After arriving home (pre-cell phone days) I called a friend
who had studied at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in the 1980s and I told him
of the accusation. Immediately he
laughed and said, “Oh Doug. They think
you’re Reformational, not Reformed. You
see, to them, being Reformed means always reforming, i.e. always willing to
change and adapt your understanding of the truth.”
Now think of that.
One of the hallmark expressions of the Protestant Reformation was
“Reformed and always reforming.” But they
had redacted it to mean the antithesis of what the Reformers meant. What the Reformers meant was simple – because
of our proclivity to abandon the truth of God’s Word and cater to our own
predilections we need to constantly repent and return to the truth. Instead of a weathervane, the Reformers saw
the truth of the Gospel as a stake driven firmly into the ground, around which
we must anchor our lives.
That’s exactly what Paul is talking about in Ephesians
6:10-20. Finally, we’ve arrived at the
point where many Christians begin their examination of spiritual warfare. This is where Paul instructs the Ephesians,
from a Roman prison cell, to put on and/or take up the whole armor of God.
I hope you will agree that having begun our study well
before Adam and Eve we have established a useful and necessary context for a
proper understanding of Satan and the spiritual war he has been waging against
God and His people from the beginning of time.
Indeed, by starting our examination where we have, we are much more
equipped to understand the imperative Paul is giving in Ephesians 6.
Unlike many who read this text and see it as an injunction
to insure one’s salvation, it is rather a call to live out the call Christ
gives to all who belong to Him. As we
will say on Sunday, for Paul the indicative always precedes the
imperative. In other words, what we are
to do is only possible because of what Christ has already done. As Paul says in I Corinthians 1:30, “And
because of him (God the Father) you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom
from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption…” or as the writer of
Hebrews says in Hebrews 12:2, “…looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of
our faith…” Just as our salvation is the
product of Christ alone, so is our sanctification. It is as we abide in Him that we are able to
put on the whole armor of God and join in ushering in the kingdom of God.
In preparation for Sunday’s message, the first in our final
six-message section entitled, “Living in Victory,” I’d like you to think about
a few things.
1. How
does Ephesians 6:10-20 fit into Paul’s understanding of the spiritual war?
2. Why
does the imperative necessarily follow the indicative when it comes to
understanding the Christian faith?
3. How
does verse 10 establish the prime principal of spiritual warfare?
4. Why
does Paul always move from the general to the particular as in verses 11 to 14?
5. If
Jesus finished the work on the cross, why do we have to arm ourselves? Can you think of any Old Testament analogs?
6. Why
are “wrestling” and “withstanding” a part of the Christian life?
7. What
if a Christian does not put on the whole armor of God? Does he/she lose salvation?
8. Why
start with the belt of truth?
9. What
is this belt? What is the truth?
10. How do
these six pieces of equipment function?
What do they hide?
11. How does
Jesus’ victory inform our fight?
