Reason #3 My Daily Protection

When I trust in Jesus Christ for the salvation that He offers, my role in that salvation does not become a passive one.  God’s Word over and over calls me to persevere in my walk of faith.  In Colossians 1:29, Paul says “…I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.” It is because of God’s power at work me that I am able to do so, but my responsibility to labor and strive must not be overlooked.  The danger is that that I so easily default to a labor and striving that is in the power of my own flesh, leaving the gospel out of my daily experience, when it is the gospel that is the power of God. (Romans 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:18; see yesterday’s post)  Milton Vincent gives us this insight:

As long as I am inside the gospel, I experience all the protection I need from the powers of the evil one that rage against me. It is for this reason that the Bible tells me to ‘take up’ and ‘put on’ the whole armor of God; and the pieces of armor that it tells me to put on are all merely synonyms for the gospel. Translated literally from the Greek, they are: ‘...the salvation…the justification…truth…the gospel of peace…the faith…[and the]…word of God.’ (Ephesians 6:14-17) What are all these expressions but various ways of describing the Gospel? Therefore, if I wish to stand victorious in Jesus, I must do as the song writer (George Duffield) suggests and ‘put on the gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer.’ 

That God would tell me to ‘take up’ and ‘put on’ this gospel armor alerts me to the fact that I do not automatically come into each day protected by the Gospel. In fact, these commands imply that I am vulnerable to defeat and injury unless I seize upon the gospel and arm myself with it from head to toe. And what better way is there to do this than to preach the gospel to myself and to make it the obsession of my heart throughout each day?”  -Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer for Christians, p.15

So here is yet a third reason to preach the gospel daily to myself.  This week I am doing this by reading Romans 5 each day, and making a list of gospel truths found there. You can see Mondays blog for how you too can do this.