Introduction

The Bible is given to save and to sanctify. God, the maker of heaven and earth, the infinite Lord who inhabits eternity and who transcends all limitations of space and time, gave it to us. Richness, breath and depth characterize Scripture therefore. Christian duty is reinforced in every sphere of life, from many angles, and from a broad perspective. Here in Romans 13:11-14, godliness is called for from another angle, a very distinct one at that. We are called to consider the time in which we live.

We are to know the time (v. 11). We are to have a particularly fruitful understanding of time. We are to have an understanding of time that is seasoned by the structure that God has imposed on time. Therefore, this passage will help us cultivate a distinctively biblical and God-like view of time, which is an important motivating force in the life of the Christian.

So what time is it? It is time to wake up. Look with me at the picture presented in Romans 13:11-14 (note how it extends throughout the text). We have the image of someone asleep who is being roused, being told to get up. Addressing us (addressing his readers) Paul says "wake up, put off your nightclothes, and put on the appropriate clothing for the task of the day." And what task is indicated? The kind of clothes indicate the task at hand: "put on the armor of light" (v. 12b). This is the time to be armed. The person in the picture is a soldier. If he is not armed then he is either sleeping or he is going around in his nightclothes. Then he is defenseless and inactive (or at the least inappropriately active). That soldier is you and me: we are under orders to get up and get dressed for battle, which includes clothing ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 14).

This morning we will discuss the two ways that Paul grounds this duty: 1) Salvation is a closer reality, and 2) Salvation is a present reality (perspectives on time!).

1A. Salvation is a closer reality

From verse 11 we get the notion of process: "our salvation is nearer than when we believed." The idea of a process suggests movement toward something. We are to know that time is on our side. It is bringing our salvation nearer (v. 11). It is a temporal process that marks the coming of our final goal. That salvation is closer shows us some things.

1B. "Closer" shows that salvation is something future

We have salvation now but in an incomplete form. We will have this salvation brought to completion in the future. There is a now and not yet to redemption. On one hand, we are saved. We have entered into the kingdom. But on the other hand, we are not saved. We have yet to enter into the consummation of the kingdom. For some this might be unsettling. In a Sunday school class in New York some time ago, I presented this not yet element and a person in the class said, "You mean to tell me that I am not saved." I tried to explain that I didn't want her to feel unsaved but unfinished. My efforts seemed to be of little avail judging by her countenance (as well as the countenance of her husband). You might think that that was a silly response on their part. But we should understand the insecurity. We take away the finality of the language: "I'm saved." We introduce a process with an incomplete element. So one may reason that if I am not yet saved, how do I know that I am saved that I'll make it to heaven?

Knowing that you will make it rests in the power of God. You know your destiny by trusting in the risen Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who begins and performs the saving work to the very last day.

Therefore, salvation is still to come. It is out there in the future. It is a future reality. And of course this means that we have serious responsibility on the way. We may profess faith or we may have had some religious experience in the past but the proof of our salvation is in doing, that’s the pudding. By the grace of God, we must make every effort to persevere in faith and good works. Thus salvation is future. There a sense in which I am not yet saved. I must wait and must work toward the realization of that day.

2B. "Closer" also shows that that future is a fixed point.

How else could it be now nearer than when we first believed? Salvation as an ongoing process is bringing us closer to salvation as a completed process. For it to be nearer (v. 11) shows us that our future salvation is not something fluid always eluding us moving out in front of us ever farther out of our grasp, continually moving out of reach.

Rather, it is a fixed future point in the flow of history. That is good to know. It is a matter of divine appointment. It is an appointed time in the movement of history as a whole. God is Lord of history. He transcends time. He created time. He is not bound by it. He is working out His sovereign will in all that exists all through world history. It all has a goal, an end. There is a termination by God's determination.

Each day that passes, each passing moment, brings us that much closer to the great goal in front of us. What is the goal? What is at the end? What begins then? At the end is the glory of His majesty magnified in the completed salvation of sinners (cf. Rom. 8:18-25, especially the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies, v. 23).

3B. "Closer" shows that the present has special value

The moments have value. We are given a sense of the direction of history and the passage of time. Each day is another step of progress toward a fixed and defined goal. Knowing the time then involves knowing that each calendar day of your life is bringing you closer to resurrection glory. It involves recognizing that each day is another step in the process moving steadily toward that glorious goal.

This shapes our view of the present. The present is not broken into fragments, however fragmented we may at times think it is in the fragmentation that we may feel. It is not a series of endless circles or cycles in which you are just "spinning your wheels." The present moments have direction. They are parts moving to the greater whole. Each day is directed toward the completion of our salvation (Rom. 8:28). Every day we take another step closer to glory.

Picture yourself standing here at point A. Now take a step toward work, toward the backyard, toward the grocery store, toward the lawn mower, toward college, or toward that first cup of coffee to get the eyes opened. Consider the moment. You have just moved closer to your complete salvation. The step that brings you closer must share in what is to come.

This is how we are to view the time in which we live. See it in light of the coming salvation. See it as directed to that end. See it as another step closer. View the present in light of the future yet to come. Live now in the light of the future. Each unfolding day is a stage toward the final unfolding of the glory of God in the glorifying of the saints drawing nearer and nearer.

From the six and one pattern of creation week (Gen. 1-2), we know that God is pleased to work out His purposes in history in a day by day manner. Each day is another stage in the accomplishment of His eternal purpose. History is the unfolding of His plan. This gives each day the value of a thousand years (of thousands of years) because what it takes thousands of years to unfold in history God does in a day. A day to the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. His eternal plan is being accomplished daily, so the days since we believed are designed by Him to bring us closer to the goal.

4B. "Closer" shows that the present has a tone of urgency

We are to know this about the time: that our salvation is nearer than when we believed. Thus time is running out to do what needs to be done. There is only so much time between now and then. So it is high time to wake up from your sleep. It is time to work and to serve and not slumber; it time for eagerness, ambition, fervency, hating evil, and embracing the good facing hardships and obstacles with joyful patience rooted in hope. It high time to wake up from sleep and slumber and get moving, be active, go about serving, do your work, and do it with a spring in your step having a full plate of activity.

Do this (v. 11), do all these things cited earlier in the context knowing the time. So get up and get to work. Your life has meaning. You have valuable things to do, a race to run, battle to fight and a risen Lord to serve. This is a negative if you are not alert and not dressed for battle and engaged. But being asleep could image our daily walk and the need for daily preparation and focus: "okay, it time to wake up and get down to work-this day is short and the days are running out."

2A. Salvation is a present reality

There is much to do and the time is short. That is the attitude that invigorates and puts a spring in our step. But we can feel overwhelmed in the moment (I sometimes think there is so much to do that I become paralyzed and don't know where to begin; I may think that I'd better do something, anything, even if it is wrong/mistaken). The additional point given by Paul (v. 12a) speaks to this feeling in the face of so much and the problem of mundane duty, staleness, and repetitiveness.

The NIV translates this section in a way that sounds very close to what we have already discussed: "The night is nearly over; the day is almost here" (v. 12a). We may wonder if there is any difference between "nearer" (v. 11) and "near" (v. 12). But a careful reading of this language will detect something distinct. The picture is of the shift from nighttime to daytime. So where are we if we think of the night as a person that has been paid all that he owes or if we think of it as a limited amount of money that has been paid out to its limit, to its end? The night has exhausted its resources. So we are in the dawn of the new day. Hence the translation: "The night has advanced towards dawn" (Sandy/Headlam, Romans). Actually the night has advanced to its limits and has transitioned to dawn.

I was thinking about this verse in our drive back from Pennsylvania. We left in the darkness with no rain but in rain as soon as we got onto the highway. It was about 3:30 AM (Monday). But as I drove I kept watching for the dawn. I really did not detect a radical change but at some point I looked around and noticed that I could see the outline of the hills and looking to the sky I could see a brightening in the skyline. The new day was dawning. Darkness was dissipating until it fully spent itself and the morning light dominated the scene. I take Paul in this way. We have reached the early morning of the day of salvation. We are in the day in its first appearance when the darkness has been fully spent.

The reference in Paul is different here than in verse 11. It is not a point out there, a fixed point toward which we are getting closer and closer. Here the perspective is on the relation of dawn to the day. It is not the passing of moments, days, and years moving toward the appointed end. Rather, this is a reference to the dawn of the new day, to salvation as a present reality. Analogous to the future in verse 11, the future here is part of the same day. The day that has dawned will unfold more fully in the radiance of the noon day sun.

To clarify let me ask this question. Does this portray our salvation as the next great event in the history of redemption? If so this would stress that this is not a nearness of length of time (as v. 11) but of sequence. To say I am near to playing in a tennis tournament could mean that there are only a few days left until the tournament (it is near means that the length of time between now and then is short, every day I get closer). It could also mean that everything is in order, I am signed up, the stage is set, and it is next on my agenda (without any reference to the length of time that must transpire). The stage is set. It is next in line.

But what is wrong with both of these descriptions as pictures of salvation? Both picture salvation as something future, getting closer or being the next event. Paul does not accent future salvation in verse 12. It is present. The future has come. Salvation is a present reality. The day of salvation has dawned. The glorious light of eternal salvation has already dispelled the darkness. We live in the hope and expectations of the morning. I love the morning and I love to see the sun casting long shadows across the backyard. So I think, "ahh, here is a new day and there is much good work to do and I want to have much done before the brightness of the noon day sun." Notice that when you or I speak of the morning like this that we do not think of the day as next or future. The day has come when we experience the brightness of the dawn.

Thus driving in the dark waiting and looking for the dawn of a new day is like the perspective of the OT saint. But we do not live in the time of transition from darkness to dawn. We live in the dawn of the new day. Therefore, the day has come (not it is almost here). This is a distinct emphasis added to the fact that our salvation is closer and closer as a temporal process. The additional element is that salvation is already here. It is a present reality.

Furthermore, there is a bond between the dawn and its day. The present and the future are inseparable. We have come into the new day of splendor and glory. For example, the communion meal is a commencement on earth of the eternal heavenly feast. Likewise, Sabbath rest week by week is an entering now into the beginnings of the eternal heavenly rest. The fellowship with the Father that you now enjoy will not be different in heaven. It will not be different in kind but only different in fullness and purity. The communion of the Holy Spirit and with the saints that you now enjoy will not be different in heaven in kind but only different in richness and clarity. The sense of being loved by the Lord Jesus Christ that you now experience will not be different in heaven. These things will only be different in greatness and glory because of the majesty, beauty, loveliness, excellence, and perfection of the triune God who has appointed us to a full harvest of joy and rejoicing.

Thus we are to view the present as intertwined with the future. This is the new day in its first appearance. In a word, we have here a rich way of saying that our day of splendor and glory is a present certainty. It is a matter of the counsel of God that He has already begun to fulfill. What we now taste of heavenly things is a taste of the glory to come in full. The dawn of the salvation of our God has come. The first fruits have been gathered in. The harvest is about to take place. The harvest fruit will taste like the first fruit only fuller, richer, and better.

Concluding application

Since you live in the dawn of the day of salvation and taste of heavenly things now, then put off the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Get up and get dressed for the fray. There are two things here.

1) Do not do the works of darkness; those are the nightclothes to put off.

2) Instead, put on the armor of light. Hate evil but embrace the good, cling to the good path piling up heaps of love by living the law, the Ten Commandments, especially in relation to the neighbor. This is the way you protect yourself from the weapons of the darkness by using the law as your guide in how to love.

When we feel hemmed in by the law ("O, I can't do this or that, how narrow"), we need to remember that the law is a hedge around our lives. It puts a hedge around worship, around marriage, and around life. It protects our safety, life, and well being in the spiritual warfare between darkness and light. This warfare goes on because we are not yet there though we are getting closer and closer each day. It also goes on because the Light has come into the darkness and by the grace of God we now experience the taste of heaven here in a fallen and sinful world.

So it is high time to wake up and smell the roses and note that they are growing along the path of battle; it is high time to wake up and to engage spiritual warfare under the banner of Jesus Christ, our Sabbath King.