Romans 13.11b-The Romans Were To Live Their Lives In Light Of The Imminent Return Of Christ At The Rapture By Staying Spiritually Awake
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday January 31, 2010
Romans: Romans 13:11b-The Romans Were To Live Their Lives In Light Of The Imminent Return Of Christ At The Rapture By Staying Spiritually Awake
Lesson # 450
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 13:8.
Thursday evening we began a study of Romans 13:11 by noting that Paul commands his Christian readers in Rome to continue making it their habit of loving their neighbor as themselves as a result of what he taught in Romans 13:8-10 that loving one’s neighbor fulfills the requirements of the Mosaic Law.
In this passage, he teaches that they are to continue obeying this command because they are well aware of the significance of the period of history in which they were living in, namely, they were living in the church age preceding the imminent return of Christ at the rapture.
This period he teaches is characterized by urgency and opportunity for them, demanding immediate action on their part in that they can gain rewards for obeying the command to love your neighbor as yourself.
This morning we will note that Paul also teaches in this passage that it is now already the moment for his readers to be awake spiritually because their deliverance from the sin nature, Satan and his cosmic system at the rapture of the church is now nearer to taking place than when they first became Christians.
Romans 13:8, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”
Romans 13:9, “For this, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,’ and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’”
Romans 13:10, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
Romans 13:11, “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.”
“Already” is the adverb of time ede (h&dh) (ee-vee), which denotes a point of time prior to another point of time implying completion and is modifying the noun hora, “the hour.”
The point of time, which this word refers to is identified by the statement, “the hour for you to awaken from sleep.”
This statement refers to the believer waking up from a spiritual sleep or in other words, it refers to the believer confessing his sins to be restored to fellowship and maintaining that fellowship by obedience to the Word of God.
As we noted the adverb of time ede denotes that this point of time is prior to another point of time, which is the period of the church age immediately preceding the rapture of the church, which is imminent.
This indicates that the confession of sins to be restored to fellowship with God and maintaining that fellowship by obedience to the Word of God is to have “already” taken place in the life of the believer since Christ could come back at any moment at the rapture of the church, which will be immediately followed by the Bema Seat.
The word denotes the urgency that the believer must maintain short accounts with God by confessing his sins the moment he does sin in order to be restored to fellowship and he must maintain that fellowship by obedience to the will of the Father, which is revealed by the Spirit through the Word of God.
The adverb of time ede is emphasizing with Paul’s readers the necessity of staying in fellowship with God since Christ could come back at any moment.
Romans 13:11, “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 hour” is the nominative feminine singular form of the noun hora (w%ra) (or-a), which refers to the moment when the believer confesses his sins to be restored to fellowship and maintains that fellowship by obeying the will of the Father, which is revealed by the Spirit through the Word of God.
“For you” is the accusative second person plural form of the personal pronoun humeis (u(mei$) (ee-mece), which is used in a distributive sense meaning that Paul is addressing “each and every one of” his Jewish and Gentile Christian readers in Rome in a collective sense as a corporate unit.
“To awaken from sleep” is composed of the aorist passive infinitive form of the verb egeiro (e)geivrw) (aye-year-owe), “to awaken” and the preposition ek (e)k), “from” and the genitive masculine singular form of the noun hupnos (u%pno$) (eep-noce), “sleep.”
The verb egeiro means “to awaken” and is used in a figurative sense of being awaken from spiritual sleep, which is analogous to being restored from temporal spiritual death, or in other words restored to fellowship with God through the confession of sin, which is maintained by obedience to the Word of God.
The noun hupnos is used in a metaphorical sense for spiritual sleep of the believer, which is analogous to temporal spiritual death or in other words, being out of fellowship with God as a result of committing either a mental, verbal or overt act of sin.
The solution to this is the confession of sin (1 John 1:9) and maintaining that fellowship is through obedience to the Word of God.
The passive voice of the verb egeiro is a causative passive, which emphasizes the volitional responsibility of the Roman believers to respond to the Holy Spirit’s conviction when they are out of fellowship or experiencing temporal spiritual death by confessing their sins to be restored to fellowship.
It also emphasizes their responsibility in maintaining that fellowship by obedience to the Word of God.
The verb egeiro speaks of something that is to have already taken place in the lives of the Roman believers, namely they were to be in fellowship with God.
The preposition ek denotes separation and the noun hupnos functions as a “genitive of separation” indicating that it is already the moment for the believer to have been awaken “out from” spiritual sleep, i.e. temporal spiritual death or loss of fellowship.
The figure of being awaken from sleep to describe being restored to fellowship through the confession of sin to be restored to fellowship, which is maintained by obedience to the Word of God, appears in Ephesians 5:14.
Ephesians 5:14, “For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says: ‘Awake, O sleeper! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!’” (NET Bible)
The figure of sleep for experiencing temporal spiritual death or loss of fellowship with God is employed by Paul again in 1 Thessalonians 5:6.
1 Thessalonians 5:6-9, “So then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation. For God did not destine us for wrath but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NET Bible)