Properly Fitted With Armor

From The Christian Reader:

Properly Fitted with Armor


If by negligence or choice you fail to put on God’s armor and rush naked into battle, you sign your own death certificate.





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The story is told of a fanatic in Munster who valiantly tried to repulse an invading army by shouting, “In the name of the Lord of hosts, depart!” But his unregenerate soul had no such commission from the General for whom he pretended to fight, and he soon perished. His example should teach us the high price to be paid for such folly. What brave but foolish language you hear drop from the lips of the most profane and ignorant among us! They say they hope in God and trust in His mercy; that they defy the devil and his works. But all the while they are poor, naked creatures without the least piece of God’s armor upon their souls. Such presumption has no place in the Lord’s camp.



Paul’s admonition to put on armor falls into two general parts. First, a direction telling us what to do: “Put on the whole armor of God…” And second, why we should do it: “… that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”



So to begin, every recruit in Christ’s army should be properly fitted with armor. The first question that comes to mind is, What is this armor?



We are told, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14), where Christ is presented as armor. The apostle does not exhort the saints simply to put on temperance in place of drunkenness, or for adultery to put on chastity. Instead, he tells them to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” implying that until Christ is put on, the creature is unarmed. It is not the man decked out in morality or philosophical virtues who will repel a full charge of temptation sent from Satan’s cannon; it is the man suited up in armor—that is, Christ.



I speak now of the “girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness,” and so forth. We are instructed to “put on the new man” (Ephesians 4:24), who is made up of all the graces. The point is this: To be without Christ and His graces is to be without armor.



by William Gurnall, from The Christian in Complete Armor