The Helmet of Salvation

As Paul continues to list the pieces of our spiritual armor, we are reminded that he is certainly intimately acquainted with the Roman soldier’s military wardrobe.  As he writes, he is under house arrest in Rome, under guard, and in the care of Roman soldiers.

I would imagine they weren’t in full uniform…surely Paul wasn’t considered a threat to anyone; however, he would have seen the soldiers fully outfitted on multiple occasions not only in Rome itself, but most likely in Tarsus, his home, which was also under the control of the Roman empire.

The helmets worn by the Roman soldiers had multiple uses.  Obviously, the primary purpose of the helmet was to protect the head as a head injury usually meant immediate death.  However, the helmet’s design was also used for identification in the heat of battle.  A Roman soldier stood out from the enemy.

It’s interesting that salvation is something that we wear on our heads…it is salvation which protects us from a spiritually mortal wound.   A Roman soldier would never have gone into battle without his helmet on; to do so would have been foolish in the extreme.  However, many people go about their lives unsure of the only thing that can save them from certain death - salvation.  We know that salvation is not something that we can earn.  There is no way for us to produce it; it is a gift given by God to those who would receive it.  Receiving it means that we understand that without it, we are dead already. 

I can’t imagine that all of us, at one time or another, haven’t been unsure about our salvation, or maybe it’s just me?  It isn’t God that I doubt; it’s myself.  I struggle to see that I am anywhere close to being good enough to receive God’s mercy - I mean, I fall so terribly short so terribly often! 

I don’t know about you, but I have had days that went so badly that I’ve thought “What’s the point?”  I sometimes feel so very far away and so completely unworthy that I don’t know why God would bother with me at all.  It’s just another tactic Satan uses to pull us away, really.  If salvation is on my head - if that is what is on my mind, then that self-doubt (which is, by the way, based in reality as I’m not ever going to be “good enough”) will be stifled by my confidence in God and His ability and willingness to redeem even me.  

Without God’s salvation on my head, I don’t have even a chance of victory.  And any blow that the enemy lands to my head will be fatal.  If my faith isn’t a shield around me, then I do not have the helmet of God’s salvation on my head.  If I don’t have the belt of truth, then I don’t have the helmet of God’s salvation.  If I am not wearing the breastplate of righteousness, then I do not have the helmet of salvation.  If I don’t have my feet shod with peace, then it’s not God’s salvation that rests upon my head.  I can’t have the helmet of God’s salvation - that God places on my head, by the way, not me - if I am unwilling to wrap myself in truth, to protect my core with righteousness and faith, and to go out to others with the only words of hope and peace the world will ever hear.  That’s not the way this works.

If I don’t have truth…truth about myself, about my culture, about God…then some other helmet sits on my head, and it identifies me as something other than a soldier of the cross. If I have put my faith in an idea that is useless, then as a result, my shield is no real protection. I am not under Jesus’s banner of love.  I can’t be.  I’m in a different unit fighting for some other general.

We are looking at the pieces of the armor separately, but they all work together.  We cannot choose to wear the helmet of God’s salvation but live unrighteously, shielded by some false sense of faith.  We can’t willfully refuse to see ourselves as we are and still think that we wear the belt of truth.  Like any earthly military, enlisting in this army has a specific process.

We all know Acts 2:47: “...The Lord added to the church…” God placed the helmet of Salvation on each head, accepting new recruits, men and women, into his kingdom - into his army. When we were baptized for the remission of our sins, He did the same to you and to me (Acts 2:38).  If you haven’t been baptized for the remission of your sins, then I don’t believe you wear His helmet of salvation, and I would love to tell you why I believe that!  There isn’t a dogma attached to this baptism nor is this an entrance into some denomination.  God’s baptism doesn’t enlist you into the Baptist church or the Catholic church or a local church of Christ!  You must be baptized into the body of Christ if you want to join His army.  I would warn that any other ideas of obtaining the armor of God are extra-biblical and, therefore, false.  

His offer of salvation is free, and His call to us is one of love and mercy, but there is only one way into His army.  Any country’s military has rules and regulations for enlistment and service.  Why would this army accept something less?  God gives the marching orders to His soldiers, and those who follow Him, hear His voice and fall in rank, armed for the fight.

Once we are presented our armor, His helmet covers us as long as we keep it on.  

I have taken some spiritual blows to the head, and I have been wounded in battle, nearly killed a few times.  I’ve been out of commission, and I’ve gone AWOL, simply walking off the field, but by God’s grace, when I returned, my armor was waiting. My General didn’t court marshall me.  He put me back in the fight.  Helmet on…the weight of my sword, heavy and cumbersome at first, until with practice and persistence, the sword grew lighter and the shield was easier to manage.

In February’s roundtable, Elizabeth talked about the fact that the armor doesn’t change and the battle doesn’t change…just the soldier changes.  I’ve thought about what she said, and I think that’s right. As we mature, we learn how to use our armor in a new way.  It gets dinged up and damaged in the battle, but it’s the same armor. 

I also believe that throughout our lives the way the battle manifests itself changes some…I don’t have the same challenges and temptations that I did when I was young…but the war is the same, and my inward battle is still against my own stubborn fleshly impulses.  

It is the same helmet, however, that protects my head - the hope of salvation, not earned but given. It protects my mind from the inputs of the world around me and brings a peace and an ability to put the battle into perspective.   

And finally, when my battle is over and I’m allowed to put my armor down, my prayer is that my helmet will be securely on my head, identifying me as His soldier, and My General will know me when I am brought before Him at last.