THE CHRISTIAN LIFE - PUT ON CHRIST (Romans 13:11-14)
INTRODUCTION:
This morning we come to the end of Romans 13 the final section of this chapter, Paul beginning in chapter 12 has been teaching us about the Christian life, what it looks like, what constitutes the disciplined, obedient, Spirit-controlled life. He began in verse 1 of chapter 12 telling us that we are never to stop offering our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, which is our spiritual service of worship. Then when we are rightly related to God through this surrender of all that we are, Paul then teaches us how we are to be rightly related to other believers and unbelievers, to civil leaders, to enemies as well as friends and neighbors, and we are to do this through love which fulfills God’s law. What Paul is teaching us concerns our sanctification, the spiritual growth and the Spirit’s work to make us like Christ.
Paul begins this section speaking of the urgency of the times, that Christ’s return is soon. Because of this we need to put on Christ, and he teaches us that we must get up from our sleep, get dressed and keep putting on Christ. J. Dwight Pentecost, a theologian and teacher of prophecy told the following, “A short time ago, I took occasion to go through the New Testament to mark each reference to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and to observe the use made of that teaching about His coming. I was struck anew with the fact that almost without exception, when the coming of Christ is mentioned in the New Testament, it is followed by an exhortation to godliness and holy living. While the study of prophecy will give us proof of the authority of the Word of God, it will also reveal the purpose of God and the power of God, and will give us the peace and assurance of God. We have missed the whole purpose of the study of prophecy if it does not conform us to the Lord Jesus Christ in our daily living.”[1] This is what Paul is trying to teach us this morning in this final section of Romans 13. Let’s pray and then get into our passage.
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans 13:11-14. Please stand if you are able in respect and honor for the reading of the Word of God.
Romans 13:11-14,
“Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” (Romans 13:11–14, NASB95)[2]
As we begin this next section, I just want to be very clear about what Paul is speaking about in this passage. There is something that is already true about our spiritual life and something that should be true about it. There is a holiness that we already have as believers and a holiness that we should continue to pursue. We have been made righteous in Christ, but we strive to live righteously. Paul in this passage is going to tell us to put on Christ, but many New Testament passages speak of us as already clothed with Christ and His righteousness and so it is important that we make a distinction between justification and sanctification. Justification has been accomplished once and for all at the moment we believe in Christ; sanctification is a life-long process. Justification refers to our declared and positional righteousness in Christ. Sanctification refers to the day-by-day process of growing in practical righteousness. So, in one sense we are positionally clothed with Christ, but in another sense, we need to put on Christ and keep putting Him on as we seek to live out His righteousness in our daily lives. Before Paul presents this vital truth about sanctification, he tells his readers to get up, or wake up, so they are fully awake and can give their full attention to Paul’s words.
Paul writes, “Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near.” (Romans 13:11–12a, NASB95)[3] All of these phrases, “knowing the time, that it is already the hour, that salvation is nearer to us than when we believed, the night is almost gone, the day is near;” all these are used by Paul to express urgency. In other words, time is limited, what needs to be done needs to be done now. Now is the time to heed and obey. There is no time for laziness, complacency, disinterest. If Paul expressed this urgency in his lifetime, it must be much more urgent today. It was urgent then, and it is urgent now and will continue to be urgent until the Lord returns. When the Lord Jesus returns the opportunities for living faithfully, for obedience, for being a witness will be over and judgment will fall. Paul is telling us to get up and shake off our sleep, this is not the time to be spiritually sleeping content to let the world go by. Unfortunately, this is what many in the church are doing, just going through the motions, spiritually asleep. Paul says, Wake up!
He begins this passage with the phrase, “Do this…” This phrase is used to convey the idea of accomplishing something besides what Paul has just been teaching, especially in verses 8-10 where he was admonishing us to love our neighbors and thus fulfill God’s law. There is a reason that Paul has been teaching us how we are to live the Christian life and as we will see it has to do with sanctification, to becoming more and more like Jesus Christ.
Paul then refers to knowing the time, he is not referring to chronological time, but to a time period, the era, or the age that we live in. Throughout the Scriptures we see different ages or dispensations in which the Lord works to bring about His purposes. The age or time that Paul is referring to in this passage has been called the age of grace or the church age, it is also referred to as the last times or end times, it is the age leading up to the return of Christ which will begin with the rapture of the church and the resurrection of the dead in Christ as He comes to take us home to heaven to be with Him. This is what He promised in John 14:2-3 where He said, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:2–3, NASB95)[4]
Many in the church because it was never taught to them or they were wrongly taught God’s Word have little interest in spiritual things, some because of this disinterest even share the same spiritual blindness of unbelievers. Sadly, this includes a lack of knowledge and the lack of interest in or a concern about the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. This lack was also true in the early church and must have included some who were in the church in Rome. We can almost hear Paul shouting the words, “Get up!” “It is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep.” (Romans 13:11b, NASB95)[5] Sleep could be defined by the words inactivity, unconsciousness, and unresponsiveness to events taking place. Paul is instructing us to get up from spiritual sleep, that is the unconscious, unresponsiveness and inactivity concerning the things of God. Remember that Paul is speaking to believers here whose laziness and lack of spiritual energy makes them appear and act as if they have no spiritual life. Paul is calling them to spiritual wakefulness because of the urgency of the times.
When Paul writes that our salvation is nearer to us than when we believed he is speaking about the completion of our salvation, in other words the third stage of our salvation which is glorification. Justification refers to the declared and positional righteousness that happens at the moment we come to faith in Christ, it saves us from the penalty of sin. Sanctification is that life-long process of spiritual growth in a Christian as they are conformed to the image of Christ. Glorification is the final stage and speaks of the Christian’s ultimate perfection as a child of God.
Paul had spoken of this earlier in this letter in Romans 8:23 when he said, “And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:23, NASB95)[6] This future aspect of salvation is nearer than when we believed. Paul uses this eschatological truth, the imminent or anytime return of Christ as an incentive for us to be ready for it, to be found faithful, obedient, Spirit-controlled, loving our neighbors as we expectantly look for Christ’s return. As the quote from Dwight Pentecost in my introduction said throughout the New Testament when the return of Christ is mentioned Christians are called to holy living in anticipation of His return.
We do not know and cannot know when the Lord Jesus Christ will return, but we do know that His coming is 2000 years closer than when Paul wrote this letter. Each day that we live draws us one day closer to His return.
Paul goes on and states, “The night is almost gone, and the day is near.” (Romans 13:12a, NASB95)[7] The night refers to this present time of spiritual unbelief, rebellion against God and sin. The day speaks of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and His judgment of sin and His glorious and righteous reign on the earth. This is our hope the glorious return of Jesus Christ which will begin with the rapture of the church and end with the creation of the new heavens and the new earth.
GET DRESSED (Romans 13:12b-13)
With the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ made fresh in our minds, Paul now writes, “Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.” (Romans 13:12b–13, NASB95)[8] Now that Paul has awakened us and we have got up, he now tells us to get dressed. The idea of laying aside the deeds of darkness is to strip off our night clothes. To lay aside means to forsake or renounce, in other words in this context Paul is calling for us to renounce and repent of our deeds of darkness, this can mean any sin that a believer might indulge in. It does not matter what the sin is, if we as believers sin, we need to confess and repent to be brought back into fellowship with the Lord.
Paul says lay aside the deeds of darkness and dress for the day, put on the armor of light. We have laid aside our sin through confession and repentance and we have dressed in the armor of light ready to go to battle. Armor’s purpose is to protect the one who wears it, and it is specifically made for those who will be engaged in battle. We are to dress for the day of battle. The armor of light is God’s own light, and it provides divine protection in our battle that is not with flesh and blood, but against the world forces of this darkness and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Paul described this armor of light in detail in Ephesians 6:10-18 and it consists of the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace, the helmet of salvation and the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit and the weapon of prayer. The armor of light is the light of God’s own holiness and purity. God’s desire is that we are constantly clothed in this armor because when we are, we are ready, and we are a reflection of our Lord’s own holiness to the world.
Once we are clothed in this armor we are to behave properly as in the day, we are to conduct ourselves as if the day of Christ’s coming is already here. It is the truth of His imminent return that gives us endurance and perseverance in the battle. We are live an outward righteous life that is consistent with our inner nature in Christ, which is what Paul has been teaching us to do in chapters 12-13. Teaching us what that righteous life looks like in relation to fellow believers, unbelievers, enemies, civil authority, friends and neighbors. We are to live a sanctified life that reflects our justified life. The Christian who is not living a holy, obedient life does not understand or comprehend the significance of Christ’s return. The Christian who does understand this significance and longs for Christ’s return, his or her life will be characterized by holy living, obedience, and godliness.
Paul then returns to the negative and contrasts the behavior of the day with deeds of darkness. Paul lists 6 sins in groups of two. The first that he mentions are carousing and drunkenness. Dr. John Mitchell calls these the sins of society, and I do not need to go into these because we see them all around us. Next Paul lists sexual promiscuity and sensuality, these Dr. Mitchel calls the secret sins of society, but they are not so secret anymore as they become more and more prevalent in our day and deviate more and more from what is natural. These are sins that are outside in society, but the next two that Paul lists are sins of the heart, strife and jealousy. Now you might not be found guilty of the first four, but what about strife and jealousy? These two we see even in the church, but if we are behaving properly and loving our neighbor, conducting ourselves in righteousness these will not have any hold over us either.
KEEP PUTTING ON CHRIST (Romans 13:14)
Paul ends this chapter by exhorting us to put on Christ. He writes, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” (Romans 13:14, NASB95)[9] To put on the Lord Jesus Christ represents the continuing spiritual growth of a person who has become a child of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation He offers through His death and resurrection. Our life as a Christian should be a life of continual growth, as we grow we continually lay aside the deeds of darkness, the sinful thoughts and habits that we indulged in before salvation and we are continually putting on Christ’s divine clothing of truth, holiness, righteousness, love, joy, peace, patience, longsuffering, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. As our sanctification process moves on, we take on more and more of the Lord’s character as our own. In other words, we are to continually keep putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. We see this truth in Paul’s life as his words in Philippians 3:12-14 say, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12–14, NASB95)[10] The apostle John put it this way in his first epistle in 1 John 3:2-3, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:2–3, NASB95)[11] As we wait in hopeful expectancy for Christ’s return this purifies our lives, because as we wait for Him to return for us with longing, we desire to please Him and that desire to please Him is to want to be like Him.
We grow and become more Christlike as we faithfully read and study His Word, as we have fellowship with Him through prayer and as we seek to live out His righteousness in our daily lives through His love that is poured out in us by His indwelling Holy Spirit. When we come to salvation by faith in Christ, we take on the name Christian. The quality of our Christianity, however, is determined by our own spiritual faithfulness, which is seen in our obedience to God’s Word and as we live out Christ’s love to those around us.
Paul contrasts putting on Christ and putting off sin. He exhorts as we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” and His righteousness to “make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” (Romans 13:14, NASB95)[12] This word that is translated “provision” is a Greek word that’s basic meaning is to think ahead or plan ahead. When we commit sin it usually is because of wrong ideas or lustful desires that we have allowed to linger in our minds. The longer we allow them to remain and mull them over the more provision we make for the flesh to bring the thought to an action and sin. Most of us, even unbelievers do not just stumble into sin, but we have planned it out beforehand. But as a Christian, we do not at any time have to give in to sin’s power. We have the nature of Christ in us by His Spirit and He provides us with all that we need to make no provision for the flesh, we just need to use what He provides. The term “flesh” as Paul uses it here does not refer to our physical bodies but to what remains of our humanness, our remaining inclination to sin, which manifests itself through our bodies. Understand that the provision for sin begins and takes root in our hearts, minds, emotions and will which are all heavily influenced by the flesh. So how do we go about combating this influence? Paul wrote in Galatians 5:16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16, NASB95)[13] To walk by the Spirit is to live in obedience to the Word of God.
CONCLUSION:
In this closing passage of Romans 13 Paul really gives us the reason that he has been teaching us how the disciplined, obedient, Spirit-controlled Christian is to live, he was urging us to grow in Christ, to be conformed to Christ by the sanctifying work of the Spirit. All that Paul has taught us in chapters 12-13 is only possible if we are putting on Christ continually and not giving provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. Paul teaches us that our incentive, our hope, what makes putting off of the deeds of darkness and putting on the armor of light worth it is understanding the significance of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that it could be at any moment and that each day lived is one day closer to His return. This is why it is worth going to battle each day against the forces of evil, this is why it is worth putting on Christ and giving no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming again! “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:2–3, NASB95)[14]
[1]Swindoll, Charles R., Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations and Quotes. Nashville, TN : Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1998, pg. 227.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995. (emphasis added)
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[12]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[13]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[14]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.