Series: Ephesians
Sermon: Spiritual Warfare-Boot of Firmness
Bible Passage: Ephesians 6:15
verse 14 Stand … by fastening the truth … by wearing breastplate of righteousness …
verse 15 by shodding (fitting) the feet with firmness, namely the Gospel of peace
Introduction
1. Believers don’t need to fight for victory, but they fight from victory
2. Believers don’t fight with their strength and techniques
3. The fight is done by taking up defensive and offensive armors that are sourced from God
a. Belt of truth (6:14a)
b. Breastplate of righteousness (6:14b)
c. Today’s verse 15: Hobnailed boot of firmness, namely the Gospel of peace
4. Just as the belt of truth and breastplate of righteousness, “the firmness of feet” is a defensive armor
5. Believers need to wear boots/sandals that give them firmness to their standing
a. In wrestling, feet need to be firm (the spiritual warfare is like “wrestling”, a close combat)
b. Hoplite warriors had thick leather boots with nails underneath so that they are not easily tripped
6. Christians will lack firmness if their feet are not fitted with hobnailed boots
7. Paul calls this God-sourced boot “firmness”
8. The absence of this armor, believers often are tripped, shoved around, and even they have fallen flat in the combat
9. What are the things that trip Christians down?
a. Lack of clarity of believers’ relationship with God
b.One needs to do a lot of things to be in relationship with God
c. One needs to strive to be a Christian
d. God loves only when you do good
e. You strive to get God’s love
f. Give, serve, …—i.e., to have the older son’s mindset
g. Important one: You have lost your salvation
10. Such doctrines keep believers on a slippery slop, cause tripping from “standing”
11. When you do not wear this armor, the enemy will drain life out of you
12. The enemy apparently succeeds when he makes you believe that you have sinned and lost your salvation
Let’s probe the armor further:
13. In verse 15, Paul describes the “firmness” as “the Gospel of peace”
14. It is called the descriptive genitive: “by fitting the feet with firmness, namely the Gospel of peace” (check the word “namely”)
15. The sandal that gives firmness is the “Gospel of peace”
16. What do we mean by “the Gospel of peace”—
a. The genitive “of peace” is called “genitive of production”
b. So the phrase, “the Gospel of peace” is translated “the peace that is produced by the Gospel”
c. The armor essentially is “the peace”
d. Let’s have a discussion on “peace produced by the Gospel”
i. To understand “the peace,” we need to first understand “the hostility”
ii. Hostility (cf. Eph 2:16, Rom 5:10 “we were enemies”),
iii. Hostility causes alienation (cf. Eph 2:11-12 “alienated from the commonwealth of God”; Gen 3:81)
iv. Alienation calls for judgment (cf. Rom 6:23 “the wages of sin is death”)
e. The “Gospel of peace” or “peace produced by the Gospel” is the absence of hostility, alienation, and judgment
i. Reconciliation cf. Eph 2:14-16
• Verse 14: Jesus is our peace, the one who made both groups into one and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility,
• Verse 15 when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace
• Verse 16 and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed
• Col 1:21-22 you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds as expressed through your evil deeds, but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him
• Romans 5:10 if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?
• 2 Cor 5:18 And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 5:19 In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them
• Hostility with God is ended (Matt 27:51 “Just then the temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom”)
ii. God is not against us, but for us (cf. Rom 8:31)
f. The peace that gives firmness to our feet is that we are not enemies of God
g. If you put on your sandal, i.e., the peace produced by the Gospel” you will not be tripped of shoved around
i. It’s all about the doctrine called “the security of salvation”
ii. You need not do a lot of things to be in relationship with God
• You need not strive to be a Christian
• God’s love is not based on what you do but is based on what He did through Jesus Christ
• Christian living is not meritorious with your dos and don’ts
iii. You do not lose your salvation because of your behavior
Take Away:
Develop clarity of the Gospel which gives you firmness to your feet