In Ephesians 6:13-18 God tells us to put on the whole armor of God so that we can withstand the attacks of satan (I refuse to capitalize his name!) Most of the time we think of 6 armor parts, but there really is a seventh, prayer, (see verse 18), without which none of the others can function. Just a couple of examples: You can’t have salvation without praying to receive Jesus as your Savior. You can’t be righteous without prayers of confession and repentance AND realizing that our only righteousness is through Jesus. I know I have none of my own and can only rely on the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ. One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 41:10. Check it out for yourself!
Right now, however, I want us to look at the helmet of salvation.
1. The whole armor is God’s armor. Look now at Isaiah 59:15-19. Here we see God, the divine warrior, taking up His own armor to take on satan, amazed that no one was interceding for or in Israel.
2. Now back to Ephesians 6. In His mercy, God provided salvation through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son Jesus! So, since we were His enemies through our sinful nature, He freely offers salvation who humbly repent of their sins and receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior! Along with the rest of His armor, our awesome God gives us salvation! I love the American sign language for salvation! It looks like you’re breaking chains. Actually, when we receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, satan’s powerful chains over us are broken! He has no more dominion over us. He was already defeated at the cross of Jesus! The devil is furious! He knows that he cannot take away our salvation through ion, but certainly tries every which way to discourage us Christians from fulfilling all that God calls us to do.
3. So, how does he do that? That leads me to talk about why God led Paul to use the helmet to describe salvation. Think about it. How does the devil start his tricks? By trying to mess with our minds. He makes us question God”s Word. He knows God’s Word and can twist it to his purposes. Look at how He started with Eve: ‘Did God really say…?” The helmet was designed to protect the head. There is considerable evidence that what we think seriously affects our physical brain. So, since God gave us salvation, He did so to protect our minds. How so?
4. We usually think of salvation through faith as forgiveness of sins of the past and giving us a future and a hope of Heaven. That is so true, but salvation is SO much more! That helmet of salvation also has meaning for facing life here and now! How so? We said that satan starts working his mess in our minds! There is a deep correlation between the physical brain and the spiritual mind. If we are thinking bad or evil thoughts, our physical brain sets up actual little sends out little black neurons that pull us down emotionally, too. If, however, we have the “mind of Christ”, His perspective on what we’re facing, we can be sure that we can look at those problems much more optimistically.
5. What is the “mind of Christ”? Philippians 2 tells us. It is His full knowledge that He was indeed one with the Father and equal to him, yet being humble enough to give up His throne in Heaven and come to earth to literally die for our sins and rise again to give us eternal life with Him. His Father had to turn away as His Son took on your sins and mine. Now, that tells me that I need to take each day’s experiences in His perspective. But how do I do that?
6. Romans 12:1-2 tell us to not be conformed to this world (NOT to let satan deceive us), but to be transformed (literally changed) by the renewing of our minds. We do that by daily and consistently being in God’s will, seeking His direction, growing in an intimate personal relationship with Him through Bible Study and PRAYER! Remember, PRAYER IS THAT SEVENTH PIECE OF ARMOR!
7. Does all of this mean that we will have no problems? Absolutely not, but one thing is clear! Having the mind of Christ and keeping our focus on Him will help us face each day’s experiences with a far better attitude! I suppose two things come to mind when I think of Christ’s life and my own. First, He suffered every temptation that any of us will every face, yet managed not to sin. So I can rely on Him to help me face satan’s fiery darts. Second, I will never face the suffering that He did on the cross, not because I don’t deserve it, but because He loved me enough to go through it to give me salvation, past present, and future! He offers you the same! God bless you!