Disarmed
To understand any battle, we first have to know our enemy. Their origin, the story behind how they became to be our enemy in the first place. We have to go back to the beginning, in this case that is, Genesis 3. Here we are shown what was lost - and then we see how it points toward what God would do to redeem us through Jesus Christ.
God created humanity in His image and made us for life with Him. He placed Adam and Eve in the garden to care for creation and enjoy all He had made. They had everything they needed and lived in peace with their Maker. Before the fall, there was no need for armor; their calling was simply to live in communion with God and cultivate His good creation.
God created every creature in the garden good, but after Satans rebellion he used his free will to enter this good place God made and he did that by entering the serpent. He masked himself as one of Gods good creatures and persuaded Eve to doubt God’s words. He convinced her to believe that something better lay beyond them. Satan manipulated Gods words by saying that if they just ate of this fruit they wouldn’t die and actually they would become like God. Completely ignoring that they were already made in the creators image she fell for it, she ate the fruit, and Adam followed. They chose to trust something other than God, and their relationship with Him was fractured. They died spiritually of their innocence and for the first time, they knew shame and fear. The life they had known began to crumble.
Sin brought separation from God, the loss of peace, and painful consequences. In Genesis 3, humanity is left vulnerable - not because God’s truth had failed, but because Adam and Eve had lost sight of it. Yet this story reaches beyond the garden. As God speaks judgment to the serpent, He declares that there will be enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between their offspring. Even in the midst of judgment, God reveals a conflict that will unfold throughout history. He declares war. Many Christians understand the serpent’s offspring to represent those who oppose God; Jesus echoes this language in John 8, where He confronts people, whose actions reveal whom they serve. We see numerous times in scripture the idea that we cannot serve two masters, we are either all in with the Lord or all in with Satan, there is no middle ground. Scripture very clearly presents two kingdoms and two paths - and calls us to choose the narrow road that leads to life.
Still, in all of this happening, God did not leave Adam and Eve in their shame. In Genesis 3:21 we see that God had to provide a sacrifice to cover Adam and Eve. He made a way to cover their guilt from their sin. He clothed them with animal skins, an act that foreshadows the cost of sin and the sacrifice through which God would ultimately cover it. The promise in Genesis 3 also points ahead: the woman’s offspring would crush the serpent’s head, though the serpent would strike His heel. Christians have long seen this as the first glimpse of the gospel - suffering followed by victory, fulfilled in Jesus.
The serpent’s lie in the garden is familiar: what God forbids can look good, feel right, and seem to offer something better. The fruit appeared desirable, but reaching for it brought death. The same deception still tempts us to distrust God and mistake an apparent upgrade for the way to life. Most of the time Satan gets us with those little lies, the ones that hold a bit of truth. Life will be better if you have a bigger house, but then you have to clean the extra rooms. You’ll be happier if youre skinny so starve yourself, but then you make yourself sick. The grass isn’t greener on the other side. It’s green where you cultivate it with the Lord.
Even after all of this God’s plan was never thwarted- not then and not even 2000+ years later when Jesus went to the cross. Even in his painful death - the cross, which looked like defeat, became the decisive victory. Romans 16:20 promises that God will crush Satan under the feet of His people, and Colossians 2:15 says that through the cross, Christ disarmed the powers and authorities. The outcome is not in doubt.
Satan is powerful as a spiritual enemy, but he is not God’s equal. He is neither all-knowing, all-powerful, nor present everywhere. Deception is his chief weapon. Jesus calls him “the father of lies” (John 8:44), and his strategy has not changed since the garden: distort God’s words and make the lie seem believable. His aim is to twist our view of God, Jesus, the gospel, and those who faithfully teach it.
That is why spiritual vision matters. Jesus says in Matthew 6:22 that the eye is the lamp of the body: clear vision fills us with light, while corrupted vision darkens everything. What we take in shapes how we think, believe, and live.
This connects to the armor of God in Ephesians 6. The eye is not listed as a piece of armor, but every piece depends on seeing clearly. We cannot walk in truth if we cannot recognize it, hold fast to faith if our perspective is clouded, or wield God’s Word well if we are unsure of what is real.
The battle that began in Genesis continues, but its outcome is settled. The serpent may strike, and darkness may sometimes seem to prevail, but neither has the final word. Christ has secured the victory.
The question is not who wins. It is what we will believe, what we will see, and which kingdom we will stand with as the story unfolds.
So, now you know my story, you know where the need for the armor was introduced and you know your enemy.
Now it’s time to gear up for battle. The next few weeks I’ll be diving into Ephesians and the Armor of the Lord piece by piece.
I know all of this can feel heavy and like it’s a lot. But as we go on this journey together I want you to keep reminding yourself of these truths.
The more we devote ourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart the more we will be filled with the Holy Spirit and Gods power.
The more we will be able to endure. Because Jesus endured death on a cross, we endure suffering in this life. We are transformed from that, a new creation. A group of warriors - the Body of Christ.
He came to make an army - that army is us. We are strengthened for endurance and patience.
Having the power of God in us means that when suffering comes, God will be with us. God has qualified us to be set apart. To share In the inheritance of Christ.
The God who created everything came down as one of his creations to ransom himself in a sinful world. Now every single answer we need to find peace was found on a bloody cross in a broken body of the perfect man. A sacrifice that paid for our sins and reconciled us to the Father. IT is finished. The debt was paid. The restoration already happened. Now we wait joyfully for his return knowing we are safe. As his children, his soldiers, it is our job to live fully awake to the truth. We live from him and overflow to the world. In the world not of it. We are not saved by our works, but by the work he came and did.
