Before we examine the pieces of God’s armour, we must first answer the question, “What is our strategy in this war?”
Our position in the battle will determine our strategy.
Unfortunately again, those who believe that we must fight for new ground are mistaken, and their strategies are misleading. We are not in this war to gain new territory. We are participants in this war to protect the territory inside us that Jesus won for us.
What is the territory we now occupy with Him? Salvation, eternal life, the practical ways in which we live under His authority, and the power to overcome Satan’s strategies. Let’s look at what He has done to deliver us from Satan’s domain.
Colossians 2:13a NLT
[13] “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away…”
Did you get that? From birth, Satan has held us captive to sin because…
- We were dead to God and could not respond to Him in any way.
- We were slaves to sin and could not obey God’s laws.
- We were condemned to eternal death and could do nothing to save ourselves.
So, we had a lifetime of charges against us, we were accountable to God, and guilty as charged. Satan had a foothold in our lives we could not shake off and a grip on our inner man we could not escape. We were just like him in nature, doomed to eternal death, and utterly cut off from God. We lived in Satan’s territory, trapped and unable to escape from his power.
Romans 8:7-8 NLT
[7] “For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. [8] That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.”
Only God could intervene and change the situation. How did He do it?
Colossians 2:13b-15 NLT
[13]”Then God MADE YOU ALIVE with Christ, for he FORGAVE all our sins. [14] He CANCELED the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. [15] In this way, he DISARMED the spiritual rulers and authorities. He SHAMED them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”
He sent Jesus who obeyed God’s laws perfectly then died in our place to take our punishment for failing to obey God’s instructions. He delivered us from Satan’s grip. Now Satan has no power over us because…
- God made us alive to Him so that we can hear and respond to Him.
- God rescued us from Satan’s domain, brought us into His kingdom, to live under His authority and standards.
- God cancelled our debt of disobedience and nailed it to the cross.
- God gave us His nature to want to be and do what He wants us to be and do.
- We died to sin and our old nature, self. We are free to live in, under, and for God.
Tha battle continues in us because Satan still tries to convince us that God is lying, that He is unreliable, that His promises are not true. He tells us that he is still in charge, that we belong to him, and that we must still do what our old nature tells us to do.
We still have the old nature in us. The desires of our old nature towards Satan and evil and our new nature towards God and good pull us in two opposite directions.
The Apostle Paul realised how powerful this struggle was once he became a believer in Jesus.
Romans 7:9-12, 14-20 NLT
[9] “At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, [10] and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. [11] Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. [12] But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good….
[14] So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. [15] I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. [16] But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. [17] So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. [18] And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. [19] I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. [20] But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.”
How was he ever to escape sin’s grip?
Romans 7:4-6 NLT
[4]”So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You DIED to the power of the law when you DIED WITH CHRIST. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. [5] When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. [6] But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.”
By dying to the old life of sin through his identity with Jesus’ death, Paul was made alive to Jesus’ life in him. He died to Satan’s power and rose to a new life in and under Jesus’ rule. He was living in new territory.
Can you see, then, that our struggle is not to gain ground but to hold the ground which Jesus gained for us?
We are to STAND, not to fight for the territory in which we now live… righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 14:17-18 NLT
[17] “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness, (righteousness), and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
[18] because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.”
The Christian’s armour, then, is mostly defensive because our strategy is to STAND against lies by holding on to truth. We are never to give ground in our thinking and believing to the lies we once believed and followed.
Ephesians 6:13 NIV
[13]”Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”
To be continued…