Helmet of Salvation (Ephesians 6:17)
oday we look at the helmet of salvation. So far in Ephesians, we've been looking at God's armour for us that he gives us in Christ of all the things that he's done for us. And he calls us now to take up this equipment so that we can live this life and the fight of faith, wage the war against our spiritual enemies, against the assaults of temptations and trials and discouragement, and look to Christ.
I think all of the weapons and all the equipment we've seen so far is connected to who Jesus is and what he's done for us, but that especially becomes obvious today when Paul tells us to take the helmet of salvation. The helmet was a bronze helmet with cheek pads and that sort of thing. That was what it looked like in the ancient Roman world.
The other detail that I found interesting is that in the Bible and in the ancient world, the head was considered the source of all things. And so salvation is super important. That's why Paul connects it to the head and he says this is foundational to everything else. The salvation that you have in Jesus is as important as the head on your body. Without it, you're going to go nowhere.
The point is that what protects us as Christians from Satan and his attacks is that Jesus has already saved us. That's what salvation is: it's to be saved. And that's what I wanted to think about for the next few moments here together.
You know, there's one writer who says that this might be one of the most easily forgotten items. It's kind of easy to assume, maybe when you leave your house, that your head's going to be okay. You don't need protective gear for it. It's kind of like for a while, especially with a change of seasons from summer to the fall, I'll forget to grab my jacket. And I'll just get out there and I'll freeze, and then I'll remember, "Oh my goodness, I should have brought my jacket."
In some ways, the helmet of salvation is an easily forgotten item. It's also a bit of inconvenient headgear. Think of a motorcyclist's bike. It's essential, but you can easily forget it, and it might even seem more fun to go without it on your bike ride. But it is an important item. It's going to protect you from some pretty terrible, awful things that could happen.
And that's the kind of idea that Paul wants to give us here. There's another verse in the New Testament in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 that describes the helmet of salvation as the hope of salvation. And I just want us to think about that for the next few minutes.
This is because for Paul, he wants us to see our salvation in Christ as a mental defence, as a defence for our heads, that we can go about life with kind of a stability and with an assurance, a boldness, that we're going to be protected, that our head is okay—the most important part of us.
And so Paul, when he talks about it in 1 Thessalonians 5 as the hope of salvation, he doesn't mean it as like some kind of "I hope I go to heaven." No, no, no—quite the opposite. It's not the kind of hoping to be saved that we're talking about here. It's actually a firm and confident assurance that Christ has done for us everything that needs to be done for us to go to heaven.
And for us not just to go to heaven, but to enter into salvation into eternal life right now. The Bible speaks of it that way in Ephesians 2—it says you've already been saved by Christ, you've been saved by faith, by believing in Christ. And so this is not just a dim, uncertain optimism about the future. This is a deep assurance that will do us so much good when we're in the heat of battle of daily life, when the conflict around us grows fierce, and when temptations and doubts assault us.
This is why I make a lot—a big deal out of this at our church with new believers and even with old ones, because this is such an obvious thing, this hope of salvation, this helmet, that we just forget. And I ask people, I say, "If you were to die tonight and God were to ask you, 'Why should I let you into my heaven?' what would you say?"
And longtime Christians can sometimes answer this by saying, "You know, I've tried my best to obey the Ten Commandments. You know, I've been in church all of my life, or I think I'm probably overall no worse than anyone else."
And a lot of people, Christians and non-Christians, will start the answer to that question with "I"—"I did this." And the moment you do that, you've answered this question wrong. The only answer to that question is that Jesus did something for me. Jesus died on the cross for me. And that takes the focus and the assurance off of our own goodness and it puts it squarely onto what Jesus has done for us, taking our place on the cross.
That's how the Bible speaks of the hope of heaven. 1 John 5, he says, "I write these things to you that you may know that you have eternal life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, who believe in Jesus, that you may know for sure that you have eternal life." And later on in the same letter, he says, "This is the testimony that God has given us eternal life. This life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." And that's not arrogance. That's assurance that God has done what we could not do.
And I find that really encouraging. The other thing that having the helmet of salvation does for us, if in our prayer and in our daily life we think to ourselves, "I am saved. I am okay. I am protected," it just gives us that strength that when we face trials, that when we face affliction, that when we face sad things, we meet them not with doubts and with discouragement, but we kind of take hope.
We are encouraged because we are remembering what Christ has done for us. This is the logic that Paul says he has in 2 Corinthians 4—he says these hard things that we go through in life are momentary light afflictions. In the moment, they feel like they're going to just crush us, and we can barely have our head about us, so to speak. But he says they are meant to turn our hearts to Christ and they're meant to remind us that we are safe ultimately, that we are in Christ, that we are going to be okay, that we are safe.
And that's why James says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." The testing of your faith—you see, it's a totally different perspective when you have salvation on your head. You begin to realize that the biggest things that could take you out, they're not going to hurt you. You're going to be okay, that these are just momentary afflictions.
Here's an illustration to kind of close this little reflection together. Suppose tomorrow you receive two letters. In one letter, you got the news that your great aunt somewhere far away—say in Australia—died and left you $10 million. While in the same post, you also got another letter with a parking ticket that said that you owed $50.
Now, which of these two letters is going to shape your day? Well, I think it's safe to say it's going to be the sure and certain hope of $10 million and not the depressing, annoying reality of the $50 fine because of your parking ticket. That's what it's like to have the helmet of salvation on your head. It just makes all these little things that we go through life seem like trifles.
That's the perspective that the Lord would have us have as we go through these trials because he wants to train us and prepare us mentally and spiritually for the greater realities that are going to come. There are plenty of times, though, when the $50 parking ticket ruins our day and wins out. And Paul says don't let that happen today. Put on the helmet of salvation. Remember what Christ has done for you by taking your place on the cross and keep your head about you. And remember how much you've been forgiven and how loved you are and that you are a protected child of God.
