Day 16 Living in a Way That Reflects Our Understanding of the Days in Which We Live
And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.
Romans 13:11,12a
Our text is the first part of the conclusion of the survey of Christian lifestyle issues that Paul began in 12:1,2. In fact it brings us back to our starting point. Again Paul demands that believers take on a totally new way of life in the light of the climax of history that has come in the work of Christ. In 12:1,2 he called on his readers to renounce the ways of the world, judged and passing away in Christ, and to be transformed in their thinking and conduct. He will shortly call on his readers to ‘clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ’ (13:14) in light of the day that is almost here.
Eschatology, an understanding of the times in which we live, should govern our conduct. The verses in this paragraph fall into two basic categories: understanding the times (13:11,12a, the indicative) which leads to right living (13:12b-14, the imperative).
Paul signals the summarising nature of these verses with the transitional phrase ‘And do this’ (13:11). ‘This’ refers clearly to the command to love in 13:8-10 and probably all that he’s taught in 12:1 – 13:10. Why should we be motivated all the more to do all these things – think of ourselves rightly, exercise our gifts for the good of the body, show sincere love, submit to the state, love others? Paul says we should do these things because we have an ‘understanding [of] the present time’ (13:11).
The Bible divides history into ‘this age’ and ‘the age to come.’ The New Testament authors all saw that the age to come, or the kingdom of God, was inaugurated by Jesus. So at present the two ages overlap. We are waiting for Christ’s return, when the old age will finally disappear, the period of overlap will end, and the new age of God’s kingdom will be consummated. Paul makes three statements from this background.
First, ‘the hour has come [literally: is already] for you to wake up from your slumber’ (13:11). The time for sleep has passed. It’s time to wake up and get up.
Second, this is ‘because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed’ (13:11). The term ‘salvation’ embraces our past (justification), our present (sanctification) and our future (glorification). Paul is focusing on our future, which he has earlier depicted in terms of freedom and glory, our final adoption as God’s children and the redemption of our bodies (8:21-23).
Third, ‘The night (the old age of darkness) is nearly over; the day (when Christ returns) is almost here’ (13:12). Did Paul believe in the imminent return of Christ? “Imminent” means ‘very soon, even immediate.’ He probably would not have felt comfortable with that label. Jesus Himself had said He did not know the time (Mark 13:32) and the apostles echoed this (1 Thessalonians 5:1f). Paul has earlier written of the spiritual restoration of Israel (11:12ff) and in another letter of the apostasy (2 Thessalonians 2:1ff) that would precede Christ’s return. From another vantage point though, Paul saw clearly that the kingdom of God had come with Jesus, that the decisive salvation events which established it (His death, resurrection, exaltation and the gift of the Spirit) had already taken place, and that from this perspective, God had nothing more in His calendar before the parousia. It would be the next and culminating event. It is in this sense that Christ is coming ‘soon’ (16:20).