Romans 13:11-14: "Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ"

The large break in the book or Romans comes in Chapter 12, where Paul's direction moves from what Christ has done for us to what we are to do once we have been transformed. Paul has focused over the last chapter and a half on our relationships with others and the love that we should have for them. He now moves to the urgency with which believers should take their call of sanctification. As Christians our lives should become more and more like Christ as we grow in our walk. Our sanctification can be summed up in the phrase used in this section, "put on the Lord Jesus Christ". Paul will encourage us in our daily walk as we battle the flesh and look to obey Christ.

The urgency which Paul is calling us to be sanctified can be seen vv. 11-12. Paul begins, "And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep". MacArthur writes, "Time is limited, opportunity is brief. The time to heed and to obey is now. There is not time for apathy, complacency, or indifference". We must understand that our Lord could come at anytime and we must be hasty in our opportunities and in our witness. MacArthur continues, "If that admonition was urgent during Pauls' day, how much more urgent is it today! It has always been urgent and will always continue to be urgent until the Lord returns, when our opportunities for earthly faithfulness, obedience, and evangelism will end and judgment will fall". "And this do" carries the idea that in addition to the behavior we are called to in our relationships with others (from the previous section), we must also be urgent in our relationship with Christ. The fact that the times are evil and wicked, and that we don't know the exact time of Christ's return, we should always have an urgency knowing there may never be a tomorrow. If we lived everyday as our last we would probably not indulge in the petty earthly things that we spend our time doing, and focus on the important things. This is what Paul is trying to get into our heads. Paul's pen is basically shouting at them as he is saying we have to act accordingly to our calling. If time is of the essence we must "awaken from" our spiritual "sleep". Paul is calling them "from unconsciousness, unresponsiveness, and inactivity concerning the things of God", according to MacArthur. This was not a rebuke for not knowing God, for by calling them believers, they obviously knew God, his charge was against their immature understanding of God's Word and commands.

To continue his plea for urgency he informs the believers of Rome, "now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed". By salvation, Paul is referring to the glorification or completion of salvation, for it was already true that they had been saved by Christ from the moment they believed. This hints back to what was said in Rom. 8:23, when Paul wrote, "waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body". With that in mind we must understand that each day brings us closer to that momentous occasion. MacArthur writes, "It is to that eschatological motive, the hope of Christ's imminent return, to which the apostle appeals. Throughout the New Testament, Christians are called to holy living in anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ. that should be the utmost incentive for living according to His will and for His glory". Peter also understood the urgency with which our lives should be lived in I Peter 4:7-8, "The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit of the purpose of prayer. Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins".

Continuing in the same vein, Paul points out, "the night is almost gone, and the day is at hand". The terms night and day often refer to man's spiritual condition in the New Testament. MacArthur explains, "Paul's declaration that the night is almost gone, and the day is at hand means that man's time of spiritual unbelief, rebellion, and sin is about to end and God's time of judgment, glory, and righteousness is about to begin". We must live our lives in the perspective that the time of Christ's return could be at anytime now, and that day will illuminate man's heart and the wickedness or righteousness that lies inside of it. I always laugh at the strange people you will see on the sidewalk holding a sign in the air that says, "the end is near". Now very often, these people are not all there mentally, however, there is a convicting truth in those words in the understanding that at anytime Christ could return, and the end could very well be near. We must live our lives in that understanding. Paul also called the Thessalonians to this understanding in I Thess. 5:1-8, "Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that he day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation".

Knowing that Christ could return at anytime, and the evil that so quickly engulfs us in these wicked days, Paul exhorts, "Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light". We must throw, renounce, or forsake all the sins that can tempt and entangle a believer. The deeds of darkness, no doubt being the sinful indulgences of the this world, must be fought against. In order to succeed in this battle, the believer must not merely fight against sin, but "put on the armor of light". We can see the imagery of the soldier in this, and we must approach each day as though we are soldiers in a battle against sin or we will surely lose. MacArthur writes, "The armor of light is 'the full armor of God,' which we are to put on in order to 'stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places' (Eph. 6:11-12). We cannot be spiritually and morally safe in anything less than 'the full armor of God, ' in order to 'be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm' (v.13).

Therefore as we are not to partake in the "deeds of darkness", then our behavior should be pure and right as God has called us to. Paul reminds us of this, "Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy". Proper behavior is very subjective. In order to understand what behavior is proper, we must understand the context. In this verse Paul is speaking to the believer, therefore, we must understand that proper behavior would be any behavior that God has told us is pleasing to Him. MacArthur explains, "The Christian who is not living a holy and obedient life is a Christian who does not comprehend the significance of the Lord's return". Since we are of the light, and described as being in the day, we must behave properly. Paul then gives us specific sins which we are to have no part of. He begins with carousing which "translates komos, a term often used of a military or athletic victory celebration. Because such revelry frequently turned into drunken and immoral disorder, komos came to be used of any wild partying, sexual orgies, brawls, and sometimes even rioting". The next on the list is drunkenness. The biggest problem with drunkenness is you open yourself up to losing control of your faculties. Instead of having a sober and sharp mind, you open yourself to temptation and sin. Paul then uses two sins which are closely associated, sexual promiscuity and sensuality, both carrying the idea of indulging in sexual sin that is outside the parameters of marriage. Paul also specifically mentions strife. MacArthur defines, "strife refers to persistent contention, bickering, petty disagreement, and enmity". Basically someone who is looking for trouble and a way to stir up others to no good as well. Lastly, Paul identifies jealousy as another behavior which Christians are to battle against. Jealousy carries with it the idea of envy and selfish ambition.

The pinnacle and summation of this section, and for even the last 5 chapters of Romans, Paul writes, "but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts". MacArthur explains, "to put on the Lord Jesus Christ represents the continuing spiritual growth of those who have become children of God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ . . . and as we grow in Christ, the old clothing of sinful thoughts and habits is continually being discarded, and His divine clothing of righteousness, truth, holiness, and love is being put on". This whole process is the process of sanctification, in which the Christians life is being molded into the image of Christ. It is a life long transformation that is helped along by the Holy Spirit which we are given the second we accept Christ. I John 3:2-3 says, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure". When we bear the name Christian, we must look like Christ in our behavior. It should shame us when we call ourselves Christians and behave just as the world. We must invest our time and our lives in the work of Christ so that we might not even have the time to "make provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts". We must not allow our minds to focus on sinful thoughts, or to even be around temptation when we know it is there. We are to do everything to suffocate sin and now even allow it to spark near us. Our sinful flesh will take over when we allow ourselves the time to wallow around in its temporal pleasures. We must kill it off, battle it with the truth of Scripture and remember our testimony to others when we are tempted to sin.