What have we learned on this Journey?
There are many facets to the armor of God. Truth. Righteousness. The gospel of peace. Faith. Salvation. The Word of God.
Each of these elements plays a vital role in protecting us against the stratagems of our adversary. Ignoring or neglecting any part of the panoply leaves us open to catastrophe. When we’re properly equipped, that same armor gives us everything we need to hold our own against the most wicked, malicious beings in the universe—everything we need to force Satan and his demons into full retreat.
There will be many battles—many “evil days”—as we await the return of Jesus Christ. Our zeal, our burning passion to enter the Kingdom of God, will help us keep our focus when the successive waves of those evil days leave us feeling inadequate and exhausted.
We don’t fight on our own, but with a cohort of faithful believers. We have the privilege and the responsibility of looking out for each other in the heat of battle. That interconnectedness ultimately makes us stronger and more effective than we could ever be on our own. Maintaining a constant line of communication with our Commander makes it easier to recognize His commands on the battlefield instead of defaulting to our own (often misguided) intuition.
But there’s one thing we haven’t talked much about:
Failure.
Having the tools to succeed and actually succeeding are different things. What happens when something goes wrong? What happens when you do something wrong? Is all hope lost? Is defeat inevitable?
Not even close.
Like all things Christian, wearing the armor of God is not about being perfect. Not one of us is perfect—which means you will mess up. You will leave yourself open to some of the enemy’s attacks. You will make wrong decisions, you will be hurt, and you will hurt others.
None of that disqualifies you as a soldier of Jesus Christ.
None of that dooms you to lose this war against Satan.
None of that bars you from your ultimate goal.
Here’s an important truth about this war we’re fighting: “For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity” (Proverbs 24:16).
What disqualifies us—what dooms us—what bars us from our goal—is a choice. The choice to stay down. The choice to walk away from the fight, to stop caring, to stop repenting, to stop trying.
That’s how we lose. That’s the only way Satan can beat us—if we set aside the armor of God. If we surrender. If we decide the fight isn’t worth it. We don’t lose by falling down; we lose by deciding it’s not worth getting back up.
It’s easy to view Paul as a spiritual superhero who, once he was called by God, never made any mistakes. But Paul himself told the Romans, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do . . . I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good” (Romans 7:15, 21).
These were not the words of Paul the Flawless, but Paul the Flawed, Paul the Struggling, Paul the Frustrated—Paul the Human. All Christians, regardless of age, experience or status, understand the intense emotion behind those words. I want to do the right thing, Paul was saying, but that doesn’t always stop me from doing the wrong thing instead.
But Paul was moving toward a conclusion. He continued, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” (verses 24-25).
The chapter ends there, but the train of thought doesn’t: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1).
No condemnation. We aren’t condemned to eternal death every time we fail on the battlefield. Why?
“For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (verses 3-4).
God’s law can’t save us from the consequences of our sins. It wasn’t designed to save us. It can guide us and convict us—showing us where we’ve failed to measure up to God’s perfect standards.
But look at your armor. You’re not wearing your own righteousness, are you? You’re wearing “that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that [you] may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, [you] may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:9-11).
You wear the helmet of salvation—a promise that God will eventually deliver you from this life and into a far greater eternal one. You have access to this salvation because of the breastplate of righteousness—not your righteousness, but God’s, accounted to you because of the faith that is your shield. Your faith is firmly rooted in the gospel of peace—the shoes that keep you steadfast on the battlefield. The truth—not your personal truth, not the world’s truth, but the truth of God, the unassailable and indisputable truth that holds this universe together—is your identity and your belt.
Equipped with all these things, you wield the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit, knowing that you no longer walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit of God Most High.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
The armor of God is the armor from God, given to us so that we can stand against the wiles of the devil on every evil day that stands in between us and the Kingdom. Our own shortcomings do not detract from the greatness of that armor. And when we falter—because we will falter—our repentance and God’s infinite mercy allow us to rise again, whether for the seventh or the millionth time, and continue to fight the good fight of faith.
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 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 Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’
“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who 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 created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39).
Death and life are created things. Every obstacle you face is a created thing. Satan the devil, the foremost enemy of God’s people, is a created thing.
None of it—none of it—can separate us from the love of our God.
So, onward, Christian soldier. Don’t let your performance in a single battle make you lose sight of the bigger picture.
You have a war to win.
Continue your studies with another Journey from the Life, Hope & Truth Learning Center or enroll in our free Bible Study Course.
