I have a few favorite hymns (some which rarely get sung, but that's another story); one of which was mentioned in the devotion I was reading today. The hymn quoted is "Christ is the World's Redeemer," LSB 539, and the image which caught my attention is "The armor of His soldiers."
The hymn texts makes many statements in the first stanza stating Who Christ is--Redeemer, Lord, our trust, and so on. The word "armor" got me thinking.
The first obvious thought is armor, The Armor of God mentioned in Ephesians 6. In this passage Paul talks about how to "dress" ourselves to be able to stand against the Devil's wiles; only one piece of armor listed is used on the offense--that is the sword of the Word. The next thought is that Christ is the Word. This is how Christ is the armor of His soldiers. He is the One Who fights for us. He stands strong against the devil. The protection we wear--truth, righteousness, readiness/preparation of the gospel of peace, faith, and salvation--all of these come from Christ Himself. None of this armor do we receive from ourselves; they are all gifts Christ gives. He clothes us in the armor, and then He arms us with His Word, Himself, to stand against the wiles of the devil.
How positively sacramental! Christ clothes us with His righteousness in baptism, and arms us with Himself in his Holy Supper. All so that we can withstand every attack the devil launches at us. Christ is truly the world's Redeemer.
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