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In past entries of this blog, we’ve looked at the emphasis placed on the “put off/put on” command—to rid ourselves daily of the “old man” sin nature that was once our garment and put on the heavenly attire of the “new man” nature in Christ.

But there’s actually a second “put on” command, just as imperative as the first: “Finally…Put on the whole armor of God.” (Eph 6:10-11)

Why “finally”? Because we have to do the other putting off/putting on first. The armor won’t fit us right or protect us well if what’s beneath it is still rotten. There’s no sense in putting defenses on a dead body—it’s still dead. But once we’ve stepped from darkness to light and embraced our reborn nature in Christ, now we have something worth protecting—and protect it we must!

It’s going to be a fight. And we must go into it equipped and outfitted to do battle.

Think about it this way: the enemy has very little to gain or lose in fighting an army of the dead. It’s when we’re alive and active in Christ that there’s something worth him attacking, and for us, there’s something worth protecting. So once we put on the new man nature, now we absolutely have to step up and fight for what we have, because the enemy will most definitely be lobbing a barrage of fiery arrows at us to incapacitate us.

Now we have risen from our state of living death, now we are putting off the old and putting on the new, now we are a growing threat to the enemy as we walk in the power of the holy spirit. Now we must meet the challenge, and be overcomers.

It is imperative for all of us that we don’t stop at putting on the new nature, leaving ourselves then susceptible to the attacks of the wicked one. We must take the next step and outfit ourselves with the armor of God so that we can not only transform—but then endure.