 |  |
Once again we have suffering connected with glory.
So in Ephesians
6:13, 'Having worked out all, to stand'.
We cannot help seeing in this a reference back to Romans 8:37 -39. We
have been saved, let us work out this salvation. We have been made more than
conquerors in Christ, let us work out this victory in our own experience.
This appears to be the essence of the passage. More than conquerors in the
risen Christ, putting on the whole armour of God, withstanding every assault
in the 'power of His might', and standing when all is finished, this is our
portion. We must now consider:
(1)
The whole armour of God, and
(2)
The threefold nature of the conflict.
There are at least three things, which either separately or together,
make for defeat:
(1)
No armour, or armour that is untrustworthy.
(2)
A consciousness that the fight is unrighteous.
(3)
An ignorance of the object of the fight.
Blessed be God, the first two things are assured by the Word. The
third is more directly connected with the believer. Let us ask ourselves as
before God, What should we be fighting for? How many of us can give a
consistent, Scriptural answer? Is our inheritance in jeopardy? Can we lose
our membership in the One Body? Neither of these possessions can be lost.
What then can we gain or lose? The answer is, a crown or a prize.
Immediately following 2 Timothy 2:4 which speaks of the soldier, are
the words:
'If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he
strive lawfully' (2 Tim. 2:5).
Directly after Paul's personal declaration, 'I have fought a good
fight', are the words, 'Henceforth a crown'.
'Let no man beguile you of your reward' (Col. 2:18).
Satan cannot rob you of your calling, but he may rob you of your crown.
This fact enables us to appreciate better the reference in Numbers 14, for
those who perished in the wilderness were not types of the unsaved, but of
those who, being saved, did not go on unto perfection (Heb. 3 and 4).
The words of Ephesians 6:13 -- 'having done all' -- are a translation
of katergazomai, elsewhere translated, as we have seen, 'to work out' (Phil.
2:12,13 and 2 Cor. 4:17). The structure of the epistle as a whole (see
article Ephesians1), compels us to translate the word accurately. It is the
'working out' of the mighty power that was 'wrought in' Christ; the only
possible power that can counter the 'inworking' of the prince of the power of
the air (Eph. 2:2).
Another important fact is that no military terms are used in Ephesians
6 so far as the conflict is concerned. We are exhorted to 'stand', to
'withstand' and to 'wrestle'. Even apart from inspiration, no one of Paul's
calibre would speak of 'wrestling' in 'armour' without previously explaining