Jesus, Our Helmet Of Salvation
Jesus wore the armour of God first. At every attack, whether from a person or from Satan, Jesus defended Himself and His Kingdom; He responded with Scripture, and with truth, humility, righteousness and holiness. We see His great victory when He defeated sin and death and rose again after being crucified on a cross for our sins. Now it is our turn. Jesus reigns, He is seated at the right hand of Father God to rule and reign while we serve Him and all humanity here on the Earth.
"He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head .." (Isaiah 59:17).
These two, righteousness and salvation, may be the most precious elements of God's armour; they cannot be taken away from us. They come from God alone and have been given to us, each one.
Our righteousness is Jesus: "And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Salvation comes entirely from Father's forgiveness and from Jesus (Romans 1:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:9), it comes from "his great love for us .. expressed in his kindness" (Ephesians 2:4,7).
So righteousness comes from our salvation which is from faith. Faith, salvation and righteousness are to do with our heart.
Living in the experience of our salvation brings our hope; the consciousness of our experience is understood in our mind, in our head. Jesus protects our hope as He protects our head. (I often think that, because we have Jesus the Rock, Christians are the only people who have any kind of solid hope in these troubled times).
Jesus is our "helmet" (Isaiah 11:2; 2 Timothy 1:7). He protects every part of our mind and our head; our thoughts and emotions, our brain, eyes, ears, and mouth, our smile.
Milestones
My testimony, and many others I have been blessed to hear, shows that we come to God in a progression.
Our salvation comes in an instant; something happens and we are saved; we are instantly justified, made righteous in the sight of God (1 Corinthians 6:11). We are redeemed; we have been bought back by Jesus, (passive present perfect tense), and all our sins, (our iniquities, disobedience and rebellion), have been paid for (1 Corinthians 6:20).
From that moment we are being sanctified, (present tense continuous). By the time we get to Heaven we will be fully formed as saints and ".. attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature personhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). Amazing and awesome!
Testimony is very important to me. For years, (and it seemed like many years at the time), I would ask of God: "what do you want me to do?" I was stuck in the place where I knew about God and Jesus .. but I was not close or in intimate relationship. Hearing other people tell their wonderful true stories helped me. I learned to simply "be" with Jesus and Abba Father, to accept that we are together all the time (John 14:20; 17:20-21) .. I still find testimony to be precious and very encouraging.
Here are a few milestones from my journey:
Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.A. (1979) - I went to church with Trish when we were engaged to be married. A parish priest gave sermons where Jesus was shown to be active in the world, in the politics and lives of people in the "here and now". I began to know and acknowledge that God is real, is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Trish tells me that I did not change "on my inside" from this understanding, I did not become Christian then, but something did happen.
Manjimup, Western Australia (6 years later: 1985) - Jesus took me by the arm, "come, I want you now" He seemed to say, and I personally met Him, a life changing moment! I asked Trish for "one of the new NIV Bibles", I really wanted to engage with the Word of God, with Jesus, in my spirit. It was also the time when I accepted Jesus' lordship in my life, I knowingly "bowed my knee" to Him (Romans 14:11). I believe that this is when I was "saved" and Jesus placed His helmet on my head. Salvation is spiritual, not intellectual or propositional. It is mysterious. I began to change and grow (Mark 4:8).
I struggled for years and years but, like Peter (John 6:68), I knew there was no-one else for me ..
(I think that we forget that we are always in this glorious place of salvation; we let the world wear us down. Geoffrey Bingham would tell us, every time that he visited, that we should be excited and filled with joy because our future, and our present too, is so glorious and is so assured, so filled with hope. And because we are with Jesus).
Mumballup, camping at "Rainbow Downs" farm, Western Australia (another 7 years later: 1992) - I was alone and deeply immersed in my Bible and my devotionals. Suddenly in my inmost being I knew that Jesus died for me, and that Father God was welcoming me into His family and kingdom; it was like an explosion in my heart and consciousness. I leaped in the air, skipping and dancing and shouting out loud, this was such a revelation! I believe that this was my "born again" moment. "Born again" is in the heart, is sincere and life-changing.
Perth, Western Australia, Tabor Bible College (another 13 years later: 2005) - I learned the centrality and pre-eminence of Jesus in all things (Colossians 1:15-20), and, more importantly, came into intimate relationship with Him (1 Corinthians 13:13). Jesus became my best friend, He "replaced" my wife Trish. It was after this that I found freedom (Galatians 5:1) and peace (John 14:27; 16:33) in Jesus and in life.
Now 2020 - Forty-one years have passed and I am still growing, this is one of the great joys of being Christian. We do not get a chance to become rusty! Praise Jesus.
I have found that struggle is good. We are equipped for struggle, Jesus wants us to "press on" (Philippians 3:12; Hebrews 12:1) and to "persevere" (Romans 5:3-4). We have Jesus to be our rock and to defend us from every kind of attack. We have His Word, our sword (Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12), to remind us, to teach us, and to share His love and glory with people all around us.
When trouble comes we really need Jesus. Sometimes when I am tired or things aren't going well the devil likes to come and sit on my shoulder and remind me of all my faults and failings (1 Peter 5:8-9). He talks about old sins which were mine, but which Jesus forgave years ago, sins whose record is nailed to Jesus' cross (Colossians 2:14), old sins which Father God has put behind His back (Isaiah 38:17).
We learn that when we turn to Jesus, He is always there for us (1 Peter 5:10)! The bigger our problem, the more desperate we become and the tighter we cling to Jesus (Hebrews 10:39). These are the times we receive the most comfort from Him and the most help. We also do the most growing.
These Days
These days our minds are under attack as never before. History is repeating itself. Many times and in many countries people are being persecuted for not changing their views to agree with the group who want to discard our old ways. It is always ugly and many people, by refusing to "go along", are hurt.
• We are in a time of unprecedented youth suicide; like mental illness it has become epidemic. Why? No-one seems to be asking. There is virtual silence in the media and among the self-appointed movers and shakers.
In the old days the miners would take canaries with them underground; when the atmosphere got toxic the canaries would die and the men knew to get out. Some are saying that our youth are the canaries in our increasingly toxic societies, but, though they are dying, everyone is pretending that our social atmosphere is still sweet. So our youth are not our "canaries", rather, they seem simply to be disposable. This is a tragedy, our youth are being sacrificed on the altar of ideological (backwards) "progress".
• Our education systems now insist that our children's (and grandchildren's) identities are irrelevant. Core teaching now says that a child’s gender, (an essential part of who they are), is arbitrary and changeable, and unimportant.
Anyone who has seen small children at play will know that the boys are definitely boys, and the girls, definitely girls; their boy-ness or girl-ness is a huge part of who they are! The children's families are forbidden to counter this teaching or to intervene in any way. How many of these confused children will be the suicides or the mentally ill of future decades?
• After all these months people are saying that the ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns are "driving them crazy", but no-one is asking who is responsible for the events leading to the re-kindling of the pandemic and the need for new lockdowns. Those responsible remain in leadership to wreck even more havoc among our peoples.
• Today the "politically correct" people, (a tiny minority), use social media, and much more, to silence people, even ostracise them and ruin lives. The same people may get you fired from your job, or at least have your career stalled, because you stick to traditional, conservative or Biblical views. In Australia we now have tribunals which appear to have almost no definition but do have enormous powers, seemingly greater than the legislature or the courts. These tribunals secure few convictions but accuse many, (later dropping all charges and pretending that "justice was served" and "no harm done"); they destroy families and family finances in their attacks on ordinary people, people who continue to believe what our entire society believed just a few years ago.
Truth is suffering (Isaiah 59:14-16). We are allowing strangers to plant strongholds in our minds; "strongholds" are "arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the true knowledge of God" (2 Corinthians 10:5 Amplified).
What the world always regarded as good is now called "evil", and what we know to be evil is being called "good" (Isaiah 5:20).
Our Helmet At Work
Our Bible reminds us to avoid the ungodly: "sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like" (Galatians 5:19-21).
This is a serious list, I recognise much from my past and am delighted that that is where it now belongs! Doing these things, even thinking about them, will build strongholds and turn us away from Jesus and His Kingdom. They also corrupt our body which is now "God's temple" (1 Corinthians 3:16), and can bring "sickness" (1 Corinthians 11:29-30).
So we are told to "be transformed by the renewal of our mind". This we can do .. when we think about our thinking we soon see where to turn away from bad thoughts and turn towards Jesus and "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23).
Strongholds are thus torn down (2 Corinthians 10:4) and Jesus' peace returns to us (John 14:27). Jesus said ".. [Satan] the prince of this world .. has no hold over me" (John 14:30). We can definitely do damage to any hold he has over us, he hates truth and he hates humility. He hates our helmet. Thank you Jesus!
Jesus will protect our minds from the lies of political correctness and social engineering: "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).
It is so good to know that Jesus, who is "truth" (John 1:14), is protecting our head, our thoughts, our memories and emotions; that He is our "helmet of salvation" (Ephesians 6:17). He saved each one from our sins and from destruction and now fully clothes us with Himself, head to toe (Galatians 3:27).
"keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life" (Jude 1:21).
Praise Jesus. Amen.
Favourite Scriptures
O Father .. ".. you have cast all my sins behind your back" (Isaiah 38:17).
"I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist .." (Isaiah 44:22).
".. I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:34).
".. I will remember their sins no more" (Hebrews 8:12).
"Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord" (Psalm 32:10).
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23).
Hallelujah!
The Full Armour of God: From Ephesians 6:10-20
• The belt of truth - Truth is Jesus - John 1:14
• The breastplate of righteousness - Jesus is our righteousness - 2 Corinthians 5:21
• Our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace - Jesus is the Gospel, this was a mystery until He gave us the Church - Ephesians 1:9
• The shield of faith - Jesus is our shield - 1 Peter 1:5
• The helmet of salvation - Jesus protects our mind - 2 Timothy 1:7 KJV and Amplified
• The sword of the Spirit - Jesus is our only weapon, the Word of God, invincible in spiritual battles - John 1:1 and 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
• And pray in the Spirit - continually, without ceasing - Romans 8:26 and 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Thank you Jesus.
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