The Believer’s  Armor—part 1 (6:14-15)

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Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; (6:14-15)

The great supernatural warfare raging throughout the universe that Paul describes in 6:11-12 is between God and His angels and the forces of Satan. Because Christians belong to God they are drawn into this spiritual conflict as they are attacked by the various “schemes of the devil.” God’s enemy becomes their enemy.

This is the supernatural enemy who rebelled against God in His own heavens, who succeeded in luring man from innocence to sin in the Garden of Eden, who repeatedly tried to destroy God’s chosen people, Israel. This is the enemy who tried to stop the birth, ministry, and resurrection of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. This is the enemy of unequalled wickedness who seeks to thwart Christ’s coming again and who will oppose Him with desperate and unprecedented fierceness when He does return.

Because the “struggle is not against flesh and blood” (v. 12), the Christian cannot fight it in the power of his own flesh and blood (2 Cor. 10:3-5). It is first of all God’s battle and it can be fought only in God’s power and in God’s armor.

Satan opposes the believer in many ways, some of them direct and obvious and others of them indirect and subtle. First of all, he attempts to impugn God’s character and credibility, just as he did with Adam and Eve. Because man’s greatest strength is to trust God, Satan’s objective is to make him distrust God. In countless variations Satan continues to tempt men to doubt God’s will (“Indeed, has God said?“) and to doubt His motives (“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,” Gen. 3:1, 5). The devil’s supreme desire is to convince men that God is untrustworthy, to cause them to deny God’s Word and to make Him a liar (see 1 John 5:10). Satan paints the Father of truth in his own perverse image as “the father of lies” (John 8:44).

When a believer doubts God’s goodness, love, power, grace, mercy, or sufficiency, he joins Satan in impugning God’s truthfulness. When a believer becomes anxious, despondent, depressed, and hopeless, he joins Satan in impugning God’s trustworthiness. He entices some believers even to commit murder against themselves through suicide, because they will not recognize or accept the forgiveness their heavenly Father continually and freely offers (1 John 1:9). When a young child dies or is permanently crippled, a husband or wife is taken away, a child turns away from the Lord, or we lose our business or our health, Satan or his demons may attempt to generate thoughts in the mind that place the blame on God. This arena of conflict also involves attacking the truthfulness and sufficiency of Scripture.

Second, Satan tries to undermine present victory by generating trouble that makes life difficult, thereby tempting us to forsake obedience to God’s standards and calling. His most extreme tactic is persecution. Throughout the history of the church, believers have had to pay for their faith with their reputation, their freedom, their jobs, their families, and even their lives. Perhaps the devil’s most common and effective persecution of Christians comes in the form of peer pressure. Fear of criticism and the desire to be accepted by friends leads believers to compromise God’s Word. Satan may even reverse his approach and undercut faithful Christian living by making it easy. Without hardships there is the inclination to lose the sense of dependence on the Lord. The easiest circumstances are often the hardest ones in which to be faithful. Many believers whose faith is strengthened by hard times find it is weakened when the battlefield is quiet. Christianity is often impotent when it is acceptable.

Third, Satan attacks believers through doctrinal confusion and falsehood. Christians who are untaught in God’s Word fall easy prey to wrong ideas about the things of God—about salvation, sanctification, morality, heaven and hell, the second coming, and every other biblical truth. The believer who is confused about God’s Word cannot be effective in God’s work. He is “tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14). The enemy continually tries to convince Christians that Scripture is difficult to understand and insufficient to deal with complex issues, so that the average person cannot possibly expect to make sense or application of it and might as well give up trying. When believers hear preachers and teachers giving conflicting and even contradictory interpretations of doctrine, their fears about Scripture being difficult to understand are reinforced. And instead of studying God’s Word for themselves, many become willing sheep for false shepherds to lead astray. In the process they send millions of dollars of the Lord’s money to support unworthy causes.

Fourth, Satan attacks God’s people by hindering their service to Him. He opposes every faithful life and every effective ministry. He opposed Paul’s work in Ephesus through “many adversaries” (1 Cor. 16:9) and even gave the apostle “a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet [him]” (2 Cor. 12:7), and hindered his plans for Thessalonica (1 Thess. 2:18). The Lord used that thorn to strengthen Paul’s ministry by keeping him dependent and humble and He used that hindrance to accomplish His priority work elsewhere, but Satan’s purpose was to undermine and weaken the work.

Fifth, Satan attacks believers by causing divisions. That is why Jesus prayed so earnestly and repeatedly for the unity of His followers (John 17:11, 21-23) and commands them to be quickly and willingly reconciled to each other (Matt. 5:24). Nothing more clearly evidenced the carnality of the Corinthian church than its divisiveness (see 1 Cor. 1-3), and one of Paul’s great concerns for the Ephesian believers was that they be “diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). The enemy knows God cannot work effectively in or through a body of believers who will not work lovingly with each other.

Sixth, Satan attacks believers by persuading them to trust their own resources. To attempt to do the Lord’s work in our own power is not to do His work at all. After David had experienced many years of successful rule over Israel and of defeating her enemies, “Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.” Instead of relying on the Lord as he had in the past, David decided to count his own resources in terms of soldiers. “God was displeased with this thing, so He struck Israel” with judgment. “And David said to God, ‘I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of Thy servant, for I have done very foolishly’” (1 Chron. 21:1-8).

It is easy for believers to rely on their knowledge of God’s Word instead of on the One who gives the Word and makes it effective. No matter how orthodox and comprehensive our theology and no matter how solid the scriptural foundation of our understanding, if we do not rely day by day on God’s leading and provision, living in constant faith and dependent prayer, we are unprepared soldiers of Christ and are vulnerable to our spiritual adversaries. Being filled with God’s Word but not obedient to His Spirit has caused the downfall of many believers. Right doctrine without right devotion is a serious pitfall for many Christians. The person who trusts in his own understanding instead of the Lord Himself (Prov. 3:5) plays into Satan’s hands. As we noted with this very church at Ephesus, within a few years it became cold and mechanical in the expression of its orthodoxy. Right theology without deep devotion to Christ cannot prevent the death of a church.

Seventh, Satan attacks believers by leading them into hypocrisy. One of his greatest successes throughout the history of the church is that of populating the church with religious unbelievers and with real believers who live disobedient lives. The believer who is more concerned about his outward reputation than his inner spirituality does the devil’s work, not the Lord’s. To be satisfied with covering our sins and spiritual weaknesses with a mask of piety, rather than bringing them to the Lord for cleansing and strengthening, is to play Satan’s game.

Eighth, Satan attacks believers by leading them into worldliness, by enticing them to let the world squeeze them “into its own mold” (see Rom. 12:2, Phillips). In times of prosperity he finds it particularly easy to lead God’s people into materialism, self-satisfaction, self-indulgence, hedonism, and contentedness with the things of this world. Again reflecting on the warning of John, we are reminded, “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (1 John 2:15-16).

Ninth, in a way that encompasses all the others, Satan attacks believers by leading them to disobey God’s Word. Because God wants us to act faithfully, the enemy encourages us to act unfaithfully. Because God wants us to live morally, the enemy solicits us to live immorally. Because God wants us to speak the truth, the enemy tempts us to lie. Because God wants us to love, the enemy tempts us to hate. Because God wants us to be content with what we have, the enemy tempts us to covet. Because God wants us to live by faith, the enemy tempts us to live by sight. And so with every command and standard of Scripture.

Yet, although we should be aware of these devices of Satan, our defense against them is not simply our knowledge of them but rather God’s provision to meet them. “Therefore, take up the full armor of God,” Paul says, “that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm” (Eph. 6:13). Partial armor is not enough. Jesus asked, “What king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?” (Luke 14:31). We cannot know exactly when, where, or how the enemy will attack. We therefore need to have on all of God’s armor all the time. When the believer has on God’s full armor, it is not necessary to fully know or specifically understand the devil’s schemes. In fact, many times the Christian soldier will not even be aware of a danger from which God’s armor is at that moment protecting him.

In Ephesians 6:14-17 Paul tells us of the seven pieces of armor with which God supplies His children to withstand the onslaughts of Satan and his hosts.

As indicated by having … (representing the Greek aorist tense), the first three pieces of armor are permanent, and the believer is never to be without them.

THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH

Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, (6:14a)

The Roman soldier always wore a tunic, an outer garment that served as his primary clothing. It was usually made of a large, square piece of material with holes cut out for the head and arms. Ordinarily it draped loosely over most of the soldier’s body. Since the greatest part of ancient combat was hand-to-hand, a loose tunic was a potential hindrance and even a danger. Before a battle it was therefore carefully cinched up and tucked into the heavy leather belt that girded the soldier’s loins.

The ordinary citizen of the Near East had a similar problem with his robe. When he was in a hurry or had heavy work to do, he either took the robe off or tucked it around his waist. As God prepared the children of Israel to eat the Passover meal before they left Egypt, He instructed Moses to tell them, “Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste” (Ex. 12:11). Concerning His second coming, Jesus tells us to “be dressed in readiness” (Luke 12:35), which is literally, “have your loins girded.” Peter used the same expression when he said, “Therefore, gird your minds [lit., “gird up the loins of your minds”] for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:13). Girding the loins was a mark of preparedness, and the soldier who was serious about fighting was sure to secure his tunic with his belt.

The belt that girded it all securely together and demonstrates the believer’s readiness for war is truth. Alethēia (truth) basically refers to the content of that which is true. The content of God’s truth is absolutely essential for the believer in his battle against the schemes of Satan. Without knowledge of biblical teaching, he is, as the apostle has already pointed out, subject to being “carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (4:14). In his first letter to Timothy, Paul warns that “the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). The “doctrines of demons” taught by cults and false religions have their origin in the “deceitful spirits” that in Ephesians Paul calls “rulers,… powers,… world forces of this darkness,… [and] spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (6:12). These false schemes of Satan can be successfully encountered only with the truth of the Word of God.

But aletheia (truth) can also refer to the attitude of truthfulness. It represents not only the accuracy of specific truths but the quality of truthfulness. That seems to be the primary meaning Paul has in mind here. The Christian is to gird himself in an attitude of total truthfulness. To be girded … with truth therefore shows an attitude of readiness and of genuine commitment. It is the mark of the sincere believer who forsakes hypocrisy and sham. Every encumbrance that might hinder his work for the Lord is gathered and tucked into his belt of truthfulness so that it will be out the way. Just as the serious runner takes off every unnecessary piece of clothing before the race (Heb. 12:1), the serious soldier tucks in every loose piece of clothing before the battle.

How much more important is the Christian’s preparedness as he faces the forces of Satan. “No soldier in active service,” Paul says, “entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier” (2 Tim. 2:4). It is sad that so many Christians are content to let the “tunics” of their daily cares and concerns flap in the breeze around them—continually interfering with their faithfulness to the Lord and giving the devil every opportunity to entangle and defeat them with their own immature habits and interests.

I believe that being girded… with truth primarily has to do with the self-discipline of total commitment. It is the committed Christian, just as it is the committed soldier and the committed athlete, who is prepared. Winning in war and in sports is often said to be the direct result of desire that leads to careful preparation and maximum effort. It is the army or the team who wants most to win who is most likely to do so—even against great odds.

Some years ago I was told of a young Jewish man from the United States who decided to go to Israel and live. After working there for two years he was required either to serve in the army for a given period of time or to return home. He decided to join the army. His father was a good friend of an Israeli general, who at first was afraid the young man would use that friendship to secure an easy, safe assignment. Instead, he went to the general and said, “My present duty is too easy. I want to be in the finest, most strategic, diligent, and difficult regiment in the Israeli army.” Commenting on that spirit of dedication, the general said, “People think Israelis are so successful at war because we are a super people or that we have super intellect or super strength. But our success is not built on any of those things; it is built on commitment, unreserved and sacrificial commitment.”

If athletes so dedicate and discipline themselves in order to possibly win a race and receive “a perishable wreath” from the world, how much more should believers in Jesus Christ dedicate and discipline themselves to absolutely win in their struggle against Satan and receive an “imperishable” wreath from God (1 Cor. 9:25)?

Being girded … with truth is being renewed in the mind, in order to “prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). When the mind is renewed in commitment to God’s truth, there is empowerment for the Christian soldier to become “a living and holy sacrifice” that please God and is that believer’s “spiritual service of worship” (v. 1). In many ways it is more difficult and more demanding to be a living sacrifice than a dying one. To be burned at the stake for one’s faith would be painful, but it would soon be over. To live a lifetime of faithful obedience can also be painful at times, and its demands go on and on. It requires staying power that only continual and total commitment to the Lord can provide. It demands that love “abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that [we] may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Phil. 1:9-11). Love, knowledge, and understanding of God all need to grow in us. And when those grow, so does our commitment to the Lord for excellence in all things—the ultimate goal of which is “the glory and praise of God.”

To be content with mediocrity, lethargy, indifference, and half-heartedness is to fail to be armored with the belt of God’s truth and to leave oneself exposed to Satan’s schemes.

John Monsell’s hymn focuses on the virtue of true commitment:

THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, (6:14b)

No Roman soldier would go into battle without his breastplate, a tough, sleeveless piece of armor that covered his full torso. It was often made of leather or heavy linen, onto which were sewn overlapping slices of animal hooves or horns or pieces of metal. Some were made of large pieces of metal molded or hammered to conform to the body. The purpose of that piece of armor is obvious—to protect the heart, lungs, intestines, and other vital organs.

In ancient Jewish thinking, the heart represented the mind and the will and the bowels were considered the seat of emotions and feelings. The mind and the emotions are the two areas where Satan most fiercely attacks believers. He creates a world system, a sinful environment by which he tempts us to think wrong thoughts and to feel wrong emotions. He wants to cloud our minds with false doctrine, false principles, and false information in order to mislead and confuse us. He also wants to confuse our emotions and thereby pervert our affections, morals, loyalties, goals, and commitments. He desires to snatch the Word of God from our minds and replace it with his own perverse ideas. He seeks to undermine pure living and replace it with immorality, greed, envy, hate, and every other vice. He wants us to laugh at sin rather than mourn over it, and to rationalize it rather than confess it and bring it to the Lord for forgiveness. He seduces us to become so used to sin in us and around us that it no longer bothers our conscience.

The protection against those attacks of Satan is the breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness is to be taken and wrapped around our whole being, as it were, just as ancient soldiers covered themselves with breastplates of armor.

Paul is obviously not speaking here of self-righteousness, which is not righteousness at all but the worst form of sin. It is, however, with this sort of righteousness that many Christians clothe themselves, thinking that their own character and legalistic behavior and accomplishments please God and will bring His reward. But far from protecting a believer, a cloak of self-righteousness gives Satan a ready-made weapon to stifle and smother our spiritual life and service. Self-righteousness will as surely keep a believer out of the power of fellowship with God as it will keep an unbeliever out of His kingdom (Matt. 5:20). Our own righteousness, even as believers, is nothing more than filthy garments (Isa. 64:6). It brings us no favor with God and no protection from Satan.

Nor is Paul speaking here of imputed righteousness, the perfect righteousness God applies to the account of every Christian the moment he believes in Christ (Rom. 4:6, 11, 22-24). God made Christ, “who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). We cannot put on what God has already clothed us with. We are permanently dressed in that righteousness, throughout our lives on earth and throughout all eternity.

God’s imputed righteousness is the basis of our Christian life and of our Christian living. It protects us from hell, but it does not, in itself, protect us from Satan in this present life. The breastplate of righteousness that we put on as spiritual armor against our adversary is the practical righteousness of a life lived in obedience to God’s Word. (Cf. the putting on of righteous behavior in line with the “new self” in 4:24-27, which having been done, will “not give the devil an opportunity.” See also the putting on of righteous deeds in Col. 3:9-14.)

Paul shows the relationship between these two forms of true righteousness in Philippians 3. His salvation, he tells us, was based solely on God’s imputed righteousness, “not having a righteousness of [his] own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (v. 9). But his Christian living involved another kind of righteousness, the practical working out of his imputed righteousness: “Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (vv. 12-14). Imputed righteousness makes practical righteousness possible, but only obedience to the Lord makes practical righteousness a reality.

Paul gloried in his imputed righteousness, which only God’s saving grace can bestow. But he did not presume on it as many believers throughout the history of the church have done. Christians who say that it doesn’t really matter how they think or talk or act, because all sins—past, present, and future—are covered by Christ’s blood, reflect this presumption and vulnerability to the enemy. It is this irrational and unscriptural argument that Paul counters in Romans 6. “Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? … Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (w. 1-2, 11-13). Jesus died to save us from every aspect of sin, its presence as well as its power and penalty.

To put on the breastplate of righteousness is to live in daily, moment-by-moment obedience to our heavenly Father. This part of God’s armor is holy living, for which God supplies the standard and the power but for which we must supply the willingness. God Himself puts on our imputed righteousness, but we must put on our practical righteousness.

Not to be armored with the breastplate of righteousness will first of all cost the Christian his joy. John’s first epistle contains many warnings and commands to believers, and these are given—along with the other truths of the letter—“so that our joy may be made complete” (1 John 1:4). In other words, lack of obedience brings lack of joy. The only joyful Christian is the obedient Christian.

Many, if not most, of the emotional and relational problems Christians experience are caused by lack of personal holiness. Many of our disappointments and discouragements do not come from circumstances or from other people but from our own unconfessed and uncleansed sin. And when circumstances and other people do manage to rob us of happiness, it is because we are unprotected by the armor of a holy life. In either case the cause of unhappiness is our own sin. After David committed adultery with Bathsheba and ordered the death of her husband, Uriah, he had no peace. That is why his great psalm of penitence for those sins includes the plea, “Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation” (Ps. 51:12). Unholy living does not rob us of salvation, but it robs us of salvation’s joy.

The church today is often guilty of supplying believers with the paper armor of good advice, programs, activities, techniques, and methods—when what they need is godly armor of holy living. No program, method, or technique can bring wholeness and happiness to the believer who is unwilling to confront and forsake his sin.

Second, failure to be armed with practical righteousness will cause fruitlessness. The disobedient Christian is unproductive in the things of the Lord. Whatever accomplishments he may seem to achieve will be sham, hollow hulls that have no spiritual fruit inside.

Third, unholy living brings loss of reward. Whatever the worldly, fleshly believer does will never amount to anything worthy of heavenly praise. It is no more than wood, hay, or straw in God’s sight, and when he faces the Lord his worthless work will be burned up and his reward forfeited (1 Cor. 3:12-15).

Fourth, unholy living brings reproach on God’s glory. The greatest evil of a Christian’s sin is its reflection on his heavenly Father. Unholiness fails to “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect” (Titus 2:10).

“Beloved,” Peter implores, “I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul” (1 Pet. 2:11). Fleshly lusts and every other form of sin are part of Satan’s arsenal with which he wages war against our very souls. Our armor must therefore include the breastplate of righteousness, the genuine holiness of the genuine Christian whose “every thought [is] captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5) and whose mind is set “on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2). “The night is almost gone,” Paul says, “and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light…. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Rom. 13:12, 14).

FEET SHOD WITH THE GOSPEL

and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; (6:15)

Today we have shoes for every conceivable type of activity. We have dress shoes, work shoes, leisure shoes. In athletics there are special shoes for every sport, sometimes several types for a given sport. A tennis player might wear one type of shoe on a concrete court, another kind on clay, and still another on grass. Likewise, football and baseball players wear different shoes to play on different surfaces.

A soldier’s shoes are more important even than an athlete’s, because his very life could depend on them. As he marches on rough, hot roads, climbs over jagged rocks, tramples over thorns, and wades through streambeds of jagged stones, his feet need much protection. A soldier whose feet are blistered, cut, or swollen cannot fight well and often is not even be able to stand up—a perilous situation in battle. He cannot very well handle his sword or shield and cannot advance rapidly or even retreat.

In addition to being made tough and durable to protect his feet, the Roman soldier’s shoes, or boots, were usually impregnated with bits of metal or nails to give him greater traction as he climbed a slippery cliff and greater stability as he fought.

A Christian’s spiritual footwear is equally important in his warfare against the schemes of the devil. If he has carefully girded his loins with truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness, but does not properly shod his feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, he is destined to stumble, fall, and suffer many defeats.

Hetoimasia (preparation) has the general meaning of readiness. In Titus 3:1 Paul uses the term to exhort believers “to be ready for every good deed” (emphasis added). A good pair of boots allows the soldier to be ready to march, climb, fight, or do whatever else is necessary. Christ demands the same readiness of His people.

Because Paul quoted Isaiah 52:7 in the context of preaching the gospel (“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!” Rom. 10:15), many commentators also interpret Ephesians 6:15 as a reference to preaching. But in the Ephesians text Paul is not talking about preaching or teaching but about righting spiritual battles. And he is not talking about traveling about but standing firm (vv. 11, 13, 14). His subject is not evangelizing the lost but fighting the devil.

In this passage the gospel of peace refers to the good news that believers are at peace with God. The unsaved person is helpless, ungodly, sinful, and an enemy of God (Rom. 5:6-10). The saved person, on the other hand, is reconciled to God through faith in His Son (vv. 10-11). As Paul had proclaimed a few verses earlier, “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:1). “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,” Paul explained to the Colossians, “yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (1:21-22).

The gospel of peace is the marvelous truth that in Christ we are now at peace with God and are one with Him. Therefore, when our feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, we stand in the confidence of God’s love for us, His union with us, and His commitment to fight for us.

When Peter took out his sword as the soldiers came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, he considered himself invincible, because he had just seen all the soldiers fall to the ground simply at Jesus’ words, “I am He” (John 18:6). As the children of Israel faced the great Midianite army that numbered some thirty-two thousand men, the Lord told Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, lest Israel become boastful, saying ‘My own power has delivered me’” (Judg. 7:2). After Gideon had trimmed his own force down to but three hundred men, the Lord gave Israel an astounding victory without their using a single weapon (v. 22). As Judah was about to be invaded by the powerful armies of Ammon and Moab, the Lord promised King Jehoshaphat, “Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s” (2 Chron. 20:15). As His people “began singing and praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed. For the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir destroying them completely, and when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. When Judah came to the lookout of the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and behold, they were corpses lying on the ground, and no one had escaped” (vv. 22-24). As with Gideon’s band against Midian, the Lord won the victory without His people raising a weapon.

The believer who stands in the Lord’s power need not fear any enemy, even Satan himself. When he comes to attack us, our feet are rooted firmly on the solid ground of the gospel of peace, through which God changed from our enemy to our defender. We who were once His enemies are now His children, and our heavenly Father offers us His full resources to “be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might” (Eph. 6:10). “If God is for us, who is against us?” Paul asks. “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:31, 37-39).

The Spirit-filled believer who is fully clad in God’s armor can sing confidently with John Newton,