The Day Has Dawned Text: Romans 13:11-14
Introduction: The Great Evangelical Snooze Button
We live in an age of managed decline, an era where the church has largely traded its marching orders for a warm blanket and a snooze button. The ambient noise of our culture is a low hum that says, "Not yet. A little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to rest." And many Christians have mistaken this cultural lullaby for a hymn. They have concluded that their primary duty is to be inoffensive, to manage a respectable retreat, and to keep the faith tucked away in the private recesses of their hearts, like a collector's item that is too valuable to be used.
But the Apostle Paul, writing to the church in the heart of the Roman empire, does not give them instructions for a comfortable hibernation. He gives them a reveille. He sounds an alarm. He tells them it is time to wake up, to get dressed, and to get into the fight. The problem in much of the modern church is not that we have the wrong answers; it is that we are not even awake enough to hear the questions. We are sleeping through a revolution, and the enemy is quite happy to let us do so. As long as we are content with our carnal stupor, our petty squabbles, and our sensual distractions, the darkness advances unopposed.
This passage is a direct assault on that sleepy-headed complacency. Paul has just finished a masterful discourse on Christian ethics, culminating in the great command to love our neighbor. But he knows that Christian ethics are impossible without Christian eschatology. What you believe about the future determines how you live in the present. If you believe history is a meaningless, circular tragedy, you will live one way. If you believe, as the Scriptures teach, that history is a story, authored by God and marching toward the glorious triumph of His Son, you will live another way entirely. Paul is not just giving us a to-do list; he is giving us a reality check. He is telling us what time it is on God's great clock, and because of what time it is, he is telling us how to dress for the occasion.
The Text
And 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 night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
(Romans 13:11-14 LSB)
What Time Is It? (v. 11)
We begin with the apostle's urgent summons.
"And 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." (Romans 13:11)
Paul connects all the preceding instruction about love and law to this one crucial reality: "knowing the time." A wise man knows what time it is. A fool does not. And the time, Paul says, is late. It is "the hour" to awaken from sleep. This is not the sleep of physical rest; it is the sleep of moral and spiritual lethargy. It is the stupor of worldliness, the drowsy state of a Christian who has forgotten that he is a soldier on duty in enemy territory.
But what does he mean that "salvation is nearer to us than when we believed?" Many have taken this in a very pinched and individualistic way, as though it simply means we are one day closer to our own personal death and subsequent trip to glory. That is true enough, but it misses the grand, cosmic sweep of Paul's thought. Paul, like all the apostles, understood that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the turning point of all history. It was D-Day in the cosmic war. The decisive victory has been won. The "night" of the old covenant, the age of shadows and types, is over. The "day" of the new covenant has dawned. We are not waiting for the sun to rise; the sun has already risen. We are now in the age of the gospel's advance, and our task is to take the light of that dawn and push it into every dark corner of the globe.
So when he says salvation is "nearer," he is speaking of the progressive realization of Christ's victory in history. The kingdom is advancing. The gospel is running its course. The mustard seed is growing into a great tree. Every day that passes is one day closer to the final consummation when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. This is not a message of panicked retreat but of confident advance. We are not on the losing side, waiting for an airlift out of a disaster zone. We are on the winning side, and the final victory is drawing nearer with every passing moment. Wake up, he says. The war is not over, but the outcome is secure, and it is time to get about your business.
Dressed for the Day (v. 12)
Because of the time, we are commanded to dress appropriately.
"The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light." (Romans 13:12 LSB)
The imagery is simple and powerful. You do not wear your pajamas to work. You do not wear your bathrobe into battle. When morning comes, you take off the garments of the night and you put on the garments of the day. Paul applies this to our spiritual lives. The "night" represents our old life of ignorance and rebellion, the time before the light of Christ broke in. The "deeds of darkness" are the things that flourish in that environment. Sin loves the dark. It thrives on secrecy, shame, and deception.
So the first action is negative: "lay aside" these deeds. This is the language of repentance. It is a decisive, deliberate stripping off of the old ways. You cannot put on your new clothes until you have taken off the old, filthy ones. You cannot try to wear both. The Christian life requires a clean break.
The second action is positive: "put on the armor of light." Notice he does not say we should put on the "pajamas of light" or the "business suit of light." He says to put on armor. Why? Because the day is not a playground; it is a battlefield. The light does not advance unopposed. The kingdom of darkness hates the light and will fight it at every turn. To be a Christian is to be at war. This armor is not something we manufacture; it is given to us by God. It is the armor of light itself. To live in the light, to walk in the truth, to be clothed in righteousness, this is our defense. A man walking in integrity is a man who is well-defended. The devil has very few handholds on a man who has nothing to hide.
A Public Walk (v. 13)
Paul then specifies what this daylight walk looks like in practice.
"Let us walk properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy." (Romans 13:13 LSB)
Our walk, our public conduct, must be "properly," or as befits the daylight. The sins he lists here are not private peccadilloes. They are public, social sins that characterized the pagan nightlife of the Roman world. "Carousing and drunkenness" refer to the wild parties, the orgies, that were a staple of pagan religion and social life. "Sexual promiscuity and sensuality" refer to all forms of sexual license, the unbridled indulgence of lust. "Strife and jealousy" are the inevitable social fallout of such behavior. When people are governed by their appetites, they will inevitably come into conflict with others who are governed by theirs.
These are the deeds of darkness because they are what people do when they think no one is watching, or when they are in a context where such behavior is celebrated. But the Christian is always being watched. We live our lives "as in the day," under the all-seeing eye of God. There is no corner of our lives that is hidden from Him. Therefore, our conduct must be marked by sobriety, purity, and peace. We are to be a walking advertisement for the kingdom of light, a stark contrast to the chaotic darkness of the world.
The Ultimate Uniform (v. 14)
Finally, Paul summarizes the entire duty of the Christian soldier in one magnificent command.
"But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts." (Romans 13:14 LSB)
This is the heart of the matter. Putting on the armor of light is, ultimately, putting on Christ Himself. To "put on" a person in this sense means to take on their character, to identify with them so completely that when people see you, they see him. It is to be clothed in His righteousness, to think His thoughts, to love His will, and to live His life by the power of His Spirit. This is not about mere imitation. It is about impartation. We are in Christ, and He is in us. Our task is to live out that reality, to make the inward truth an outward fact.
The flip side of putting on Christ is to "make no provision for the flesh." The "flesh" here is not our physical body, but our fallen, sinful nature, that traitor within the gates that is always looking for an opportunity to surrender to the enemy. To "make no provision" for it is a military term. It means you do not leave supplies out for the enemy. You do not give him aid and comfort. You starve him out. You cut his supply lines.
This is intensely practical. It means you do not just fight lust when it appears; you refuse to browse the websites that feed it. You do not just resist a drunken stupor; you refuse to go to the party where that is the main event. You do not just try to manage your jealousy; you refuse to entertain the envious thoughts that give it birth. It is a preemptive strike. You know where the flesh is weak, and so you refuse to put yourself in a position where it can be exploited. You are to be ruthless with your sin. You are to make no bargains with it, sign no treaties, and give it no quarter.
Conclusion: Dressed and Ready
So, what time is it? It is the time of the dawning day of Christ's kingdom. The night of pagan darkness is past, and the light of the gospel is advancing across the earth. Because we know what time it is, we know how to dress. We are to strip off the filthy garments of our old life, the deeds of darkness that we once loved.
And we are to put on our uniform. That uniform is the armor of light. That uniform is the character of Christ Himself. We are to be clothed in Him, so that His righteousness, His purity, and His love are what people see when they see us. This is not a call to a passive, quietistic piety. It is a call to arms. It is a call to wake up, to get dressed, and to walk out into the daylight of God's new creation and get to work.
The world is still full of darkness, to be sure. But the day has dawned. Christ has risen. Salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Therefore, let us live like it. Let us walk as children of the day, making no provision for the flesh, but clothing ourselves entirely with the glorious person of our commander, the Lord Jesus Christ.