So you’ve just read Ephesians 6:13-18, and you’re ready to put on the classic Christian gear for battling against the spiritual forces of evil. Standing there in your metaphorical skivvies, you take Uncle Paul’s full armor of God from the Biblical closet, dust off the pieces, and after a good spit-shine, you fit them into place all over your body.
The belt of truth snaps around your waist, the breastplate of righteousness perfectly covers your chest, and the helmet of salvation is a little big on your head until you adjust the strap. By the time you slip on those Gospel shoes, pick up that sword of the Spirit and grab the shield of faith, you are definitely looking for a mirror to see how impressive you look.
No doubt for some Christians this may be a common experience, albeit a far-fetched example for the sake of illustration. Indeed, it is often assumed that these armaments listed by Paul are simply metaphors for the personal tools of faith that the believer uses to fight an individual battle against the devil. And certainly there is nothing wrong with such a worthy pursuit if such personal application of a Biblical principle helps one to walk in a way which pleases God and brings glory to Christ. After all, a house is only as strong as the peculiar stones which comprise it (1 Peter 2:5).
This familiar viewpoint concerning a more individualized armor of God, however, may limit or distort the profound meaning that Paul was really trying to convey to us. The equipping of this prophetic armor upon the Church, in fact, is much more startling in its significance than for the purpose of mere personal application, though a more intimate union with Christ is definitely in view for the believer.
To truly understand the point of Ephesians 6:13-18, one must see the striking similarities between Paul’s description of the armor of God and the instruments of warfare that the coming Messiah is shown to be wearing in the Old Testament, specifically in Isaiah 11:5, Isaiah 49:2, Isaiah 52:6-7, Isaiah 59:16-17 and Psalm 35:1-3. Paul’s use of this Old Testament messianic imagery in Ephesians is no small coincidence, and it would serve us well to take full notice of it.
When we read these Old Testament passages, we are told of the Messiah who will one day come and wear these items on His Body: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and the helmet of salvation. Does this armor sound familiar? It should, because when the Body of Christ is discussed in great detail in Ephesians, Paul teaches that the Church (aka the Body) is to clothe herself with the very same things that were prophesied to be worn on the body of the coming Messiah.
What does this mean? It means that the Church is not simply an army of Christian soldiers individually clothed for spiritual battle; we are actually united with Christ as His One Body. In other words, if Jesus is to do His work through His Body, then Christians must be corporately vested with the same spiritual armor as the Messiah, Who is our Head and the Captain of our Salvation.
As pointed out in the Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament:
“Paul transfers ‘the whole armor of God’ from God himself, or from his Messiah, to God’s people in this passage because… he knows that the victory of God’s people over the devil is not yet complete” (pg. 832).
Indeed Christ has work yet to do through us, His people!
This truth should shake the Church to her very core and inspire us to greater and bolder work in spreading His Kingdom message despite the persecution that will come against us for doing so. We need to fully embrace this great mystery of the Church’s intimate, spiritual union with Jesus Christ and lay hold of the power and victory that is innate in that holy identification. To think that the visible Church can just toss off one or more of these elements of our God-given armor in order to avoid confrontation with the world is a stunning betrayal of our Savior. To do so is to eliminate the unique identifying marks of the very Person whom the Church represents.
Jesus Himself spoke of this mystical union with His Church in Matthew 25 and Acts 9 when he saw the acts of negligence and violence perpetrated against His disciples as crimes against His very Person. Why else would Jesus confront Saul, one of the Bible’s most notorious tormentors of the early Christians, and say to him, “Why are you persecuting Me?” Surely the Church is ordained by God to be in the unique position of bearing Christ-likeness to the world as a monolithic force.
We should, therefore, make no apologies to the world for Christ and His Gospel and stand firm as the Church, which is the Body of Christ. This is the Church that Jesus promised would not be overcome by the gates of Hades. We must gladly display our spiritual armor and be prepared to be vilified by the world just as Christ was vilified, and to suffer just as He suffered. Remember, the world is not really directing their attacks against us, they are directing their attacks against Jesus, their Stumbling Stone and Rock of Offense.
Indeed we are engaged in a spiritual battle that will undoubtedly have temporal consequences for us, both individually and corporately. We need look no further than the example of Stephen and his martyrdom to see how this war will often play out when we fight with Truth and Love and the world fights back with the demonic weapons of intimidation and brute force. But just as Jesus promised, the Church in all her godly armor will prevail and bring glory to Him. On this point there is no doubt.
May God grant us the strength, confidence, and boldness to rise up in the full armor of God and proclaim the glory of the Gospel no matter what the cost!
