Theology According to Truitt.
Put on the armor of Light. And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of Darkness and put on the armor of Light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. Rom 13:11-14
While preparing a series of messages on spiritual warfare, I ran across this passage of scripture. I am sure that we are all familiar with the passage in Ephesians 6 that talks about the whole armor of God. You may have had a Sunday School teacher who had you make all the armor from cardboard and remember the verse that went with each piece of armor. This passage in Roman is hidden in the message of how we should conduct ourselves as Christians being people of the day and not of the night.
What started as reading a few commentaries on the 12th verse which took me on a wild ride of information jumping. You know where you are reading something, and a new idea is presented, and you follow it, and another new approach is presented. Well, this ride was exciting.
I was waiting for a meeting to start, so I thought I would check out some more on the "armor of light." I was trying to find how Light could be the armor of the Christian. No luck. This got me to thinking about when Adam was created-- how was he clothed? It has long been taught that he was covered in Light. So this started me on a new search. But before I get to the exciting information, let's go back to the command.
Christians are commanded to "put on the amour of light" and "to put on the Lord Jesus." What does this mean? To be clothed with a person is a Greek phrase, signifying to assume the interests of another--to enter into his views, to imitate him, and be wholly on his side. Putting on the armor of Light is being clothed with Jesus Christ, signifies I have put on Christ, and consequently having the mind that was in Christ.
Christians are soldiers in the midst of spiritual conflict and must have personal protective armor that they may stand against the enemy of the soul. A Christian undressed is unarmed. The graces of the Spirit are the armor, to secure the soul from Satan's temptations and the assaults of this present evil world. Put on the righteousness of Christ for justification; be found in him (Phil. 3:9 ) as a man is found in his clothes; put on the priestly garments of the elder brother, that in them you may obtain the blessing. Put on the Spirit and grace of Christ for sanctification; put on the new man (Eph. 4:24 ); get the habit of grace confirmed, the acts of it quickened." Jesus Christ is the best clothing for Christians to adorn themselves with, to arm themselves with; it is decent, distinguishing, dignifying, and defending. Without Christ, we are naked, deformed; all other things are filthy rages, fig-leaves, a sorry shelter. "Put him on as Lord to rule you, as Jesus to save you, and in both as Christ, anointed and appointed by the Father to this ruling saving work."
I think we get the point of how important it is to identify with Christ. But what is interesting is that Paul would use the expression "the armor of light." The fact that God is light is essential to our study of putting on the armor of Light. It includes a description of God's character as well as implications for the life of Christian discipleship. The nature of God as Light and the Christian putting on the armor of Light has its foundation in the creation of Adam. This is where I started down a long road of inquiry.
Adam was created in God's image and likeness, which includes the appearance of God. We can reason more of how Adam was before he fell into sin by understanding how he was clothed in Light. Adam was covered with Light as with a garment, similar to his God. Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with Light as with a cloak, Ps.104:2
We also have seen that the Holy Spirit was indwelling in Adam when he was created. God breathed into Adam and he became a living soul. God created Adam in His image and likeness concerning his general shape (head, shoulders, hands, and feet), plus Adam was emitting Light like God, and he was also filled with the Spirit of God. The question that I had to ask myself was, where did the Light come from?
This question sidetracked me into searching for the answer. Here is what I found. Fritz-Albert Popp thought he had discovered a cure for cancer. It was 1970, and Popp, a theoretical biophysicist at the University of Marburg in Germany, had been teaching radiology -- the interaction of electromagnetic (EM) radiation on biological systems.
What Popp discovered was that benzo[a]pyrene (cancer producing molecule) absorbed the UV light, then reemitted it at a completely different frequency -- it was a light "scrambler." The benzo[e]pyrene (harmless to humans), allowed the UV light to pass through it unaltered.
Popp was puzzled by this difference and continued to experiment with UV light and other compounds. He performed his test on 37 different chemicals, some cancer-causing, some not. After a while, he was able to predict which substances could cause cancer. In every instance, the carcinogenic compounds took the UV light, absorbed it, and changed or scrambled the frequency.
Popp kept wondering why a cancer-causing substance would be a light scrambler. He began reading the scientific literature specifically about human biological reactions and came across information about a phenomenon called 'photorepair.' The quick summary of this phenomenon is that light aids in the healing process of the cells. Well, this led me to another question, is there Light within the body?
What is it that enabled tens of thousands of different kinds of molecules in the organism to recognize their specific targets? Photons (Light) control everything in the cells of our body. Photons switch on the body's processes like an orchestra conductor bringing each instrument into the collective sound. At different frequencies, they perform different functions. Popp found that molecules in the cells responded to specific frequencies and that a range of vibrations from the photons caused a variety of frequencies in other molecules of the body.
Remember, in the Gospel of John, "That was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world." If the cells of our body repair themselves through a process of photo repair and Light controls every cell within our body, could light then play a significant role in how man was designed? So I asked myself this question, does Light play a part in our DNA?
To save you from all the scientific language, let me cut to the chase. One of the essential sources of light and biophoton emissions is DNA. DNA was like the master tuning fork of the body. It would strike a particular frequency, and specific molecules would follow. Our DNA not only emits Light, but absorbs Light as well. It would seem that our DNA is like an electric capacitor which can store tiny amounts of electricity and then discharge it. Similarly, we can speculate that the Light that was coming from Adam was not being produced from his own self, but was first absorbed from God and then reemitted, very much like how things glow in the dark. Glow-in-the-dark objects need to be exposed to Light, or charged, in order to glow.
Adam must have emitted large amounts of Light or photons from his DNA. When he sinned, the Light that he received from God, the source of the Light, was presumably extinguished. Proverbs 13:9 says: "The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out," Then Jesus spoke to them again: "I AM THE LIGHT of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the LIGHT OF LIFE." (John 8:12) In HIM WAS LIFE; and the LIFE WAS THE LIGHT of men. (John 1:4 KJV)
The conclusion of Dr. Popp's research was best summarized in his own words, "We now know, today, that man is essentially a being of light."
When Paul told the Christians at Rome to put on the armor of Light he was telling them to become a new creation. Our new man has been created in God's image – imagine that! We, as new creations are in the image of the One who made us! Paul states that Jesus is the image of God: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation" (Colossians 1:15 NET). Then he states that we are in that image using the same Greek word "and have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it" (Colossians 3:10 NET). We must not forget, however, that Adam was initially created in the image of God. Thus if in our new man we will be like God (not be God in all of his glory, but like Him!), then we must conclude that when God made Adam in His image or likeness and Adam emitted Light in a way similar to God. As long as Adam was connected to the source, he was protected from the enemy of his soul.
When we put on the armor of Light we are connecting to the source of Light and are protected from the enemy of our soul. Have you put on the armor of Light?
