Debunking Myths: The ARMOR OF GOD Is NOT About What You Do

The Common Pietistic Misreading of the Armor of God

Justin, in the past, when I've heard people talk about the armor of God, they mention it in a very, what I would say, pietistic manner where the emphasis becomes on the efforts of the individual. It's the focus on putting on the armor of God is almost a daily act of some sort of discipline.

Justin Perdue. Yes. The focus, if I can just jump in and pile on here, the focus is on the believer. The focus is on the Christian and our diligence to put the armor on properly. That is almost always the emphasis.

I'm not saying that other things are not said about the gospel and about Jesus. Those things are said, but the emphasis and the takeaway is always on me and how well I am or am not doing in putting the armor on.

Bible Reading, Prayer, and the Corporate Life of the Church

Justin Perdue. I think the obvious way that's done is Bible reading and prayer. I've heard people tell me, I have felt the attacks of Satan today, and I felt like he got me because I didn't get up early enough to read my Bible and pray.

I would say, well, I guess 1 ,500 years of Christians just didn't know how to fight this war because individual Bibles didn't exist. Now, listen, I am not downplaying the joy and wonders of reading Scripture.

There's no way that's what Paul meant because those people couldn't apply that. Justin Perdue. Just a brief comment here. Whenever you read in Scripture about meditating on the law of the Lord or meditating on the Word of God, or in this case, taking up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, we'll talk more specifically about that in a minute.

People didn't have their own copies of the Scriptures, but what were Christians doing? What have God's people been doing since forever? The Word of God reverberates amongst His people because we talk about it.

We reflect upon it. We sit under it and preach. We pray it. We preach it. Exactly. We come and eat it in the supper. We eat and drink it and receive it in baptism. The Word of God is always reverberating around in the hearts and minds of God's people.

That is absolutely biblical and right. Do not ever hear us downplaying the significance of the Word of God in the life of the individual Christian, but the Word of God in the life of the individual believer, we would understand biblically, comes through the conduit of the corporate church and how we live together.

They have to be able to apply it in that manner. I grew up going to VBS as a child. I won a set of the armor of God, but what were they emphasizing? Go home and read your Bible and pray every day so you aren't taken out by Satan.

If you win the Bible drill, you get the armor. The fear becomes, unfortunately, I'm only as safe as well as I perform. That's what this is saying. You're only as safe as well as you perform. My security is tied to how well I'm doing.

Imputed Righteousness Versus Personal Holiness

I will bring it to this point. I'm preaching through this. Justin preached through it a couple of years ago. I'm preaching the whole book. I'm just doing the armor of God at the moment on a spiritual warfare series that I'm doing.

I recently covered the breastplate of righteousness this week. I like to go online and just interact with history and what other pastors have said. I'm just curious how they thought through it. There's a very prominent evangelical on YouTube that I was watching.

I was just curious to see how he handled it. Justin Perdue. And to be clear, he's a Calvinistic guy. Well-known. Jon Moffitt. In the presentation of it, he mentioned that there are different kinds of righteousness because it says the breastplate of righteousness.

There's imputed righteousness, which he then explained what that is. If you're new to that word, it literally means that all of the active works of Jesus, of him obeying the law, were then gifted on our behalf.

When it says you wear a robe of righteousness, imagine all the good works that Jesus did were written on a robe, but then his name is crossed out and your name is put on it. You put that robe on and it belongs to you.

That's your righteousness. That's what imputed righteousness means. Then the proceeding of it was when it says put on the breastplate of righteousness, you are putting on your own holiness. It's your own holiness that is protecting you.

That's what he says. To quote, he says that if you're effective in fighting against Satan, if you're not living a holy life, he will take you out. That's the part of this armament, and that's a lot of what Theocast wants to expose.

The Armor Protects by Christ's Strength, Not Our Performance

It is absolutely imperative to advance the kingdom of light into the kingdom of darkness that we obey, that we do, but that's not what protects us in the war. When Paul says, if you don't want to be taken out of this war, and you don't want to be taken out by Satan and his fiery darts, you have to have weaponry that is supernatural that will depend upon something other than your own strength.

From an exegetical standpoint, starting back in context, stand in the strength of the Lord and the power of his might. It can't be our righteousness. It sounds just like Exodus. Moses in Exodus pops into my brain.

All you need to do is basically stand still and be quiet because the Lord your God will fight for you. It's that idea that the Lord will do it.