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...

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