Suiting up in Him as our battle garb

Paul begins Galatians 5 with, [1] Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

"Liberty and freedom are those kinds of terms that maybe we lost a sense of even prior to the masks, the shut-downs and the mandates," said Kentucky Preacher Greg Resor last weekend at a Bible conference in North Carolina. "Because in the U.S. we've lived free for so many years . . . 

"The liberty Paul's talking about in the passage is totally different. There's a guy I talk to who has a prison ministry and I've often thought, 'If you can give a person in prison real liberty, in a place that they can't get out of because they're probably going to be there until they die, this liberty can set you free even though you're in prison!'

"That's an amazing thing to think about and that's one of the reasons Paul's able to say, 'Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ,' yet he's as free as you can be. That's why his circumstances at the time were not what he relied upon. It was the liberty he had because of who he was in Christ."

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Paul writes to the Ephesians, [11] Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

[12] For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
[13] Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
[14] Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

Jordan explains, "When he describes those pieces of the armor, what he's really describing is things that are true about the Lord Jesus Christ. When he talks about the armor, you're literally putting on Christ; that's what's going on here in the passage.

"Isaiah 59 is where Paul gets the illustration from. Most of the time people say Paul's talking about the Roman soldier. I think he's thinking more about the Bible.

Isaiah 59: [15] Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.

[16] And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
[17] For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.

"The 'he' there is Jehovah. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ is putting on the battle armor; He's a warrior dressing to go fight for Israel. 

"Notice it says He put on 'garments of vengeance for clothing'? Woah! That's what the armor is; you're dressed for a FIGHT, and what you're dressed in is the Lord Jesus Christ. What that armor's describing is who Jesus Christ is for you. When we put that armor on, we're literally dressing ourselves in the identity God's given us in Christ and we put that on into our life; we put it on by faith.

"Romans 5:2 says, [2] By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Ephesians 3:12: [12] In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

"You see, you don't fight in your own capacity; we fight in HIS capacity, in who He is. He's the one who maintains the message. He's the one who gives credibility to the message, not you. You were going to screw it up to start with. He never trusted you, never depended on you, never required you to do those things, because you weren't going to be able to.

"People say, 'Well, I messed up.' Listen, when you messed up, think about it--two thousand years ago Jesus Christ already knew about it and He died for it! And you think, 'Well, I messed up, maybe God's not going to love me anymore.' Well, 2,000 years ago He took care of it. It didn't surprise Him; didn't catch Him by surprise. That's a wonderful thing to know. But see we get too much interested in ourselves, really."