War and Peace - Part 2
Stand firm therefore…having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace [Ephesians 6:14-15].
We are to conduct spiritual warfare and defeat the devil in his wiles. Symbolically, the Word of God keeps our feet unencumbered by the pitfalls and stumbling blocks of the flesh, the world, and the devil. God’s Word is like the belt which anchors the tunic away from the feet so we don’t stumble. God’s Word is “the belt of truth”.
The second piece of armor is “the breastplate of righteousness”. Man in his own strength cannot stand against the devil. We will fall for his guile in no time flat. The devil will remind us of whatever weakness and failing we have, which is as simple as pie for him.
Satan might point out the last time we sinned, and we will be speechless, unable to refute him because he would be right. Or Satan might butter us up with some supposed achievement which we accomplished, should our weakness be pride. Our head will swell to the size of Rhode Island, and we will be defeated outright.
No man, including the Christian, is righteous in his own right. We all sin and we all fail. Ergo, we cannot confront Satan in our own righteousness. We need “the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”, if we are to be victorious in spiritual warfare.
That is “the breastplate of righteousness”. As new creations in Christ Jesus, we don’t stand on our own righteousness. We stand on the Rock, Christ Jesus. We have His righteousness ascribed to us by God.
Satan can point the finger at the old sinner’s lack of righteousness until the cows come home. God isn’t impressed. His Son Jesus names us as His own, as having His righteousness. God declares us “Not guilty!” Satan goes away ashamed.
The third piece of armor for us to put on can be identified as “the shoes or sandals of peace”. And that identifies the “war and peace” we made note of earlier. On the one hand we are going forth to conduct spiritual warfare. On the other hand we are fitting our feet with the gospel of peace.
Isn’t that peculiar? Are we to conduct war or are we to hold peace talks? Which is it already! Well, it’s both. How’s that for decisiveness, eh?
Permit me to explain. When we conduct spiritual warfare, we don’t do so by pushing our own agenda. We serve the Lord Christ, not ourselves. We conduct spiritual warfare by proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Ah oh. Just when we were getting to the nitty gritty, the sand in the clock has filled the bottom. Oh well. We’ll be able to roll the good things of today over our tongues a bit, as we sit at the feet of Jesus. Tomorrow we will continue down this trail.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please click on the "Shop" tab at the top of this page, where you will find a complete list of my books. Each book is available in both paperback (Createspace) and eBook (Kindle).
Comments