This salvation in its present form will keep our heads in the day of
battle. Its very characteristic is that it delivers us from evil, and
all the graces with which Paul equips his ideal warrior are parts of the
positive blessings which our salvation brings us. The more assured we
are in our own happy consciousness of possessing the salvation of God,
the more shall we be defended from all the temptations that seek to stir
into action our lower selves. There will be no power in our fears to
draw us into sin, and the possible evils that appeal to earthly passions
of whatever sort will lose their power to disturb us, in the precise
measure in which we know that we are saved in Christ. The consciousness
of salvation will tend to damp down the magazine of combustibles that we
all carry within us, and the sparks that fall will be as innocuous as
those that light on wet gunpowder. If our thoughts are occupied with the
blessings which we possess they will be guarded against the assaults of
evil. The full cup has no room for poison. The eye that is gazing on the
far-off white mountains does not see the filth and frivolities around.
If we are living in conscious possession and enjoyment of what God gives
us, we shall pass scatheless through the temptations which would
otherwise fall on us and rend us. A future eagerly longed for, and
already possessed in germ, will kill a present that would otherwise
appeal to us with irresistible force.