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The Armour Of God - Ephesians 6:14-17
The Fallacy: Putting on the armour of God is the same as putting
on Christ.
The Argument: "We gird our waist with truth - Jesus
said 'I am ... the truth'. We put on the breastplate of righteousness -
Jesus is our righteousness. We are to put on our feet the preparation of
the gospel of peace - Jesus is the Prince of peace. We take the shield
of faith - Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. We take the helmet
of salvation - Jesus is our salvation. We take the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God - Jesus is the Word of God (John 1). Therefore,
each piece of armour is actually Jesus. To put on the armour is to put
on Jesus.
The Problem: This is absolutely awful treatment of the passage.
If we say that putting on the preparation of the gospel of
peace is the same as putting on the Prince of peace, then our logic
as about as good as if we said that the colour of the skin
of a banana is the same as the flavour of a banana - in other words,
if you want to make something sweet, just paint it yellow! Simple, right?
Only don't invite me around for dessert, ok!! Similar problems arise in
the other points - for example, we are commanded to take up faith, as a
shield - not so much to take up the author and finisher of our faith.
Note: I am not saying that the doctrine "We should put on
Jesus Christ" is a false doctrine. In fact, it is a true one - commanded
elsewhere in the scripture. What I am saying is that we should not use
Ephesians chapter 6 to teach it.
Why Not? What's The Big Problem?: Besides the fact that
it's a poor way to treat scripture, the fact is that there is so much more
depth to the armour of God than "merely" putting on Christ. But
if we teach - or believe - that "Putting on the armour of God is
the same as putting on Christ", then we simply will not know what that
depth is. We will fall short of the blessings the Lord wants to give us,
because we will not understand what it means to take up the shield of faith,
or to have our feet shod with readiness that comes from the preparation
of the gospel...
I Have A Comment: I'd love to hear it! Please send me some
mail.
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