Romans 13.11-14

Paul's Letter to the Romans.

Romans 13:11–14 NET

11 And do this because we know the time, that it is already the hour for us to awake from sleep, for our salvation is now nearer than when we became believers. 12 The night has advanced toward dawn; the day is near. So then we must lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the weapons of light. 13 Let us live decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in discord and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to arouse its desires.

In the religious culture of the Church, it is common to hear people talk about when they had been saved or estimate how long it had been since they had been saved. Among evangelical Christians, being saved often has a very specific meaning, it speaks of the reality Jesus and him as Lordship, with him putting one's trust in him and being invited into a living relationship with him.

Paul speaks of these realities when he writes to Christians in Ephesus. As to people already in some sense saved by grace, you have been saved through faith.

But if we are accustomed to think about salvation only in terms of some date in the past, paul's words in here in Romans 3, 11 might sound a bit odd. Paul speaks here about salvation getting closer to us, the further away we get from the hour we first believed and still, in some sense, being ahead, as an event to which we are still moving toward and not just behind us.

This is not the only passage in Paul that speaks in these terms. Earlier in Romans. Paul had given his hearers assurance of their salvation, but notably a salvation that was yet to occur in their future.

He writes.

God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners. Christ died for us, since therefore we have now been justified by his blood. Much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.

By his life Paul wants his readers to have confidence concerning Jesus deliverance for them in the past, but he still points them to the future for their salvation.

For Paul, salvation and being saved constitute a much larger divine drama into which we are invited to share. It begins with Jesus acts on our behalf long before our birth and in our joining ourselves to Jesus by our trust in and commitment to Him. It ends with Jesus acts on our behalf at the consummation of all things on the last day, the day of the Lord. That day is already dawning just below the horizon.

Salvation is a trajectory, and Paul calls us in this passage to live in a manner reflective of that trajectory. Paul is not embarrassed, to talk about the necessity of making an ethical response appropriate to where believers find themselves in god's timeline. But here with the day, the day of the dawning of god's kingdom approaching closer and closer, we can still look forward to salvation on the Day of Judgment.

Understanding salvation not just as an event in the past, but a hope for the future, should affect each one of us similarly today, so that we live as those who long for nothing more than the salvation Christ will give us on that day.

As we worship our Savior today, let the light of that future day illuminate our steps today, tomorrow and even all our days.