sins in our past. Truth is working in two ways, the ‘intake’ of the truth and the ‘outgiving’ of the truth – a) Seeking after Gods truth with your whole heart and you will find nothing else but the truth. b) Let the words of your mouth be the truth. Remember who the father of lies is and we don’t want to give him any room in our lives. BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS: (defensive) Ephesians 6:14b and having on the BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS The righteousness of Christ implanted in us, fortifies the heart against the attacks of Satan. We cannot walk in our own righteousness because we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. God’s grace is so enormous that He did not make provision only for our sins of the past but also for future sins. This gave us no permission to go on sinning but it is to help us to get free from sinning. God is faithful to forgive us our sins but we will bear the consequences of it. Romans 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so, by the righteousness of one the gift came upon all men unto justification of life. This breastplate helps when Satan sets up a trap and we in our flesh commit sins, to know that Jesus did a perfect work on the cross and we can just go to our Father and ask forgiveness. We walk in the righteousness of Jesus. It is like a buying something on credit. I will use the symbol of buying a lunch suit on credit. You only pay a deposit and then a monthly instalment. You repent of your sins and accept the blood of Jesus to clean you form all unrighteousness. The shop owner will deliver the lunch suit. This item is not paid in full but you have the use of it. You get righteousness from Jesus although you are not righteous at all. You are working on it like the monthly instalment “bit by bit” no one gets it all at once. When we lack to pay our bills, the shop will send us warnings and if we still refuse to pay, we will lose our stuff. The very same with righteousness if we stop moving in the direction to become righteous we will lose our salvation. But the Spirit of God will remind us and keep on working on us to move in this direction. When you buy on credit, there is a clause that when you die, the bought item will be paid in full. The same with you if you die before achieve the point of righteousness you are covered with Jesus righteousness. The breastplate is to protect us from future sins. Righteousness is also working two ways. We use the righteousness of Jesus to walk in while we are busy to get our own righteousness in line with the word of God. Its like borrowing a “garment” while we are busy to make our own once. |
| Author: Alta van den Berg |
 |