Tag Archives: Whole Armor of God

Face to Face

31 Monday Jul 2023

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Hello Readers!  Welcome to a new week and a new post on Renaissance Woman.  This week’s post is another installment in my study of the Whole Armor of God.  I am looking at Ephesians 6:10-18a and I have not progressed any further than “Stand”.  The Apostle Paul says to “stand” three times in this passage and I was certain he meant for us to stand fast or stand firm against the onslaught of the enemy.  There is a word in the Greek which does mean to stand, persevere, hold fast, and it is steko.  That is not the word used in this passage.  The word used in this passage is histemi and it means “to stand, abide, appoint, bring, continue, covenant, establish, hold up, lay, present, set up, staunch, stand (by, forth, still, up). 

These two Greek words are related to each other.  Steko comes from the perfect tense of histemi.  The perfect tense in Greek is used to describe actions already done or completed in the past which produced results still in effect in the present: something to bear in mind when reading the passages that use steko.  Histemi carries more of a meaning of “made to stand” or “cause to stand”.  We see this in verse ten of my study passage: “Finally, by brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”  We stand because Jesus Christ in us causes us to stand.  We are made to stand because we are in covenant with Him.

Covenant is a weighty word.  I have been meditating on the covenants of the Bible since last year when I completed a course on them.  During this course, the Teacher said the Western Church has very little understanding of what covenant means.  The Western Church defines covenant in the terms of contract: if you do this then I will do that.  Surely not, I thought to myself and I have spent a great deal of time since then listening to what my fellow believers here in the west are saying.  I have found this Teacher is correct in his diagnosis of the Western Church.  It came to a head for me when I was watching a television show on the life of Jesus.  Two characters are running a scam on a landowner and, once the landowner agrees to sell, one character says “we’ll draw up the covenants.”  I heard that and I almost exploded.  For the word covenant to be used when contract was so clearly implied left me utterly discombobulated.  The two words have nothing to do with each other. 

I have heard covenant being used when contract is meant many times since by many of my fellow believers.  It is like my ear has been tuned to it.  And, this lack of understanding is being noticed by others.  Just this week I read this in the Spring 2023 edition of Biblical Archeology Review: “The theme of covenant is central to the Hebrew Bible.  It provides the background to many of its most memorable stories where Yahweh establishes alliances with figures such as Noah (Genesis 9), Abraham (Genesis 12; 15; 17), Moses (Exodus 19; 24), Aaron (Exodus 29; Numbers 18:19), and David (2 Samuel 7). 

“Yet modern biblical scholarship has marginalized the covenantal aspects of the Hebrew Bible in favor of the many individuals and events associated with such arrangements, which are generally reduced to their legal aspects and interpreted as obligations subsumed under the law (Hebrew: torah).  The word torah even serves to designate the first major division of the Hebrew Bible.  Reading the Bible in its wider Near Eastern context, however, rehabilitates the covenant as a crucial factor in diplomacy as well as political and private alliances.”

A contract is indeed an if/then document.  Punishments are usually clearly spelled out should either party fail to comply with the contract’s terms.  Covenants are a matter of life and death.  They were not drawn up: they were typically established in blood.  Animals were split in half and the two parties would walk between the pieces through the blood.  The blood of the parties was also often shed and mingled.  A covenant meant both parties were swearing all they were and had-their very lives-were being given to the other person.

In all fairness to the Western Church, they can’t be blamed for thinking in terms of contract because the Covenant of Moses given at Mount Sinai was given in the language “if you don’t do these things, then these things will come upon you.” (See Exodus Chapters 19-24).  I have heard Bible Teachers say the people of Israel made a terrible mistake when they answered with one voice saying, “All the words which the Lord has said we will do” (Exodus 24:3).  Of course they did not.  They could not.  Their inability to do wasn’t a surprise to God either because the Apostle Paul writes, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.  But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Romans 5:20).

There is a fascinating verse that appears earlier in this same chapter: “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Romans 5:13).  I cannot venture into a study on this subject now.  The Apostle Paul beautifully explains himself in Chapters 6 and 7 and I highly recommend you take the time to read through them.  I think the Apostle Paul’s point, and the point I am making about the Mosaic Covenant is summed up in Hebrews 7:18-19: “For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.”

The television show about the life of Jesus I mentioned does, in my opinion, do some things brilliantly; one of which is pointing out how the Pharisees especially revered the law.  The laws given by God at Mount Sinai and in the Book of Leviticus were not enough: they developed a system of 613 more laws.  What I find to be tragic is that a great number of believers today choose the same way of living.  Matthew 5:16-20 records Jesus saying, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.  For assuredly, I say to you, til heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.  Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Strong words indeed and I cannot blame my fellow believers for using them as a basis for their endeavors to keep the law.  Some do try to keep it in their own strength.  They fail of course and the penances and punishments of their denominations are there for them.  There are others that believe that, because the Spirit has been given, we now have the strength that was lacking in the Israelites of the Old Testament to keep the law. This passage is not a warning given to us by Jesus if we don’t keep the law. For one thing, even those who break the least of the commandments and teach others to do so are in the kingdom of heaven.  They are least in the kingdom, certainly, but they are not burning in hell which is interesting but not the most important point I would make. That point is: the New Testament makes it clear Jesus has fulfilled the law.

Again, I would point your attention to Paul’s letter to the Romans.  Paul writes, “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.  And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.  For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me” (Romans 7:9-11).  He goes on to write that famous passage that ends in “O wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?”  He has an answer! 

“I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 7:24-8:4).

Our Christian life is not one of extra ability to keep the law.  It is not one of contract.  I have carefully read the New Testament and I do not find our Christian lives are to be lived as if/then but rather because/therefore.  (Malcolm Smith first put our covenant life in these terms and I’ve never heard it better expressed).  We are partakers of a New Covenant and one we had no part in making.  It was established in the blood of Jesus and He is its mediator (See Matthew 26:28, Hebrews 9:15).  He is in us and we abide and rest in Him.  Because this is the truth, we therefore have ceased from our own works as God did from His. We are made to stand in His strength and the power of His might.  We are made to stand in the covenant position with Him: face to face.

Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Greek Tenses Explained

The Rules of the Pharisees – pursueGOD.org

Pharisaic Laws | Bible.org

Heintz, Jean-Georges, “Covenants in Context”, Biblical Archaeology Review, Volume 49 Number 1, Spring 2023, 61

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Vine, W.E., Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1997    

Laboring Under a Misapprehension

24 Monday Jul 2023

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Good Day!  Welcome to a new week and a new post on Renaissance Woman.

This week’s post is a continuation of my study on Ephesians 6:10-18a: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit…”

I’ve thought about this passage many times over the years.  I wondered if there was any significance to the order in which the armor is listed or whether one part might be considered the most important.  The shield of faith is introduced with the words “above all” so there was a time when I focused on the shield of faith.  But then, every other part of the armor would have been put on before a roman soldier ever took up shield and sword so, while important, the shield was not necessarily the most important.  As I got interested in Ancient Roman History, I wondered if the order in which a soldier put on his armor matched Paul’s list and thus had any significance and whether the roman soldiers considered one part of the armor more indispensable than another.  I had fun reading different articles on the legionaries of Rome and found there were as many opinions on what was the crucial piece of armor as there were articles.

This was all, of course, before I came to see the armor of God not as something external from us we had to be vigilant to put on (and be extra vigilant not to forget a piece before facing our day) but rather as Jesus Christ Himself.  The Whole Armor of God is the same as the Fruit of the Spirit.  Galatians 5:22-23 list out love, joy, peace longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control but these are not a list of the Fruits of the Spirit-plural but rather an attempt to comprehensively describe the Fruit of the Spirit-singular.  So it is with the Whole Armor of God.  It is not separate pieces we have to be certain we’ve put on every day.  Each piece described by Paul is merely an attempt to comprehensively describe who Jesus Christ is to us at every given moment.  What is coming at us?  Fiery darts?  No problem because Jesus Christ is our defense and a shield about us.  Enemy coming for your mind or attacking your vitals?  No need to fear!  Jesus is the helmet of our salvation and our breastplate of righteousness. 

But, even though I had come to see the whole armor of God as a cohesive description of the strength and might of our Lord Jesus Christ, there were still cobwebs of tradition that needed to be swept away and necessary wisdom and revelation to be given by the Spirit. As I had started this study by focusing on Ephesians 6:10 and also on the call to stand, I spent last week looking at how our feet ought to be shod.  Paul says our feet are to be shod “with the preparation of the gospel of peace”.  The Roman Soldier had his feet shod with either caligae or calcei. 

The caliga was more boot than sandal but was openwork like a sandal as it was made of leather strips that attached to the sole.  The leather would be beveled on the skin side so the strips did not rub on the soldiers’ feet and cause sores.  The sole of the caliga was hobnailed which provided excellent traction on rough ground or on the body of a fallen enemy, whichever the case may be. Calcei were an enclosed boot that the roman army began to transition to in the 1st century.  They offered better protection in wetter and colder climates but, at the time of Paul’s writing and the fact that he was writing from Rome itself, it’s safe to assume his guards were shod with caligae.  These boots enabled a soldier to march great distances or stand his post in relative comfort. 

And so: the supportive shoes that enable us to stand are the preparation of the gospel of peace.  I remembered Philippians 4:7; “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  I’ve got it!, I cried.  Jesus tells his disciples and therefore us that it is His peace He gives to us (John 14:17) and the passage in Philippians says it is His peace which guards us AND the passage in Ephesians says it is our feet which are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.  Therefore, Jesus Himself is our defense, our peace, our strength and might, and, like the hobnailed boots of the roman soldier, our surety that our foot will not slip.  We can trust that in Him we stand and hold our ground.

The conclusion I have just made is not wrong, per se.  Rather, it is incomplete.  There is a word in the Greek that means “stand” in the sense of holding fast.  It is steko (G4739) and means “to be stationary, to persevere, stand (fast)”.  Steko is translated as “stand” in a handful of passages throughout the New Testament.  I will include two examples.  One is Mark 11:25: “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses”.  Another is Galatians 5:1: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” 

The meaning is clear in these passages.  Our English word “stand” is an accurate translation of the Greek: we stand, persevere, hold fast.  Before last week’s study, I would have agreed this idea of standing is a perfect picture of us having put on the whole armor of God: He gives us His strength so that we stand, persevere, hold fast.  Except steko doesn’t appear at all in the passage in Ephesians.  Every time the English word “stand” appears in this passage, it is translating histemi (G2476). Histemi means, “to stand, abide, appoint, bring, continue, covenant, establish, hold up, lay, present, set (up), staunch, stand (by, forth, still, up).” 

Reading this turned the picture I had in my mind on its head.  I was picturing The Believer standing against the onslaught of the enemy in the power and might of the Lord, persevering against slings and arrows because He was the armor and defense, and able to stand being solidly rooted in His peace.  Instead, I had to picture The Believer abiding.  I had to reconsider everything I thought about Spiritual Warfare because it is conducted from a place of rest. 

This seems so counterintuitive.  Warfare and rest are opposite sides of the coin, right?  Don’t we have to conduct warfare so that we can have rest?  Hebrews 4:10-11a hold the answer for it says, “For he who has once entered into [God’s] rest also has ceased from [the weariness and pain] of human labors, just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His own. [Gen. 2:2.] Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter in that rest [of God]-to know and experience it for ourselves…” (Amplified).  The King James Version says “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest…”  The Greek word translated as “labour” in the KJV doesn’t hold the meaning of hard work or strenuous activity.  The word is spoudazo (G4704) and it means “to use speed, to make effort, be prompt or earnest, give diligence, be diligent, endeavor, labour, study.”  I find it is a relational word: when we are excited to spend time with someone, we make haste to be prompt so we don’t miss a minute. So it is with the excitement and earnestness with which we enter His rest.

I have always seen this passage on the whole armor of God as relating to Spiritual Warfare.  After all, who wears armor other than someone prepared for battle?  I think it still does but it is the strangest sort of warfare: utterly opposite from everything I’ve been taught to believe.  When I began this study, I saw warfare as something conducted from the victory of Jesus Christ rather than an attempt to gain a victory but never within the context of abiding, covenant, and rest.  As I looked at the word histemi, I thought of the words of Jesus: “without Me you can do nothing…abide in Me…” (John 15). 

That is an arresting idea: the Whole Armor of God as the covenant life and rest that is ours as we abide in Jesus Christ.  Our English “in” is the Greek word en (G1722) which means “a fixed position (in place, time, or state), instrumentality, a relation of rest.”  Our precious Savior says to us, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

This is my focus for the upcoming week.  I am seeing myself as no longer laboring or striving under the burden of all the shoulds, oughts, and musts but will see myself laboring  or making haste to enter His rest.  I will not see myself as standing as in I must persevere and hold fast but rather abiding in the One who is my life.

Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Romans in Britain – The Roman Soldier’s Footwear – Caligae and Calcei (romanobritain.org)

 Caligae – Legio X Fretensis (x-legio.com)

The Comparative Study Bible, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand rapids, Michigan, 1984

Matyszak, Philip, Legionary: The Roman Soldier’s (Unofficial) Manual, Thames & Hudson, London, UK, 2009, Page 52-54

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Come to the Mountain

17 Monday Jul 2023

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I continue my study in Ephesians 6:10-18.  This passage is where the Apostle Paul describes the Whole Armor of God. In last week’s post, I looked at verse 10 which states, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”  This week, I want to look at how “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” relates to Paul’s admonition that we “stand”.

I have read this passage many times but I have to say I never paid close attention to how many times the Apostle Paul says the word “stand.”  Verse 11 says, “Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”  Verse 13 says, “Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand.”  The first word of verse 14 is “stand”. 

Malcolm Smith has pointed out that the soldiers guarding the Apostle Paul during the writing of the Epistle to the Ephesians were just that: guards.  They were not equipped to go out onto the battlefield and fight but, should the battle come to them, they were ready to mount a defense.  The soldiers stood in the strength and might of the authority of Rome.  How much more strength and might belongs to us because we are in Christ Jesus!

This is a truth I have not heard proclaimed by very many of my fellow believers.  They acknowledge that their Salvation is entirely a work of Jesus Christ but then everything else pertaining to the Christian life is somehow achieved based on behavior and merit.  The Apostle Paul asks the Galatians; “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3).  I would ask this same question to those conducting warfare.  Our warfare is Spiritual not carnal.  Our weapons are Spiritual and so is our enemy.  It ought to be obvious ours is not a warfare we wage in our own strength.  We do not need to go out and seek our enemy.  We stand and our strength is in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the power of His might.  We stand in His victory which is made our victory because we are in Him and He is in us.  Our flesh life is exchanged for His.  As the Apostle Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). (NOTE: the word “in” I have italicized is really “of” in the Greek.  It is not that we put our trust in the strength of our faith in Jesus, rather we live by His faith because He lives in us.  An important distinction.)

Christ’s victory is total and complete.  There is nothing that is not subject to Him (See 1 Corinthians 15:27).  This truth is something it appears believers have forgotten especially when it comes to sin.  My fellow believers do not recognize sin is put away by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and not for us only but for the entire world (1 John2:2) but are out engaging in “spiritual warfare” and miserably failing.  The result of conducting a battle in the strength of the flesh is much like the Hydra from Greek myth: if one head is cut off two more grow in its place.  Christ’s ultimate victory over sin and death is not spoken of as if it is the reality of believer’s day-to-day lives.  The Apostle Paul wrote an amazing passage on Jesus Christ’s victory over sin and death in his letter to the Romans.  I am quoting from The Message as I like the emphatic language:

“All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers.  But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace.  When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down.  All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it.  Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life-a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.

“So what do we do?  Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving?  I should hope not!  If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there?  Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good?  That is what happened in baptism.  When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace-a new life in a new land.  That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means.  When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus.  Each of us is raised into the light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.  Could it be any clearer?  Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life-no longer captive to sin’s demands!  What we believe is this: if we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection.  We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the end.  Never again will death have the last word.  When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us.  From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word.  You are dead to sin and alive to God.  That’s what Jesus did” (MSG, Romans 5:20-6:11).

I often hear 1 John 1:8-10 quoted as proof that even we believers are doomed to sin.  These verses ought not to be quoted without starting in verse 7:  “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” 

Read the passage of Romans again.  We each one of us lived in a realm of darkness where we knew sin.  Our eyes had not yet been opened to the reality of our lives in Jesus Christ and so, we cannot say we have not sinned.  But now, we have been raised into a light-filled world in Jesus Christ.  We are new creations in Him.  Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 1 John 5:20 says, “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.  This is the true God and eternal life.”  1 John 5 also says, “We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself; and the wicked one does not touch him” (verse 18).

 The word “keeps” in 1 John 5:18 is a word of warfare.  It is tereo (G5083) in the Greek and means, “a watch, to guard (from loss or injury by keeping the eye upon, to withhold, hold fast, preserve.” Paul writes to Timothy, “O Timothy!  Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge-by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith” (1 Timothy 6:20-21).  We are not to be idle or passive in our Christian lives but, like Paul’s Roman Soldiers; we guard the revelation of who Jesus is in us, we watch for those who would steal it from us, and we stand. 

My precious fellow believers, let us stop wasting our energy engaging in battles that cannot be fought in our own strength.  The battle is the Lord’s! So is the building the Kingdom of God here on earth.  Let us remember the word of the Lord which came to Zerubbabel through the prophet Zechariah: “not by might nor by power but by My Spirit.”  This word echoes that written by Solomon hundreds of years before: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

His victory is ours by sheer gift. The greatness of the power that is ours in Christ Jesus is the same mighty power the Father worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His right hand in heavenly places.  The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death.  We are not come to Mount Sinai, the physical mountain where Moses received the law which was incapable of making anyone perfect: we are come to Mount Zion and the city of the Living God, one not built with hands. (See Ephesians 1:15-23, Romans 8:2, Hebrews 10:1-4, 11:10, 12:18-24). 

“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession” (Hebrews 4:14).  Our warfare is not conducted in the same way the world conducts theirs.  Ours is not to gain victory but is rather conducted from the safety and security of His victory.  We stand in the truth of who Jesus Christ is in us and our strength is not that of the flesh which fails but is in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the power of His might.  May that truth saturate your being in the coming days and may it be the foundation on which you stand.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright ©1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson.  Used by permission of NavPress.  All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

References

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Safe From Harm

10 Monday Jul 2023

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Hello and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I am continuing my study on the Whole Armor of God.

The passage I am studying is Chapter Six verses 10-18a of Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians.  The New King James Version of the Bible renders these verses as: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod  your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit…”

There is a vast amount of subject matter in this passage.  I needed a starting place and while I was meditating on this passage and listening for what would resonate with me, I listened to Malcolm Smith’s teaching Spiritual Warfare.  The study series focuses on the Armor of God and, in the first hour, Mr. Smith said two things.  The first was that Paul was looking at a Roman Soldier when he wrote this epistle but it was not a soldier readying himself to go onto the battlefield but one prepared to defend.  The second thing Mr. Smith said was the Whole Armor of God is God Himself.  Mr. Smith quoted Isaiah 59:17: “For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak” and made the point that, as God is Spirit and doesn’t need to wear a breastplate, helmet, garments, or a cloak, this passage is describing His attributes in images the human mind can understand.

I agree with Mr. Smith’s points.  One reason is because of this verse in Be Thou My Vision (one of my favorite hymns!): “Be Thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight, be Thou my whole armor, be Thou my true might, be Thou my soul’s shelter, be Thou my strong tower, Oh raise Thou me heavenward, great power of my power.”  I realized what Mr. Smith was saying was not a new concept: that God Himself was our armor and protection was a truth I was singing on an almost daily basis without giving any real thought to the words. 

A second reason is how seamlessly the whole armor of God being God Himself flows into the idea of defense*.  I was curious about the Hebrew and Greek words for “defense” and “defend” so I looked them up in the Strong’s concordance.  I was not at all surprised to find multiple words-more in the Hebrew than the Greek-translated as “defense” and “defend”.  I did think it significant that “defense” is used exclusively for one Hebrew word throughout the Psalms.  It is also translated once as “defense” in Isaiah.  This word is misgab (H4869) and means “a cliff or other lofty or inaccessible place, altitude, a refuge, defense, high fort or tower”.   

For example, misgab appears three times in Psalm 59: “I will wait for You, O You his Strength; for God is my defense…But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; for You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.  To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; for God is my defense, My God of mercy” (verses 9, 16, 17).  The passage in Isaiah says, “He will dwell on High; His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; Bread will be given him, His water will be sure” (Isa. 33:16). 

God as our defense is something I want to look at in more detail so, for the sake of this post, I will move on to my third reason for agreeing with Mr. Smith.  This is the presence of the little Greek word του (pronounced too) which appears in this passage.  It is often translated as “of” but the word means “of this person, his”.  I suppose the fact the Whole Armor of God is spiritual is an obvious one.  Still, how we think of the Whole Armor of God meaning something belonging to Him or His as an attribute, is important.  There is a story in 1 Samuel where David is going to face Goliath and King Saul gives the young man his armor to wear.  David could not walk in the armor and had to remove it before facing the enemy (See 1 Samuel 17:32-40).

The Whole Armor of God is not like that of King Saul.  It is not a spiritual armor that belongs to God that He loans to believers in order to help us face an enemy and we make the best use of it as we can.  Looking at the armor as God Himself protecting, defending, and strengthening us for the fight is important because then we can see the armor is exactly suited to us and our situation.  Jesus has partaken of our flesh and blood.  He is not unable to sympathize with us but has been tested in every respect the same as us (Hebrews 4:15).  In Him we live and move and have our being which means He is not only our armor protecting and defending us but His life in us imparts the power and might we need to be able to stand.

I see what I can only describe as a disconnect in my fellow believers.  I see my precious brothers and sisters exhausting themselves fighting battles; ones which, tragically, they seem to have no hope of winning.  They appear to have forgotten that every aspect of our Christian lives flows out of God Himself.  I found a passage in Steve McVey’s book Grace Walk which describes the state of a great many Christians today: “In the natural world, trying harder is commendable and often effective.  But God’s ways aren’t our ways.  Sometimes they seem to be opposite from ours.  In the spiritual world, trying harder is detrimental.  That’s right.  Trying harder will defeat you every time. 

“No Christian has a problem with the previous paragraph as it relates to salvation.  If an unsaved person were to suggest to you that he was trying hard to become a Christian, what would you tell him?  You would probably make it clear that he could not be saved by trying, but by trusting.  You would tell him that there is absolutely nothing he could do to gain salvation.  It has all already been done.  Salvation is a gift to be received, not a reward to be earned.  A person who tries even a little bit to gain salvation by works cannot become a Christian.  As Paul said about salvation, “If by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.  But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work” (Romans 11:6).  In other words, it has to be either grace or works.  We are saved by grace and, and trying hard has absolutely nothing to do with it.

But many Christians who understand that trying is detrimental to becoming a Christian somehow think that it is essential to living in victory after salvation.  The truth is that victory is not a reward but a gift.  A person does not experience victory in the Christian life by trying hard to live for God.  It just won’t work!” (McVey, page 18).

When he was explaining why he thought Paul’s description of a defending rather than attacking soldier important, Malcolm Smith said our spiritual warfare is an odd one because we are not fighting to defeat an enemy or claim ground.  We stand in Christ’s victory and conduct our warfare from the security and steadfastness we have in Jesus Christ Himself.  So real is His victory that, borrowing again from the Apostle Paul, we do not fight like those who beat the air (1 Corinthians 9:26).

I hope to take a more extensive look at this in the upcoming weeks.  Until next week, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might…that we may be able to withstand in the evil day.” 

Amen.

*The Strong’s has “defence” rather than “defense”.  I will continue to use the spelling “defense”.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Be Thou My Vision | Hymnary.org

Unconditional Love Fellowship – Ministry of Malcolm Smith

Green, Jay P., The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, Volume 4, Revised Second Edition, Authors For Christ, Inc., Lafayette, Indiana, 2007

McVey, Steve, Grace Walk, Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon, 1995

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

A Quality of Life

03 Monday Jul 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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This post marks the first in my new study series on the Whole Armor of God as described in the 6th chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians.  The Armor is mentioned twice in this chapter.  In verse 11 we are instructed to put on the whole armor of God and in verse 13 we are instructed to take up the whole armor of God.  The words translated “put on” and “take up” are different in the Greek and I plan to take a look at them later in the study.  But where to begin? 

Despite it being the first mention of the Full Armor of God, picking up the study in Ephesians 5:11 felt like I was beginning in the middle of a thought.  While the entire Epistle is important to my understanding of the verses I will focus on, I decided on verse 10 as my starting point:  “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”  The latter half of that passage, “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” has been foremost in my mind over the past week.  They have taken on a special meaning for me as I have watched my backyard bloom.

In a previous post titled “Being Indestructible”, I told the story of my Mom rescuing some cactus pieces that had been uprooted and left lying by the side of the road.  Those cactus pieces have not only survived but thrived and the title of that older post was apt: they are all but indestructible.  At the writing of that pervious post, my stepdad had VERY carefully trimmed pieces of the abundant cactus and scattered them around the base of the tree to prevent wildlife from using the spot as a bathroom.  I watched and waited to see what these pieces would do.  Would they too, take root and thrive like their parent plant or would they wither and die?  The answer is, both.  Some have withered and died but others have taken root and are beginning to grow and thrive.

Just a few weeks ago, my stepdad was back at work in the backyard this time trimming my Mom’s rosebushes.  The bushes were thought to be dead and my stepdad was ruthless in his pruning.  His ruthlessness paid off because the bushes erupted in the most gorgeous blooms.  There was life in them after all.  As I spent last week preparing myself for what I hope will be an in-depth study on the Whole Armor of God, I meditated on the words from verse 10 and thought about the cactus and the roses.  Here they both were bursting with life when there was no reason to think life was in them.  It made me realize how our Christian lives were like that: circumstances might not appear suited to sustain life but we have a life within us that can never die.

This is a truth that must not only be guarded but kept in the forefront of our minds.  Over recent weeks I had been aware of, but hadn’t been paying close attention to, the effect the goings on in the world around me was having on my mental health.  It all came to a head when a particular headline brought me to tears and I realized how I was feeling.  I was angry and sad.  I was terribly afraid particularly that my loved ones were going to suffer.  I had no hope for any sort of future.  After all, terrible things had happened in the past so what was to stop the atrocities of history from being repeated?  I despaired.  The darkness was too vast and too powerful and there was no hope of standing against it.  The moment I realized the state of mind that had crept up on me, I had to act.

Fortunately, I have walked with the Lord Jesus Christ for years now and knew what to do.  First, I needed to be alone with Him with no other voices to distract me.  Second, I needed to give myself a good talking to.  Who was my God?  Did I really believe the darkness was anything compared to Him?  Of course not!  But, I had been bombarded by words which had no life in them and I needed to counteract them with words full of truth and life.  Words like John 1:5; “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it”, and Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:

“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Verses 15-21).

As I quoted Paul’s beautiful prayer, my mind grasped hold of the words “in the knowledge of Him,” and I remembered another prayer of Paul’s in the same epistle: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 2:14-19). 

I do not think the importance of the knowledge of God can be understated.  Knowing Him is the very definition of eternal life (John 17:3, 1 John 5:20).  The weapons of our warfare are wielded against every argument and high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 4-5).  I recently finished reading Andrew Murray’s Commentary on the Book of Hebrews and wanted to share something he wrote on the importance of knowing God:

“’Consider…Jesus.’ The one sure and effectual remedy the epistle offers for all the prevailing feebleness and danger of the Christian life, we know.  It has been said to us, “You do not know Jesus aright.’  The knowledge that sufficed for conversion does not avail for sanctification and perfection.  You must know Jesus better.  Consider Jesus!  As God!  As the Man!  In His sympathy! In His obedience!  In His suffering!  In His blood!  In His glory on the throne; opening heaven; bringing you in to God; breathing the law of God and the Spirit of heaven into your heart as your very life!  As little as you can reach heaven with our hand can you, of yourself, live such a heavenly life.  And yet, it is possible because God has borne witness to the Gospel of His Son with the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The Priest-King, on His ascension to the throne, sent down the Holy Spirit into the hearts of His disciples and, with Him, returned Himself to dwell in those who, in the power of His heavenly life, they might live with Him.  Consider Jesus, and you will see that you can live in the heavenlies with Him because He lives in you!” (Murray, 566)

That truth, that we are now seated with Jesus in heavenly places, is one of the most powerful weapons in our arsenal.  God, rich in mercy and because of His great love with which He loved us has made us alive together with Christ, raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-6).  All authority in heaven and earth is His (Matthew 28:18) and anything the darkness might say to the contrary is a lie.

I was talking to my Mom about all of this and she described a video she’d seen which I think is a wonderful picture of what I am trying to say: a woman was painting her wall but there was a stain on it.  It didn’t matter how many coats of paint she used, she could not paint over that stain and her frustration grew.  Then, the camera pulls back and it’s revealed the stain is actually a shadow.  There is a staircase across the room and, because of how the light strikes, the shadow of the bannister is cast on the wall.  There is nothing there to paint over.

The darkness is like that.  Like the banister, it is very real.  However, there was no stain and nothing prohibiting the woman from completing the work that had been put in her hand to do: the stain was an illusion.  Being powerless against the darkness is also an illusion.  We do not have any ability when we rely on our own strength but we are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 

This is, I think, where Spiritual Warfare begins.  The Kingdom of God is within us and that is also where the battle rages.  It is a battle for the mind and part of the fighting of it is speaking the truth out loud to ourselves so our ears hear them.  Darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people but we see Jesus.  He is the strength of our lives.  It doesn’t matter where we might be scattered or what our lives look like to an outside observer: Christ lives in us and His life is endless and indestructible.  Therefore, I will not fear!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

Read about the cactus here:

https://renaissancewoman.blog/2021/06/28/being-indestructible/

References

Murray, Andrew, Holiest of All: A commentary on the Book of Hebrews, Whitaker House, New Kensington, PA, 1996, 2004, Page 566