Take the Helmet of Salvation
Out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.... But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Gen. 2.9,17)
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons. (Gen. 3.6,7)
Our glory is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward. (2 Cor. 1.12)
Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Eph. 6.17)
And that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind. (Eph. 4.23)
Be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Rom. 12.2)
They that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. (Rom. 8.5,6)
One
In the midst of all the trees in the Garden of Eden there were both the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God had commanded Adam: "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2.16b, 17). This indicates to us how contrary these two trees are. On the one hand is the tree of life, on the other is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We may therefore say that one is the tree of life and the other is the tree of death, for in eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil man would die.
We can notice a tremendous effect upon the lives of Adam and Eve after they sinned: they gained in knowledge; for having eaten of that fruit, they then knew good and evil. In other words, the first subjective effect upon man in his fall was that his mind was enlarged in its capacity to function. Before the fall, man had a certain kind of mind; but after the fall, his mind began to contain a large portion of things which were originally purposed by God for him eventually to have—but not in the way men at that time obtained those things. For this reason Paul mentions in Ephesians 6.17 that the believer is to "take the helmet of salvation." This word attests to the need for the deliverance of the human mind. Many after they believe in the Lord Jesus have their lives changed, but their heads still need to be delivered. If their heads are undelivered, they will be without covering in time of spiritual conflict. Hence it is of the utmost importance for us to take the helmet of salvation.
There is a rather awesome problem among God’s children: we may encounter many good-hearted and well-behaved people, but they carry with them heads which still belong to the old creation. To put it another way, their life is the life of Christ but their head is the head of Adam. This curtails their ability to know the will of God. Therefore, in measuring the spiritual life of a person, we need only measure his head. To the degree that his head is delivered, to that degree is he delivered from Adam and hence delivered from the old creation. The basic difference between living in the old and living in the new creation is seen in the relationship between one’s head and God.
Two
"Not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves" (2 Cor. 1.12b). How we need to ask God to deliver us from being clever in ourselves. The principle of Christian living is to rely on the will of God and not on one’s cleverness, to depend on the grace of God and not on our own wisdom. This is a lesson we need to learn.
Suppose some action is put before you, but you do not know whether to do it this way or that, or not at all. You have no idea which is right. So you begin to deliberate on the effect of whichever action you may take. If you do it this way or that, what will people say? You therefore try to be clever. How? To say or to do that which will meet the least problem and avoid the most opposition. By following this policy it means you have forgotten that God’s children do not live on earth by human cleverness. To be a Christian is really quite simple. You merely ask one thing: "God, what do You want me to do?"
It is clear that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is still among the children of God today. Many are still feeding on its fruit daily. They do not eat of the tree of life. On the contrary, they do not cease asking, Which is better?—a question which arises from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Yet Paul tells us that today our life before God is most simple, for we do not lean on fleshly wisdom but on the grace of God. We are responsible for this one thing only: to do God’s will.
Three
"Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12.2b).
Let every one of us remember that what we are responsible for is doing the will of God, and what God is responsible for is seeing to it that we experience the right consequence after we have done His will. We are prone to seek the pleasant way. Yet in this very connection, we find that the Son of God traveled on a most rugged road while on earth, He made himself responsible for doing God’s will, and God in turn was responsible for giving Him the rugged road. When we testify that a Christian’s fleshly wisdom is totally useless, we do not suggest that he should go ahead to do foolish things. For neither his fleshly wisdom nor his own foolishness is of any use to God. God does not need our folly, just as He does not need our wisdom. Not all foolish things are right; only things which issue from the divine will are right. We must perceive such a distinction. We are not in any way right when we deliberately say some foolish words or do some foolish things. What we are held accountable for is doing the will of God. Whatever the Lord wants me to do, that I do. But as to its result, that is His responsibility, not yours and mine.
Hence we must ask God to deliver us from our head: that our head may be saved by our taking the helmet of salvation. Whenever we encounter anything, we must first confess to God: "God, my head or my cleverness is not the principle of my Christian living. All that matters to me is to seek Your will." This does not mean that you need to pretend to be a fool. Let us say again that God has no more use for the fool than He does for the wise. We only insist that as Christians live in this world they are not to live by the deliberation of their heads but by proving what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
The thinking of some people’s heads is like a merchant’s way of thinking. Whatever thing comes his way, his first reaction is to compute his personal gain or loss. This trait is true in spiritual things as well as in secular things. Such a head needs to be warned. For in spiritual things, the deciding factor is not personal gain or loss but the will of God. Oh do let us see that we have only one principle by which we can live, and that principle is "in the grace of God"—in doing the will of God.
Four
"Ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind" (Eph. 4.23). This means that the human mind needs renewal. Romans 12 gives the same injunction: "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." The result is that "ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." After your mind is renewed you may prove what the will of God is. So that knowing or not knowing the will of God is not a matter of method but a matter of person. Many are acquainted with the method of knowing God’s will but their person is not right; consequently, they cannot know His will.
What kind of person may know God’s will? The one whom God has delivered from brain power. Your mind must be renewed before you may prove what God’s will is. Keep this ever before you: that the most vigorous part of man’s natural life is his thinking apparatus. Some people may have their natural strength in their will while others may have theirs in their emotion. But more people have their natural strength in their head. When you meet a person with a vigorous mind, you meet his head. As you approach him, his thought begins to flow. His thought is bigger than his spirit. He seems to be extremely clever, for his character is reflected in his thought. If this that is his strength is not broken by the Lord, he will have no way of knowing the will of God. Accordingly we must ask the Lord to cause us not to trust in the power of our thinking.
A person may continuously confess how wrong his flesh or natural life is, yet all the while he cherishes his thought and opinions. Though he admits his weakness with his mouth, in his heart he is still full of his own thoughts and cleverness. He considers his view to be superior to that of others and his way to be better than that of others. His cleverness has not been broken by the Lord and his thought has not been dealt with. Because of this, he has no way of knowing the will of God. There are people whose lips are full of God’s will, but in actuality they know nothing of it. Let us be reminded that if a person is not right, he cannot possibly know the divine will. The Lord must do a basic work of the cross in believers’ lives, especially in renewing their thoughts. He will so break them that they can no longer reckon themselves as more clever or better than the rest. After their head has been dealt with, they may then prove and know what the will of God is.
The problem often lies in substituting God’s will with man’s thought. Our head therefore needs deliverance. A person who does not know the cross does not know the will of God. Hence the whole matter comes down once again to the necessity of the cross. Do you really know how the cross deals with your natural life? Do you have any idea as to how God deals with you as a person? One day when through the grace of the Lord you are brought to the place where you see your untrustworthiness and admit how undependable is your thought so that you dare not believe in yourself nor treasure your natural strength, then many things will become clear. As your natural life is dealt with by God, you will begin to be clear on His will.
Five
"They that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace" (Rom. 8.5, 6). What is the mind of the flesh? It has one chief characteristic: believing in oneself as all-knowing and all capable. The mind of the Spirit in a believer has its chief characteristic too: not believing in himself nor daring to say or do anything but always being in fear and trembling. The mind of the flesh is constantly busy and swift, self-wise, and restless. And the result is death. The mind of the Spirit is not controlled by fleshly wisdom but is governed by the command of God, it having no confidence in the flesh nor daring to follow its own idea, with the result being life and peace. Our head needs to be delivered so that we will no longer be directed by fleshly thought but be guided by spiritual will instead.
Six
"Not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward" (2 Cor. 1.12b). Notice this last phrase, "more abundantly to you-ward." The Corinthians were clever people, but Paul declared that we should not live in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, and this more abundantly towards others like the clever Corinthians. Praise the Lord, we will not match our cleverness with clever people. The more calculating others are, the less cleverness we use; for we live by the grace of God. Especially in the things of God and of the church, we are determined not to use human wisdom nor human cleverness.
We therefore must learn the lesson of never putting our worldly brain into spiritual matters. We are not sure if such a worldly brain is effective in other matters, but we are sure of this one thing: that a worldly brain is absolutely useless in spiritual matters. Worldly methods and tactics, worldly maneuvering and cleverness may produce results in other areas, but in the spiritual realm they are totally ineffective. In the house of God it is not man’s hand or wisdom that counts but rather the will of God. Here it is not what man says or thinks but what the Lord says. We will ask God: "God, what pattern do You want to show us? For apart from Your revealed pattern we cannot entertain any other."
Let us learn to do God’s will and not depend on our own cleverness. When we do the will of God, we look to Him to carry us through whatever problem we may encounter in the process. And thereafter we ask God to cause us to live not in fleshly wisdom but in His grace in doing His will.
