November 10 2013

 "Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the devices of the devil. ......Ephesians 6:11

Here the verb "stand" means, "To hold your ground." It is not, in modern parlance, a command to march, as if to invade a foreign territory in order to occupy and subdue. God has not told us to do this! "Stand" simply implies that the ground disputed by the enemy is already really God's and therefore it is ours. It was the Lord Jesus who carried the offensive into Satan's kingdom; to gain by His death and His resurrection a mighty victory. He died and rose from the dead, not for Himself, but for us!

Today in the Church as Christ's body, we fight only to maintain, consolidate and defend the victory that He has won and gained for us. That is perhaps why the armour described here is largely defensive. For the territory is already His. We do not fight to gain a foothold on it. We only need to defend the ground that is already ours and to hold onto it against all incoming challenges. The Lord Jesus is Himself our whole armour of God! He is our helmet of Salvation! He is our breastplate of Righteousness! He is our Gospel of Peace and our peace of heart! He is our belt of Truth and our reality! He is our sword of the spirit which is the living word of God that proceeds out of our mouth! He is our faith and our shield of faith! He is our all!