Many years ago while I was working with Youth With A Mission in
India one young man, 25 years old, wanted to learn how to ride a motor bike in
the hilly region where our base was located. Off he went with another staff
early in the morning for his motor bike experience. A few hours later I got the
news saying this young man had fallen off a cliff 30 feet below and sustained a
head injury. I rushed to the spot as I picked him up I realized he was not
wearing a helmet. He died after being in coma for seven days. If only he had he
worn a helmet his life might have been saved not only that several Muslims
would have come to know Jesus as he was about to launch his ministry team among
Muslims. Another promising young YWAM leader also was killed in an automobile
accident and he too was not wearing a helmet.
After these incidents we made it
mandatory for all staff to wear helmets while driving motor bikes. Needless to say wearing a helmet while riding two wheelers
is a precautionary measure but countless of people have lost their lives by
ignoring this simple preventive advice for the sake of comfort and wanting to
appear cool.
Wearing
helmets in combat situations is also considered as an important protective and
defensive measure. If anyone ignores such advice they only do it to their own
detriment. In Spiritual battles also wearing a helmet is paramount; the Apostle
Paul describes it as “the helmet of Salvation.”
Ephesians 6:17
Let me refresh our memory. We have
embarked on a journey to find out what are
the defensive, offensive and neutral weapons of warfare against the evil
one. So far we have learned about the
Belt of Truth which holds the whole armor in place. The truth is not a thing he
is the person of Jesus Christ. When we put him on, the one who said I am the
Truth, we will learn to discern the error and false doctrines when they come on
our way.
We learned that putting on the
breast plate of righteousness means that we put away our self righteous
attitudes and proud behaviors and actually develop the attitude of Christ which
is one of humility, letting go, and servant hood and giving up of our rights.
We talked about the shoes of the
gospel of peace with which we can tread upon our enemy. We can actually walk
into dark places, sin ridden areas by preaching the message of peace. We
learrned that Christ is our peace he came to this world; lived, died and rose
again after three days and went up to heaven and he is coming back to take all
those who believed in the message of peace.. That is the good news. We are
commanded to share that news with others.
In our combat with the enemy we
learned that it is not just enough to have these three weapons but to have
three more weapons. Last week we learned the importance of taking up the shield
of faith to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the enemy. Remember I said how
by having faith and trust in God we can extinguish the darts of fear, pride,
insecurity and unbelief; on the same evening I came under tremendous attack by
the enemy. I was afflicted with a ridiculously, miserable pain in my body for
almost a week.
I wanted to practice what I
preached so I prayed the word, spoke the word, believed that pain would go
away, rebuked the devil and the pain but after having done all that the pain
only remained and it seemed only getting worse. One thing I did not do was
rushing to the hospital.
I did not understand why God has
not answered my prayer and taken that pain away. But the situation demanded me
to ask some soul searching questions. Did I lack faith? Absolutely not; may be
I should have more faith; well if so how much more; was there a sin problem? I
checked my heart and confessed every possible sin I thought I had committed; is
God not able to heal me? I have no doubt in my mind over his ability to heal.
The pain has got worse on Friday;
all night I tossed back and forth in bed, knelt down and prayed, sat up
whatever I did pain did not go away. My wife chastised me for not listening to
her advice to go to the hospital on Thursday itself. It was six o clock in the
morning my wife and I once again took our faith stand rebuked the devil and the
pain and began to thank God for his healing. All of a sudden there was relief
and I could fall of to sleep. A little later I woke up pain free and everything
was normal again. I thank God for his healing.
As I was preparing the message for
this week; pondering on the full armor of God and the order in which the weapons
were mentioned, it became clear for me to why. Interestingly Paul after
encouraging the believers to take up the shield of faith and extinguish all the
flaming arrows of the enemy says; “having put on the helmet of salvation” Why
did Paul say put on the helmet of salvation? What is its significance in the
spiritual warfare?
When everything goes according to
our wish and will. When whatever we do turns out to be gold. When we climb the
peak of success it is easy to maintain our faith isn't it? We can sing praises
to God and say Hallelujah. But when we face hardships, trails; disappointments
or are faced with pain, grief; incurable sickness and when we feel like there
is no hope for our situation that is when it is very difficult for anyone to
maintain faith. For me that was last
week’s situation; for others may be some thing else. We tend to doubt God; his
promises and even our very own salvation.
In
the verse we read Paul urged the Ephesian believers to not to loose hope even
when they go through trials and tribulations. In
describing the metaphorical armor with which the Christian is to fortify
himself, one of the items listed by Paul is the “helmet of salvation”
(Ephesians 6:17).
The term “helmet” is derived from a compound Greek term
conveying the idea of “around the head.” The imagery appears to be borrowed
from Isaiah 59:17, “He put on righteousness like a breast plate, and a helmet
of salvation around His head.” This is applied to Jehovah, our divine warrior.
In that context it seems to suggest the power of God to defeat his enemies and
save his people. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, it speaks of the
Christian’s need to remember that he has been saved by believing in Christ
through baptism according to Mark 16:16 which says, “Whoever believes and
baptized will be saved, but whoever doesn’t believe will be condemned.” He
needs put that as a helmet on his head in order to protect himself against the
accusations and doubts that the enemy brings to his mind regarding his
salvation.
For
example; what did Job’s wife suggest to Jjob when he was going through
excruciating agony and bodily pain? She said to him, “Are you still holding on
to your integrity? Curse God and die! (Job 2:9) None of us haven been as severely
tested as Job was, even then the tempter can whisper in our ears; why don’t you
give up your faith in God; there is no use to believe him anymore; Curse God
and die! Unfortunately; there are a
whole lot of people out there who are falling to that temptation; they curse
God going into their grave. Where as Job did not curse God, instead he said,
“You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not
trouble? In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. (Job 2:9-10) He went on
to say “till I die I will not deny my integrity” Job27:5, what made Job not to give
up his faith in the midst of suffering? Most likely, he put on the helmet of
salvation around his head.
Let me share a few thoughts about how I understand
salvation of mankind works. Salvation has three tenses the past, present and
future. The past, “we have been saved.” “For
it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Ephe 2:8)
This scripture tells us that salvation
is the work and the gift of God. No one can earn it, but all can receive it by
grace and through faith in Christ. This is also called the work of regeneration
& justification. The moment we accept Christ as our savior God saves us
from all our past sins and gives us a fresh start to follow and serve Him. That
is just the beginning. Life must go on. Hence the present tense; “we are being
saved” “Now I would remind
you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which
you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I
preached to you, unless you believed in
vain.” I Cor 15:1-2 (ESV). “Therefore we do
not loose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away outwardly we are being
renewed day by day.” (2 Cor 4:16)
This
concept of being saved and renewed daily is called; “Sanctification” This is
the work of God purging, removing the impurities from our lives so that we may
be more like his son Jesus. God uses trials and discipline to sanctify his
children. This work of cleansing will continue throughout our lives hence the
future; “we will be saved.” Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more
shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!.. how much more,
having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:9-10) “The hour
has already come for you to wake
up from your slumber, because our
salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. (Romans 13:11).
These scriptures indicate a time where we will be finally
saved from the corruption of this world which is called glorification. Reading
through these scriptures we can conclude that Salvation is a process. We have
been saved; we are being sanctified daily and in the end we will be glorified.
Let’s bear one thing in mind; all this is the work of God and none of our
doing. All we have to do is to believe in the saving, sanctifying and
glorifying work of God.
When you are plagued with doubts by the enemy whether you
are saved or not, especially when you are going through hardship and painful
moments remember to put on the helmet of salvation and tell the adversary; I am
secured in Christ’s forgiveness. May salvation is taken care of. Jesus who
began a good work in me is faithful to complete it.
Let me conclude with these assuring words from Romans
8:37-39, No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who
loved us. 38 For
I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the
present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height
nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.” As urged by Paul to the Thessalonians, But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and
love as a breastplate, and the
hope of salvation as a helmet.” I Thessalonians 5:8 Amen
