Ephesians 6:10-11; Put on Christ.

Sunday March 20,2022

Faith can see what sight often doesn’t. We must have good eyes.

Jdg 6:11-16

Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, "The Lord is with you [singular], O valiant warrior." 13 Then Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian." 14 And the Lord looked at him and said, "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?" 15 And he said to Him, "O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house." 16 But the Lord said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man."

We must not be confused as Gideon was. Things looked bad in Gideon’s world, but that didn’t mean that God wasn’t watching and working. We should be calm enough to look for the ways in which the Lord is working.

We are not to let the appearance of things drive us to lose hope. Some situations will look bad, but God is working. All things work together for good to those who love God.

God clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins from the blood sacrifice. The clothing God provided was quite different than what Adam had attempted. Adam took leaves from an inanimate, unfeeling tree. God deprived an animal of life. For us life is cheap and death is common, but Adam at that point had only known death as a punishment for sin. This was the last thing Adam would have thought of. Adam would learn that sin could not be covered by a bunch of leaves but only by pain and blood. It was obvious at the first that sin was a real and deep evil, and that by no easy and cheap process could the sinner be restored.

This wonderful type is fulfilled every time a person believed in Christ as his or her Savior. God is the only one who could remove the shame from Adam. God is the only one who can clothe us and remove our shame. The believer is forever in Christ. Who will bring an accusation against God’s elect?

“Adam felt that God did not wish to banish him lastingly from His presence, nor to see him always a trembling and confused penitent.” [Marcus Dods, The Book of Genesis]

Sadly, some modern Christians are like this because they are taught faulty soteriology (doctrines of salvation). We are told in Heb 4 and Eph 2, 3 that we are to confidently and boldly approach God.

Eph 2:18; 3:12

through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father … we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.

We have confidence with God and courage to stand firm because we are clothed with Christ. That truth’s application to life is the full armor of God.

Satan will try many ways to get you off balance. What we just saw with Adam was his lack of confidence to come to God now that he was fallen. It must have been very hard for him to do that.

One of the schemes of the devil must certainly be shame. To get the believer to feel ashamed will make his strength inoperable. Certainly, we all must feel some shame. As Paul writes, repentance from a lifestyle of sin will result from sorrow over sin, but it is a repentance without regret (2Co 7:10). The sorrow over our sins should be temporary under the shadow of the cross of Christ. The accuser will try to make it last, stand firm against him.

The verb “put on” is used in reference to the Holy Spirit (Luk 24:49); armor of light (Rom 13:12); Christ (Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27); new self (Eph 4:24; Col 3:10); virtuous heart (Col 3:12); breastplate of faith and love and helmet of salvation (1Th 5:8).

Add to this our passage to put on the full armor of God.

“Put on” never refers to materialistic things, but spiritual things. Put on is the imagery of protection, confidence before God, and courage in the face of the good fight of faith.

We will also see that the Lord Himself, right now in heaven, wears a certain robe and believers will “put on” another body when they die.

Rev 1:12-20

And I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; 13 and in the middle of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His breast with a golden girdle. 14 And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire; 15 and His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been caused to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. 16 And in His right hand He held seven stars; and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. 17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. 19 "Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall take place after these things. 20 "As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Some of these are put on us by God as salvation. As sons and daughters we have put on Christ (Gal 3:27). We have put on the Holy Spirit (Luk 24:49). The others demand some action on our part, but they are not disconnected from the positional truth of our permanent status as children of God indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We are to walk by the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit (Gal 5:16; Eph 5:18). As children of God we are to be filled with inner strength that stems from a deep understanding of the love of Christ (Eph 3:14-19). As we will see, the armor of God is all about application of truth to life.

These are all such beautiful passages that refer to what we wear in life, and so we should read them at the least and then try to apply them to putting on the full armor of God.

Luk 24:44-53

Now He said to them, "These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."  45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 "You are witnesses of these things. 49 "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

50 And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51 And it came about that while He was blessing them, He parted from them. 52 And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple, praising God.

This was a reference to the Holy Spirit at Pentecost who would fill believers there.

In Rom 13, the plea from Paul is that the coming of the Lord is near (nearer) and since the day is coming (and in other passages, we are of the day) let us live as children of light. The day is a reference to the world under the kingdom of God that is coming after Christ removes the present darkness.

Rom 13:8-14

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled [perfect indicative] the law. 9 For this, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.

11 And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. 12 The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14 But put on [command] the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

“salvation is nearer” – the redemption of the body in passage to heaven (Rom 8:23). The day of light is coming, therefore how should we behave?

The return of Christ, second coming, is the making of light in the world through the very real and physical establishment of His kingdom Israel in fulfillment of His covenants to Abraham, David, and the prophets. The reality of this future is to clothe us as Christ clothes us. If we put on Him then we have upon us, draping over all our conscious thought, all that comes with Christ. We look at the future and imagine tomorrow or maybe something farther, but farther still is the glorious kingdom of God that Christ has made us fit for. How could He clothe us with Himself if we were not perfectly righteous?

2Pe 3:11

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness.

“Let us put on the armor of light” is an invitation (hortatory subjunctive and not imperative)to the armor of God. It is contrasted with putting on the deeds of darkness (sin).

Hold on to that description of the armor of God. It is the armor (definite article included; ta hopla) of light. The Greek hoplite was the best warrior in the Mediterranean. He was named after his armor (hopla). He had helmet, breastplate, shoes, greaves on shins and forearms, helmet, round shield and a 6 foot spear. Hoplites would lock shields to form a phalanx that was several ranks deep. It could withstand almost anything and break through almost any opposing line.

Greek hoplite

Unlike Gal 3:27 where “put on Christ” is an indicative which is the reality of all those who are baptized into Christ, in Rom 13:14, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” is a commandment.