Shield of Faith

Paul wrote these words as a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ, setting forth truth given specifically to him for this present dispensation of the grace of God, the administration of the mystery which had been hid in God from the beginning of the world (Ephesians 3:1-9). Rightly dividing the word of truth means recognizing that the armor of Ephesians 6 is not given to Israel under the kingdom program, nor does it belong to some future tribulation saint enduring unto the end for physical deliverance. It is written to the Body of Christ, the one new man, made up of Jew and Gentile alike who have been baptized by one Spirit into one body (1 Corinthians 12:13) and who stand today purely on the finished work of the cross, burial, and resurrection according to Paul's gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). The shield of faith belongs to that company, in this dispensation of grace, and must be understood in that light rather than borrowed wholesale from Israel's covenant program or from gospel accounts written under the law.

The shield itself pictures not a small buckler but the great oblong shield of the Roman soldier, large enough to cover the whole body and able to be locked together with the shields of others to form an unbroken wall against a volley of flaming arrows. So faith here is not a vague religious feeling, nor is it faith plus works, sign, or ordinance; it is settled confidence resting entirely upon the sound words which God committed to Paul as the pattern for them which should hereafter believe (1 Timothy 1:16, 2 Timothy 1:13). The fiery darts of the wicked are the accusations of the adversary, aimed to set the believer's mind ablaze with doubt concerning his standing in grace, doubts about whether the old man was truly crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6), whether the believer is truly complete in Him (Colossians 2:10), or whether some work of the law must be added to grace to keep what grace alone secured. Every one of those darts is quenched the instant it strikes a shield already resting on the finished work rather than on feeling, experience, or performance.

Practically, then, putting on the shield of faith in this dispensation means giving oneself to the study and belief of the mystery committed to Paul, holding fast the form of sound words, and refusing to let the mind wander back to a program of signs, kingdom expectation, or law-keeping that was never addressed to the Body of Christ. The believer today does not look for a fresh vision, a felt experience, or an outward sign to prove his standing; he looks by faith to what is already written and already finished, and stands his ground in the evil day, having done all, to stand (Ephesians 6:13). As each member of the Body holds his shield steady in doctrine rightly divided, the darts of accusation, whether from within or from the adversary, find no fuel to burn, and the saint remains settled, rooted, and grounded in the grace wherein he stands (Romans 5:2).