"And that, knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." Romans 13v11-12
"And that ".... This is now Paul summarizing his appeal for a whole of life devotion to God, that will be practical in different spheres: in our worship of God, in the operation of the gifts of grace in the church, in gracious living towards fellow believers, in submission to the state, by which God rules the world, and in practical love towards all our fellow human beings .
The main thought in these verses is that of URGENCY. We are invited to awake out of sleep. We are not to linger in a state of lethargy, we are not to be guilty of procrastination. The whole emphasis is on the proper management of time . We all of us only have a limited time span allotted to us in this world, and since we have been saved by the grace of God, our lives can now be useful, whereas before they were lived purely for self-indulgence. There is a tendency within all of us to have good intentions, but never actually do it. This is Paul's appeal; this is your calling; this is your destiny.
He says "Knowing the time, that it is now high time to awake out of sleep." The scriptures appeal to us to make good use of the limited time that we have. In Psalm 90, Moses, when describing our allotted time span, says this "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom." Psalm 90v12 Paul himself, writing to the Ephesians said something similar "See that ye walk circumspectly, not as unwise, but as wise redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5v15-16 The reason he gives is this "For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." We are now closer to the final phase of our salvation. We have already pointed out that the term "salvation" in Romans refers not only to the initial point of spiritual awakening, but it refers also to an ongoing life changing process, culminating in the final phase of our glorification. This is the whole teaching of the Roman epistle. What Paul is saying here is that we are on the cusp of eternity. The day of glory awaits us, the eternal day where there will be no more darkness and no more consequences of sin. So he describes our present existence as being in the night. We are still living in the darkness of this world, our bodies are subject to pain and decay; our souls are subject to a fallen nature; our spirits are under constant attack from evil, which may seem to be harmless but in fact affect our spiritual lives. The night will soon turn to day, says Paul, now is not the time for sleeping. We are surrounded by people who are in darkness and we are to be their light. "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." Those who know, tell us that the darkest hours of night are those just prior to the dawn. It is certain we are there already. There have been many dark days in the world's history but none more so than today when people are being gunned down in public, where institutions on which we depended are corrupted, and divine laws are being flouted for the sake of "non-discrimination." It is being publicly taught today that it is more important to observe the feelings of man than the principles of God. The world sits now on the verge of eternity and the time is short.
We are invited to cast of the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light. The appeal here is not so much to be preaching the gospel, although that would be involved, but to live the gospel; to live as lights in a dark world, which will in turn shine light into the souls of those who are still in darkness. The works of darkness are made clear in scripture; whatever is not of God is darkness. God's word is the light, as the Psalmist said "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Politicians today and leaders and the mass media communication are talking the things of darkness. Believers are to live in the light. We are to put on "the armour of light" the emphasis here being the "the whole armour of light." Light exposes darkness, is opposite to darkness. Paul defines the spiritual armour in Ephesians chapter 6; the belt of truth; the breastplate of righteousness; feet shod with the gospel'; the shield of faith; the sword of the spirit which is the spoken word of God. There is not the space here to define all these, but together they describe the Christians armour in this world. The suggestion is that the Christian is under attack, the he lives in a world now foreign to his beliefs and that he needs protection, if the light of the truth is to penetrate the present darkness.
Some have seen this portion as God's great wake up call to the Christian. It could be summarized like this; "Rise and shine!" The time is now for Christians to be actively engaged in changing their lifestyles in order to bring light to a darkened world. All this is in the context of the soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ who will bring in an eternal day. In the words of the hymn writer:
"The eternal glories gleam afar,
To nerve my faint endeavor,
So now to watch, to work, to war,
And then to rest forever".
No comments:
Post a Comment