Helmet of Redemption
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
The Helmet of Redemption
The Evil One is looking for access into your life. Our minds are the strategic center where the battle is lost or won. Two aspects are important to understand:
1. How to protect yourself from yourself
2. How to help others
James 4:7 ESV
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Join the resistance! By submitting and being humble (in context) as individual soldier and part of the army. Resist is antithemi – antithesis – set oneself against, oppose, refuse to yield.
Go through pieces of armor and see examples in the Word – what piece do you need to put on? For example, with the belt: whose words are you listening to? Who is lord in your life? In the chapter on strongholds, there are specific actions to take with each piece. The one I want to zero in on is the helmet of redemption and how to live in redemption and overcome all stress. What kind of stress are you under?
We are to set on our head the helmet of redemption. I believe that redemption is a more accurate word than salvation, because redemption includes salvation, but it is also much deeper. This word helmet in Aramaic could be translated turban. When I was in Israel, I saw many of the people wearing scarves which identified them to others and they were wound around the head very tightly. That was the same thing with the Roman helmets. They had various plumes and decorations which identified whether they were a centurion, a tribune, or which rank they were. Redemption is what identifies us as a believer.
2 Corinthians 1:10 KJV
Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;
In English we say “we have been delivered” and mean that it is something accomplished and in the past. But in the Eastern way of thinking, deliverance is past, present and future. God HAS delivered us (we received his Spirit) and DOES DELIVER (now, present tense) and he will yet deliver us. Our redemption is completed when we will receive our new bodies and forever be with the Lord. The helmet of redemption comes into play in the DOES DELIVER part. Go back and look at the end of Colossians 1:13: “he has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.”
It is not enough to know that we are rescued in the past. We need rescuing and redeeming every day! But redeemed for what? We have been transferred to Christ’s kingdom. Redemption always is TO something.
We are redeemed from death TO life
We are redeemed from slavery TO freedom.
We are redeemed from darkness TO light.
We are redeemed from being strangers and foreigners TO sons with an inheritance.
Hallelujah! We need to be living in redemption right now. I Thessalonians 5:8 calls the helmet the “hope of salvation.” Hope is also a word that is not just future. Yes, there is an ultimate redemption, but we are to be living in freedom, life, light and acting like sons every single day. This is where the armor comes in because we can’t do this by ourselves, just like all the other pieces.
The helmet protects our minds and is the armor against Belial. Belial is the principality which causes stress, depression and unworthiness. His principal method is to squeeze or press. Some scholars derive the name from “to swallow,” hence the swallower. The verb from which Belial is derived is bali which means to wear out (such as a garment). People who are caught up in his web are called “sons of Belial” or “worthless fellow” and are used to wear out righteous people.
Depression is a good example of this swallowing and wearing out. There may be a reason where something happened to cause disappointment, for example a person lost his job after 30 years. But if this disappointment is allowed to fester in the mind and grow larger and larger, then depression sets in. More depression eventually causes a person to be catatonic and not able to move. Stress is a rampant problem in our culture and most people resort to some kind of panacea to try to alleviate the squeezing, such as alcohol or TV or any number of things. The truth is that none of those things help – only the helmet of redemption!
5 Step Program
1. Bought with a price — buy up for oneself, we were on a slave auction, in bondage to sin
Galatians 4:3-7 APNT
So also, while we were babies, we were made subject to the elements of the world.
4 But when the fulfillment of the time came, God sent his Son. And he was from a woman and was under the law,
5 so that he would redeem those who are under the law and [that] we would receive adoption.
6 And now that you are sons, God sent into your hearts the Spirit of his Son that calls, “Father, our Father.”
7 From now on, you are not servants, but sons, and if sons, [you are] also heirs of God by way of Jesus Christ.
1 Pet. 1:18-19 APNT
knowing that you were not redeemed with silver that is corruptible, nor with gold, by your empty works that you received from your fathers,
19 but with the precious blood of the lamb, who has no spot or blemish, who is Christ.
There was a price that was paid for our redemption and that was the precious blood of Christ. It was poured out on the mercy seat as atonement for us, once and for all. There is no need to have any more sacrifices for sin; it is completely paid for. In this way, it is the same thing as justification. We could not and cannot earn our redemption.
2. Price needed to be paid by a kinsman (redeemer) [story of Ruth]
She had lost inheritance, was in bankruptcy and foreclosure
- One who is related
Hebrews 2:14-15
For because the sons share in flesh and blood, he also in the same manner shared of the same, that by his death he would put a stop to him who held the authority of death, who is Satan,
15 and would release those who by fear of death were subjected to bondage all their lives.
- Had to be willing – Jesus laid down his life
- Had to qualify to pay the price (lamb with spot and blemish)
Boaz paid the price for the land to redeem Naomi’s inheritance, but also took Ruth to be his wife to live a life of redemption (she became David’s great-grandmother)
3. Need to be snatched out and rescued
We have been rescued, delivered, redeemed from the authority of darkness. I picture this as though we were on a train which was speeding down the track to where it goes straight off a cliff. We are “snatched’ out of the train and rescued from the sure death and destruction that would have awaited us.We have been delivered from a great death!
Colossians 1:12-13 MGI
you should give thanks to God the Father, who has made us worthy for a portion of the inheritance of the holy [ones] in light
and has delivered us from the authority of darkness and has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
Titus 2:14 MGI
who gave himself for us, so that he could deliver us from all wickedness and would purify for himself a new people who are zealous in good works.
4. We are brought to have a relationship with God as sons
- Because of forgiveness of sins
- New name, “adopted” “Father, our Father” – awe and reverence
- Slave is made a son, never to go back to bondage, we now have a new home and family.
Romans 8:15-17
For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption by which we call, “Father, our Father.”
16 And the Spirit gives testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God.
17 And if [we are] sons, [then] also heirs, heirs of God and fellow-heirs of Jesus Christ, that if we suffer with him, we will also be glorified with him.
5. We are released and set free
From: all iniquity, curse of the law, bondage of the law, power of sin, all evil, all trouble, all distresses, death, hand of the enemy
Why? To live a life of freedom!
Ongoing redemption
In these things, we need “snatching” off the train and the deliverance is there when we give it all up to God. Not only do we need to go through these 5 steps ourselves, but we need to help set others free from worthlessness, oppression, bondage and help others get to that life of freedom. How do we do that?
Amplified of Isaiah 58:4-9 (Jesus says in Luke 4:18 that he was anointed to do this and we have Christ in us so we can do it too)
What it is not:
- Pat someone on the back and say it’s OK, this will pass
- Carry a burden for them (each one has a shield and helmet)
Galatians 6:2, 5 And bear the burden of one another, so that you may complete the law of Christ—help to carry the weight
for everyone should carry his own load. (Gal. 6:5 MGI)
Everyone bears their own load, but when they become too heavy or burdensome, then they need help, first from God and then each other
- “Renew your mind” – like with the Law, they couldn’t completely do it by themselves. They needed the redemption and so do we – we are “transformed”
The key to the truth of how to help people get out of stress and depression is that the helmet is the hope of redemption. A lot of times, we need what I call “mini-hopes.” Hope is an expectation that something will happen. If we lost our job, then the expectation is that there will be another solution in the future. That is a mini-hope. It is the confidence that we will be delivered from the train on a daily basis and that we will be brought into a place of freedom and life. Sometimes it might not be immediate, but the confidence is there that it WILL happen. David did this in his struggles with various enemies
Psalm 16:8-9 KJV
I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
David set the LORD always before him, not the problem, not the wicked ones causing the problem, not the way he was feeling at the time. This is the same idea of the turban. It was wrapped tightly around his mind. Everywhere he looked, he only saw the Lord. THEREFORE he was not moved or shaken or stressed! Joy is also a great key to walking and living in redemption. Rejoicing that the solution is coming will prevent being worn down and swallowed up with depression over problems.
Remember we talked about how the helmet identifies us? When people see us rejoicing in the middle of trying experiences, they can identify us as a REDEEMED believer!
Psalm 118:5 ESV
Out of my distress I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free.
The King James says, “he set me in a large place.” The practical application of this piece of armor comes especially in times of death of dear ones and family. There is no comfort greater than knowing that death does not have the ultimate victory. A day will come when we will be able to say, “O death, where is they sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). When our physical bodies start to lose the strength of youth and show signs of decay and age, we can know that we will be raised in incorruption. This gives us the courage to continue to labor in the service of the Lord.
The hope of our redemption is an anchor so we are not discouraged. Hebrews 6:19 relates to our hope. The Aramaic says that the hope “is for us as an anchor that holds our soul so that it is not shaken…” The word “shaken” is used of an earthquake. Life can certainly shake things like an earthquake, but the helmet of redemption brings a protection for our minds and “holds our soul.” Let’s continue to live in redemption day by day until the Lord returns and help each other do the 5 step program!