Shoes

Eph 6:15 The Shoes of the gospel of peace

The Situation that demands that right shoe. shoes for your feet

The spiritual terrain we traverse and the spiritual travail that we encounter, requires firm and stable footing that will keep us from slipping, sliding and stumbling in our struggle with the enemy. He need good footwear to win the battle. If the feet or legs are materially wounded, a man can neither stand to resist his foe, pursue him if vanquished, nor flee from him should he have the worst of the fight. (Clarke) That is why soldiers used a thick-soled semi-boot that came around on their foot, and then had straps that tied it in all directions, so that it was tremendously tight, adhering to their foot. On the bottom they had hobnails, little pieces of metal that protruded from the bottom, like a football, or a track shoe to give them a grip on the soil. (MacArthur) We all know the use of shoes is to keep our feet from sharp stones, hard clods, etc.; for our feet are naturally tender, insomuch that if we go around barefoot, every hard stone hurts them, every sharp stick and pricking thorn pierces them; therefore, we are accustomed to not go around barefoot. If anyone is so foolhardy as to go out, soon will he be weary, and either sit down and go no further, or else turn back. To apply this: Stones, sticks, thorns, and the like, are not more grievous to our bare feet, than troubles, crosses, and afflictions are to our naked heart and soul. Now then, this world, through which we must pass to heaven, being a very hard and rough way, stony and thorny, full of all sorts of afflictions, if our souls are naked and bare, our feet exposed without the proper covering, we will not be ready and prepared well to endure all crosses in the battle and we shall either never go on this hard way, or at least not endure to continue in it. (Exell) The daily struggles we face in the Christian life demand the shoes of the gospel of peace.

The Salvation that brings the right shoe The gospel of Peace

Provision of God Gk euaggelion – good message, good news, the gospel. The gospel . . . is the good news that God purchased peace by the death of his Son and offers it to sinners who believe in Jesus. We have the good news that God's omnipotent wrath against sinners has been taken away through the death of Jesus for sin. And everyone who believes is reconciled to him freely by grace. And in the place of enmity comes peace. (Piper) The Gospel is that man and God were at war, and God was on the opposite side against man, So man is an enemy of God, and yet Christ comes, and makes peace a reality. That’s the good news (Mac Arthur) The gospel is the heart of the Bible. Everything in Scripture is either preparation for the gospel. Presentation of the gospel, or participation in the gospel. (Harvey) You were saved by it, will be sustained by it, and are currently standing in it (Chandler) The gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness–or lack of it–or the righteousness of another. The good news of the

gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own wellbeing but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God. (Sproul) The gospel in a nutshell: Every one of us was created BY God, made FOR God, separated FROM God, but can be reconciled TO God. (Hebert)

Peace with God Gk eirene -peace, the sate of tranquility - of Christianity, the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is (Col 1:20). Peace with God means that our hearts are right with Him and that there is no shadow between. It is ours because we have been reckoned as righteous by faith (Romans 5:1) and this enables us to stand, confident of victory, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:2). Indeed it is the God of peace, the God Who brings peace, the God Who gives peace to His own, Who will bruise Satan under our feet (Romans 16:20) through the Gospel of peace (Pett) (Eph 2:13-19) True peace with God is the product of the gospel, because it is the gospel alone that deals with our sin and guilt before God, When someone becomes a Christian, this glorious peace becomes his real experience. (Jeffery) The good news of peace is that when Christ died and shed his blood for sin, . . . . . The enmity between God and repentant sinners was brought to an end. (Piper). The good news is that you are at peace with God. God and you aren’t on other sides anymore. (Rom. 8:7). You’re on the same side. God’s on my side. That’s the Gospel of peace. (Ps 124:1, Ex 33:15)) (MacArthur) As a result of this peace with God we don’t make peace with sin. This broke your peace with God; now let the peace with God begin a war with sin that will never end. You cannot forget the inestimable wrong and damage you have suffered by it. Every moment’s sweet enjoyment of God —whose love you have now happily recovered—will help to keep the fire of wrath and revenge burning in your heart against that cursed enemy, that both threw and kept you so long before. God has now won your heart, I hope, by his pardoning mercy, dearly to love him for his love of you. How then can you with patience see any lust come braving forth from its trench—your heart I mean—defying your God and his grace in you? Carry the blood and wounds of your Savior into the field of battle with you, in the hand of your faith. The sight of those will certainly enrage your heart against your lusts, that stabbed and killed him (Gurnall)

The Securing that enables the right shoe having put on

Accept it Before peace is concluded between God and man, both must be agreed; as God to pardon, so the sinner to accept and embrace peace upon God’s own terms. But how shall this be done? The heart of man is so deeply rooted in its enmity against God, that it requires a strength to pluck up this equal with that which tears up mountains and carries rocks from one place to another. The gospel preached is the instrument which God uses for the effecting of it. It is the chariot wherein the Spirit rides victoriously when he makes his entrance into the hearts of man (2Cor. 3:8.( He fashions anew the heart, as he framed the world at first, with a word spoken. This is the day of God’s ‘power,’ wherein he makes his people ‘willing’—power indeed, to make those that had the seeds of war sown in their very natures against God willing to be friends with him. Unheard-of power! As if the beating of a drum should carry such a charm along with its sound as to make those on the enemy’s side upon the hearing of it to throw down their arms and seek peace at his hand against whom they even now took to the field with great rage and fury. Such a secret power accompanies the gospel. It strikes many times not only the sinner's sword out of his hand while it is stretched out against God, but the enmity out of his heart, and brings the stoutest rebel upon his knee, humbly to crave the benefit of the articles of peace published in the gospel. It makes sinners so pliable and docile to the call of God in the gospel, that they suddenly, upon the hearing of a gospel message, forget their old natural affections which they have had to their beloved lusts, and leap out of their embraces with indignation, lest they should keep God and them at odds one moment longer. (Gurnall)

Attach it We are to put on the shoes. How is that to be done? By a very simple way: a way which, I am afraid, a great many Christian people do not practice with anything like the constancy that they ought. For it is the Gospel that brings the peace, and if its peace brings the preparedness, then the way to get the preparedness is by soaking our minds and hearts in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (there is only one thing that deepens the spiritual life, and that is keeping near the Christ from whom all the fulness of the spiritual life flows. If we will hold fast by our Gospel, and let its peace lie upon our minds, as the negative of a photograph lies upon the paper that it is to be printed upon, until the image of Jesus Christ Himself is reproduced in us, then we may laugh at temptation. For there will be no temptation when the heart is full of Him, and there will be no sense of surrendering anything that we wish to keep when the superior sweetness of His grace fills our souls. It is empty vessels into which poison can be poured. If the vessel is full there will be no room for it. Get your hearts and minds filled with the wine of the kingdom, and the devil’s venom of temptation will have no space to get in. It is well to resist temptation; it is better to be lifted above it, so that it ceases to tempt. And the one way to secure that is to live near Jesus Christ, and let the Gospel of His grace take up more of our thoughts and more of our affections than it has done in the past. Then we shall realize the fulfilment of the promise: ‘He will not suffer thy foot to be moved.’ (Maclaren.)

The Stand we take with the right shoe the readiness We can take a stand because God is on our side. He is for us not against us. He will fight for us not against us. The battle is the Lord’s, but we still must fight in it (Deut 20:4, Jos 23:9-13)

Support how does the gospel relate to the feet or preparing them for battle? Again, the feet are there for support, they are there as the foundation of the soldier. Without them it is difficult to stand properly. The Gospel is the only foundation that really gives the soldier the proper support to stand against the Devil. (Mitchell)

Stability Unless our footing is good we shall be tumbled over by the onset of some

unexpected antagonist. And for good footing there are two things necessary. One is a good, solid piece of ground to stand on, that is not slippery nor muddy, and the other is a good, strong pair of soldier’s boots, that will take hold on the ground and help the wearer to steady himself. Christ has set our feet on the rock, and so the first requisite is secured. If we, for our part, will keep near to that Gospel which brings peace into our hearts, the peace that it brings will make us able to stand and bear unmoved any force that may be hurled against us. If we are to be ‘steadfast, unmovable,’ we can only be so when our feet are shod with the preparedness of the Gospel of peace (Maclaren) The Christian who does not have a "firm-footing" in the gospel message is totally unprepared (Heb 5:12-14). The gospel message makes one "prepared" and "ready" to encounter the foe (2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Pet 1:3). “Not just any preparation defends against Satan” (Caldwell). Spiritual stability comes from an unswerving confidence in what God has said (concerning the gospel of peace). We must believe and stand firm on it. (Jeffery)

Security If God is on your side he is always on your side, even at times when you are not fighting like you are on his side. If you are saved by the gospel of peace you are secure in the God of Peace. (Rom 5:1) The shoes of the gospel of peace gave them firmness of footing so they could stand in the battle. The Roman soldier standing, and his feet are firm, and he’s able to hold his ground, and make quick moves, and keep his feet. He doesn’t slip, and he doesn’t slide, and he doesn’t fall. (Mac Arthur) He is secure. Peace with God is our assurance and protection. Peace from God, flooding our very beings (Phili 4:7), will further protect us from all that the Enemy can throw at us and result in confidence and assurance (Pett) You must always have “peace”--a “prepared peace”--under your feet, like the “shoes” you walk in--carrying it with you, as the base upon which you stand. This is what we want--to have God’s “peace” as a foundation--a sure, firm thing under us. Not something which we are to reach by and by; but a fact, a resting point. “Christ is mine! The enmity is gone! I am forgiven!” How strong will be your step! how quiet your journey! how calm your bearing--with this feeling--“I walk in my holy confidence.” “My feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.) The gospel of peace should produce in us and attitude of mind that sends us forward to face the foe strong and confident in the Lord. (Jeffery). We are reconciled. (2 Cor 5:19, Col 1:20) A Christian who stands firm says, “Look Satan, you come against me all you want. I’ve got shoes that anchor me in the ground immoveable because God is on my side,” you see? That’s what helps us stand. If I had to stand there and fight off the host of hell by myself, in my own strength, I’d lose. You can stand in absolute confidence. when Satan comes to attack, our feet are rooted firmly on the solid ground of the Gospel of peace, which says, “The good news is that I’m not an enemy. I’m not on the other side. God’s on my side, because of Jesus Christ.” And so, no matter what Satan brings, I can, “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” (6:10) And that’s the confidence of having your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. (MacArthur)