Christian Warfare -10

The next piece of armor listed by Paul is "the helmet of salvation" (Ephesians 6:16). Paul wrote the Thessalonians with a similar admonition, "But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation" (I Thessalonians 5:8). John Eadie in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians describes the helmet as follows: "It was a cap usually made of leather, strengthened and ornamented with metallic plates or bosses, and commonly surmounted with a crest or plume" (page 472). The helmet’s role in battle for the ancient soldier is obvious, protect the brain from harm. How does salvation serve as the Christian’s helmet? As something hoped for? Hope in the Bible does not refer to something longed for, but for that which there is no assurance. Hope is, according to Vine, "in the N. T., favourable (sic) and confident expectation" (page 572). Paul’s words to the Thessalonians then means, the confident expectation of salvation serves as the helmet in battle with the evil forces in the world. It is the same idea in Ephesians 6:17 as Eadie noted, "Salvation, not the hope of it, is here represented as forming the helmet; not salvation in an objective sense, but in conscious possession" (page 472).

The child of God knows the sins of the past are forgiven, washed away when the blood of Jesus was contacted in obedience to the gospel (Romans 6:17). Sin committed as a Christian is forgiven unless one leaves the light and returns to the world of darkness. (I John 1:6-2:2). This knowledge allows the soldier of the Lord to engage the enemy without fear of the future. If the battle brings death, as it did for many in the first century and beyond, the words of Revelation 14:13 apply: "Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." Satan can not take this salvation away from those who possess it as Paul emphasized to the Romans when he wrote: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35-39).

Nothing can separate us from God’s love and the salvation He offers through Jesus. The battle is ours if we remain faithful. The use of the protective armor provided by God assures us the victory is ours. Let us go forth into battle with the assurance of our salvation, the victory over sin through Jesus.

—Denny