Your salvation Helmet is not actually yours…

Your salvation Helmet is not actually yours…

It’s not actually your helmet, it’s Christ’s helmet…and He gives it to you. When He

secured your salvation, He secured your helmet. It’s His initial gift to you.

So, that salvation helmet is not actually your helmet – it’s Christ’s. He purchased it

and has given it to each of us personally. But you have to do

something with that helmet. You have to “work out your own salvation with

fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for

his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12–13, emphasis mine). The words “work out”

take on the simple meaning of working at a task. They are used in agriculture

and in the making of materials. It is as though God has given you a farm, and

you are to work the farm. If you say you are a farmer, you prove it by

farming. If you are a saved person, you act like a saved person …

increasingly. If you have said Jesus is your Lord, you act as though Jesus is

your Lord … increasingly. Your salvation is re/ned by constant use.

What is our particular part in this process? At salvation we receive all of the

Holy Spirit. But at that point He doesn’t have all of you—Christ gets more of

you over time, but only if you lean in. That’s what He wants. And believe me,

it’s what you want, too. Put the helmet on. Wear it in public. That is your

part. Lean in to Him. Abide in Him, for He says, “Apart from me, you can do

nothing” (John 15:5). He wants to help you look more like Himself, to think

and act more like Him. You want that because that’s how you can operate

consistently with how He made you. Mark Twain said, “The two most

important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you

understand why.” I choose to consider these words from a spiritual

perspective. As we grow to think and act more like Christ, we become more

of who He originally made us to be. Even in a fallen world that impacts us

and those around us, we can change for the better.

In Ephesians 5:18, God had Paul say, “And do not get drunk with wine, for

that is debauchery, but be /lled with the Spirit.” The Greek word for “/lled”

can also mean “controlled.” Wine can control you, but Paul is saying to let

the Spirit control you. Again, at salvation we get all of Him, but He does not

get all of us. Over our whole lives we are working out our salvation so that

He has more and more of us. It is sort of like a garden hose. It just lays there

until the spigot is turned on; then the water controls the hose.

But who wants to be a garden hose?

A /re/ghter’s hose is controlled much more by the water coursing through it.

We should be more and more controlled by the Holy Spirit over time. He will

help you work out your salvation helmet and build the rest of your armor

over time.