Helmet of Salvation

I mean, he’d be foolish. A Roman soldier would be very careful to get his helmet on. Now, helmets were made out of basically two things. Leather with some patches of metal on it, pieces of metal, or else those moulded solid cast helmets you’ve seen with the plumes, depending on what regiment, what function, what period of time you were involved in. But a helmet was very important to protect the head. From what? Well, from perhaps arrows flying around, for one thing, but primarily from what was known as a broadsword. There was not only the machaira, the little dagger that he uses in verse 17, but there was in the midst of a battle, those who carried the broadsword, which was from three to four feet long, longer than your yardstick, and it had a huge massive handle that you held with both hands like a baseball bat.

And you just lifted it over your head and went around trying to create split personalities, basically. That was the idea. You would be riding along on a horse, and you’d be flailing away at some footman down there and so forth. The broadsword was a tremendous weapon, and you wanted to have a helmet to deflect a blow from a broadsword, believe me, because it would deal a heavy, crushing, splitting blow to the skull. It was interesting recently that I was reading in the newspaper that they have discovered a skeleton somewhere in a dig that had a cleavage right through the skull that they assume had been made by somebody who flattened a broadsword right into its skull.

So the helmet was very necessary. Now the helmet here is the helmet of salvation. Now let me say that does not refer to being saved. He’s not saying now that you’re in the army, and now that you’re fighting Satan, and now that you’ve got the breastplate of righteousness on, and now that you’ve got your shoes shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace, and now that you have the shield of faith, get saved. No, no. That’s already happened. I mean, you aren’t even in the army unless you’re a believer, right? If you’re fighting Satan at all, you’ve got to be on God’s side.

If you’re not with him, you’re against him. So if you’re in the battle against Satan, you’re already saved. He’s not talking about that. The helmet of salvation is not getting saved. He’s not saying, by the way, fifth, get saved. Oh no, you got saved in chapter two, right? For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You’ve already been saved. This is not getting saved. You wouldn’t even be in the army if you weren’t a believer.

Satan wouldn’t be attacking you if you weren’t a believer, right? He’d leave you alone. He’s already got you. You’d be fighting God. So if you’re in the army, and the war is going on, you’re already a believer. That has already taken place. The helmet of salvation is not saying you need to be saved. You say, well, what is it saying then? I’m going to give you a little theology now, so just get comfortable, take your pencil or pen and take a few notes, and let’s see what we can see about this. First of all, now you have to understand this, or you’re not going to understand a lot of things.

People are confused about eternal security, and they ask me all the time, do you believe once saved, always saved? What about my Aunt Martha? She went along so long, and then whiz she was gone, and is she or isn’t she? And all of this. And people are concerned about it, and even in their own lives they commit some sins. They feel guilty, well, I don’t know if I’m saved anymore. And the other thing is, young people, you ask them, have you ever given your life to Christ? And they’ll say, yeah, 24 times.

You know, repeatedly over and over again, and just to be sure, I did it again today, and that kind of thing. How do we really get a grasp on the security of the believer? Well, first of all, by understanding the meaning of salvation. And for this morning and next time, I want you to clearly understand this. Now, let me begin by saying what’s a very simple beginning. There are three aspects to salvation, three aspects, past, present, and future, and these have been simply defined in this way. The past aspect frees us from the penalty of sin.

The past aspect frees us from the penalty of sin. In other words, if you say to me, are you a Christian, have you been saved? I would say, yes. When did it happen? Well, so many years ago, and at that point when I confessed Jesus Christ invited him into my life, then my sins were placed on him on the cross, as it were, and he paid the penalty for my sin. That’s in the past. The penalty is paid. I died. I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Right? I died. Paul in Romans 6 is saying that, in essence, he is saying you died once, you don’t need to die again.

When did you die? You died when you put your faith in Christ. You were crucified with him, the penalty was paid, sin was dealt with, there’s never any more penalty to pay. Romans 8.1 says, there is therefore now no, what? Condemnation to them who are in Christ. That’s taken care of. So the past aspect of salvation is freedom from the penalty of sin. There’s a present aspect, freedom from the power of sin. Sin no longer has a, what? Dominion over you. Sin no longer has dominion over you. As one book title puts it, it ain’t going to reign no more.

Sin has no reigning power. Sin has no dominance. Why? Because he is faithful and just to keep on cleansing us from all sin. Do you know you can never even get one sin laid against your account? Romans 8 says, who is he that lays anything to the charge of God’s elect? Nobody, no condemnation. He’s forgiven you all your trespasses for his name’s sake. He keeps on purifying, keeps on purging. It’s like Jesus said to Peter, you have a bath one time, and then the rest of your life you just wash your feet.

The Lord bathes you, as it were, at salvation and dusts your feet off with his cleansing day by day by day. So there’s a present aspect. I have been saved, I am being saved. If I have been saved, Romans 5 rather, it says, I was saved by his death, I am being saved by his life. In other words, he ever, ever lives to make what? Intercession for me. And so there’s this constant salvation going on. I have been saved from the penalty, I am being saved from sin’s power, Romans 5, 10 through 11.

If we were enemies and were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more shall we be saved now by his life? We are being saved now continually as he constantly cleanses us. And so there is that element. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of helmet of salvation. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].