Romans 13.14a-Paul Solemnly Charges Roman Christians To Put On The Lord Jesus Christ
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday February 16, 2010
Romans: Romans 13:14a-Paul Solemnly Charges Roman Christians To Clothe Themselves With The Lord Jesus Christ
Lesson # 457
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 13:13.
This evening we will begin a study of Romans 13:14, which contains a command and a prohibition.
In the command, Paul solemnly charges the Roman Christians to clothe themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.
This refers to appropriating by faith the teaching of the Spirit in the Word of God that the Christian is union with Christ and identified with Him in His crucifixion, His spiritual and physical deaths, His resurrection and session.
Then, in the prohibition, he wants his readers to continue not allowing themselves to make provision with respect to the desires produced by the flesh, i.e. the sin nature.
Romans 13:13, “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 13:14, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”
“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ” stands in direct contrast with the list of three pairs of vices that Christians are to avoid that appear in Romans 13:13.
In the second half of verse 13, Paul exhorts his readers to unite with him in not conducting their lives by means of drunken parties, licentious promiscuity and jealous contention.
In contrast to this, he commands his readers in verse 14 to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Put on” is the second person plural aorist middle imperative form of the verb enduo (e)nduvw) (en-thee-owe), which is used in a figurative of sense and means “to clothe oneself” with something.
It refers to the believer appropriating by faith his union and identification with the Lord Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, His spiritual and physical deaths, His burial, resurrection and session.
Therefore, enduo speaks of the act of the church age believer exercising faith in the Spirit’s revelation in the Word of God that they are crucified with Christ, died, buried, raised and seated with Him.
The result of this act of faith is that the believer appropriates the power of the Spirit, which enables them to experience victory over their sin nature.
Paul describes himself as doing this very thing.
Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
This act of faith in appropriating the power of the Spirit will result in obeying the command in Ephesians 5:18 to be filled or more accurately totally and completely influenced by means of the Spirit.
The mechanics of the filling of the Spirit are described in Romans 8:5-6.
When the believer clothes himself or herself with the Lord Jesus Christ by exercising faith in the Spirit’s revelation in the Word of God that they are crucified with Christ, died, buried, raised and seated with Him, they are walking by the Spirit, which is commanded of the believer in Galatians 5:16.
This act of faith it enables the Spirit to produce fruit in the life of the believer, which is the character of Christ.
Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
When the believer clothes himself or herself with the Lord Jesus Christ by exercising faith in the Spirit’s revelation in the Word of God that they are crucified with Christ, died, buried, raised and seated with Him, he is experiencing fellowship with the Father, Son and Spirit.
This command for the Roman believers to clothe themselves with the Lord Jesus by appropriating by faith the Spirit’s revelation in the Word of God that they are in union with Christ and identified with Him in His death and resurrection speaks of the “experiential” stage of the believer’s sanctification and salvation.
So in Romans 13:14, Paul is commanding his readers to experience their sanctification and deliverance based upon what God has done for them positionally and how He views them now positionally and what He will do for them in the future.
The indirect middle voice of the verb enduo emphasizes the volitional responsibility of the Roman believers in acting in relation to themselves by clothing themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.
The constative aorist imperative form of the verb means that the Roman believers were “to make it their top priority” to clothe themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, i.e. appropriate by faith their union and identification with Christ “and do it now!”
Paul was “solemnly charging” them to do this.
Therefore, the constative aorist imperative does not imply that they were failing to do this, which is supported by Paul’s statements in Romans 15:15.
Paul does not use the customary present imperative form of the verb enduo in Romans 13:14, which would emphasize to his readers to “continue making it their habit of” clothing themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ since he does not want to emphasize the continuation of this action.
Rather, he uses the constative aorist imperative form of the verb to emphasize with his readers the “urgency” of this command and that it is a top priority.
Paul’s statement in Romans 15:14-15 indicates that the Roman believers were doing this very thing in making it a top priority of clothing themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.
However, the constative aorist imperative form of the verb enduo does not indicate that they were doing this but is used only to emphasize with the readers the “urgency” of this command and that it is a top priority.
Romans 13:14, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”
“The Lord” is the articular accusative masculine singular form of the noun kurios (kuvrio$) (keer-dee-oce), which emphasizes the victory that Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ accomplished for the believer through His spiritual and physical deaths and resurrection.
His spiritual death solved the problem of personal sins, which are produced by the sin nature through the function of human volition.
His physical death solved the problem of the sin nature, which resides in the genetic structure of the human body.
His resurrection guarantees the believer that he or she will receive a resurrection body at the rapture of the church, which will be immortal and minus the sin nature.
“Jesus” is the accusative masculine singular form of the proper name Iesous ( )Ihsou$) (yee-soose), which emphasizes with the reader that the humanity of Christ in hypostatic union accomplished the victory for the believer over the sin nature.
“Christ” is the accusative masculine singular form of the proper name Christos (xristov$) (cree-stoce), which emphasizes that Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnate Son of God delivered the believer from the sin nature through His deaths and resurrection.