THOUGHTS FROM EPHESIANS
46 THE HELMET OF SALVATION
A meditation on Ephesians 6:17
‘Salvation’ is a comprehensive word in which all that God has done for us and given us in Christ is included.
The key aspects of Satan’s attacks – his ‘schemes’, his ‘flaming arrows’ – are deception, confusion and accusation, all of which are aimed at destroying our faith and our relationship with God by generating doubt and disbelief in our minds. It is ‘salvation’ which protects and delivers our heads, our minds – the control centre from which all of our lives are directed, from which all of our attitudes, decisions and choices come.
When we research the Bible we find that ‘salvation’ is intimately connected with God. We see, firstly, that God is our salvation:
‘The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold’ [Psalm 18:2].
‘The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid’ [Psalm 27:1].
‘Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.’ [Isaiah 12:2,3]
‘The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation’ [Psalm 118:14].
We see, secondly, that God is our Saviour:
‘Praise be to the Lord, to God our Saviour, who daily bears our burdens. Our God is a God who saves‘ [Psalm 68:19,20].
‘He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the rock my Saviour.’ [Psalm 89:26]
‘...as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Saviour; my God will hear me.’ [Micah 7:7]
We see, thirdly, that salvation has its origin in God, in fact, as a bottom line, it is his salvation, not ours. It is not something we have purchased or merited or that originates in us; it depends solely on God:
‘I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation’ [Psalm 13:5]
‘The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord’ [Psalm 37:39,40]
‘… my salvation and my honour depend on God; he is my might rock, my refuge…’ [Psalm 62:1,2,5-8]
‘Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation’ [Isaiah 25:9]
‘Salvation belongs to our God …’ [Rev 7:10; 19:1]
Because it thus depends on God, on his power and on his gift, it is utterly secure:
‘… my salvation will last forever …’ [Isaiah 51:6,8]
‘No one can snatch them out of my hand…. No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand’ [John 10:28,29].
‘… that you may know … his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come’ [Ephesians 1:18ff].
This secure salvation includes the defeat and disempowerment of the enemy, and our removal from his authority:
‘He has rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.’ [Colossians 1:13]
‘And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross’ [Colossians 2:15].
Let us then, as God commands, take the helmet of salvation, with full assurance that this gift is our protection against the deceptions and accusations of the enemy.