Threefold Salvation (Romans 13:8-14)

In verse 8, Paul connects his emphases in the previous two sections when he says that his readers should owe love to each other. He has stressed the importance of them paying what they owe to the government in their taxes and other forms of revenue and now he says that they owe each other a life of love, which can be linked back to what he says in the second half of chapter 12 about genuine love.

Living a life of love is important for many reasons and here Paul mentions one of them, which is that it fulfils the purpose of the second table of the law, the section of it that deals with human relationships. There are three comments that I would like to make. First, it is a travesty to say that focussing on the law results in legalism – instead a proper attitude towards it involves responses of love towards God and towards people. Second, here is a reminder that those indwelt by the Spirit can keep the law with regard to its intent even although they cannot keep it perfectly in practice. Third, a life of love is very practical. We can see that in Paul’s statement in verse 10 that ‘love does no wrong to a neighbour’. What a lot of things are included in those little words, ‘no wrong.’

Paul then moves on in verse 11 to mention another argument for holy living or for showing that they are living disciples, and that is the passing of time which is taking us ever closer to the return of Jesus. This argument should be more effective in our lives than in those of the original readers because we are two thousand years closer to that event than they were.

Paul uses the illustration of what a person does when he wakens up each morning. He stops sleeping because the night has gone and daylight has come. In his illustration, the night that has passed depicts the sinful they have left behind and the day illustrates their new life as Christians.

Verse 14 has become connected in church history to Augustine because through it he became a Christian. In some ways he was living the kind of life that is described in verse 13. But after he was converted, he eventually became a prominent theologian and Christian leader, and many of his writings are still in print today. He is best known for two books, one called Confessions and the other called The City of God.

The salvation that is nearer

We are aware of the common way of explaining the salvation that God has provided, which is that in the past we were saved from the penalty of sin when we believed in Jesus, in the present we are being saved from the power of sin by the Holy Spirit, and in the future we will be saved from the presence of sin when Jesus returns. Of course, there is a lot more to salvation than those three ideas. Nevertheless, each of these aspects is mentioned by Paul in this passage. Two are mentioned in verse 11, that is the future and past aspects, and the third aspect is focussed on in verses 12-14.

What does Paul have in mind by the salvation that is nearer? He uses shorthand for the many blessings that will come to God’s people on that wonderful day of the return of Jesus. But since he uses the word salvation to describe it, he must have in mind negative and dangerous things that we will be delivered from then. So what are some of them?

One dangerous enemy that will be destroyed then will be death. Although Jesus has through his resurrection defeated death and turned it into a door through which his people enter heaven, it is still an enemy to our humanness because it separates our souls from our bodies. And we should not be fully delighted that is going to happen, even although our souls will be in heaven. Our souls going to heaven is better than them living here in sinful bodies, but it is not better than living hereafter in perfect bodies. So we join with the saints in heaven and look forward to the effects of death being removed from the experience of Christians.

On the day of Jesus’ return, we will receive our bodies made new. They will be capable of doing things that they cannot do now because they will then be in a world where such activities will be normal. I would say it is pointless trying to imagine what they are, mainly because we cannot do it. We can imagine what life is like in another country because even with its differences it is similar to ours. But the new heavens and new earth will not be like this world. So a better word for such imaginations is day-dreaming or speculating, neither of which is good. We should read what Paul says about our glorified bodies in 1 Corinthians 15 and rejoice that it will happen.

On that great day of future salvation we will receive the eternal inheritance, which we will share with the people of God who were saved from all periods of time and in a wide variety of places. On that day we will see that the gospel was the power of God unto salvation. And we will also see the power of God as he brings into existence the restored creation, the new heavens and new earth. Then God and his people will be together for ever. It is good to know that we are nearer to it than ever before.

The moment of believing

The threefold division of salvation that was mentioned earlier and which is found in our passage is salvation viewed from our experience. And the first feature of it in our experience was when we trusted in Jesus. Before we trusted in Jesus we were not saved, but were, as Paul reminded the Ephesians, children of wrath. And we all came to that moment of believing by different routes. How many roads lead to London, for example? There are many more roads that lead to Calvary. What is important as far we are concerned is reaching the destination and not what happened to us on the road there.

The destination was to meet with Jesus in a saving way. And what did that involve? Although we came by different routes, there were certain similar experiences. One of them was the existence of sin within us. Now our awareness of what sin had done to us might be very different. Some may have discovered that sin did not satisfy and others may have realised that sin stained all that they did. What is important is that they found out that the effects of sin were a reason for coming to Jesus for salvation, for forgiveness.

Moreover, each person realised the suitability of the sacrifice of Jesus for them. Some had more details about Jesus than others. Those brought up within the Christian church would have had a head knowledge of who Jesus was. Others, like the robber on the cross, might have known very little about Jesus. But they knew enough to tell them that he was the One they needed to trust in.

Connected to the sense of sin and the suitability of Jesus, at that moment of believing there was speaking with Jesus in your hearts. In one way or another, you had a soul discussion with him. You might not have been conscious of it at the time, but you did. Faith in Jesus is depending on Jesus to do what he promised. It is very simple really, that first step into an endless relationship with him. And because of that moment, you discovered that you were a believer.

As far as the illustration used by Paul is concerned, what happened to you was that you realised there was more to life than what went on in the night. There was also a day to discover, and that day is the day of salvation. Coming to faith in Jesus is like wakening up and realising there is a lot more to human existence than groping around in the darkness of sin.

Living in the daytime

Paul reminds his Roman readers that they are to live like children of the day in the night that marks this world. And he uses a simple illustration to explain further what he wants them to do. The illustration he uses is changing our clothes. The old clothes we are to through off are the works of darkness and the new clothes we are to put on is the armour of light.

The apostle lists some of the works of darkness in verse 13 and it is a horrible list: ‘not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarrelling and jealousy.’ He says that these practices are unsuitable for the daytime, and indeed if people do them in daytime in public they will get arrested for doing so. Instead, as far as Christians are concerned, those practices belong to the life that has gone. They should be treated as clothes that are unsuitable to wear.

Instead the Christians are to put on the armour of light. The word ‘armour’ indicates that the Christian’s God-given attire is protective against the influences of darkness. How does it do so? We have to recognise that we cannot be neutral in our commitment, so we will be wearing clothes that identify with the darkness or we will be wearing armour that connects us to the light. So we are responsible to put on the correct clothes. This is another way of saying that Christians work out in their lives what God has worked into their souls.

In the conflicts that soldiers faced, their armour covered the various parts of their bodies. Believers are involved in a spiritual conflict, and the battles are connected to their minds, affections and wills. The enemies are the world, the flesh and the devil. How do we protect our minds when we are tempted by one or more of those enemies? How do we protect our affections when we are tempted by one or more of those enemies? How do we protect our wills when we are tempted by one or more of those enemies?

Paul provides the answer to those questions in verse 14 where he writes: ‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.’ The answer is twofold – positively we are to put on Jesus (Paul is still using the imagery of clothing) and negatively we are not to feed our sinful tendencies. So we can imagine a situation where a Christian is tempted to think about one of the sins that Paul mentions in verse 13. What does he do to deal with that attack? Obviously he can pray for the attack to stop. But what if the attack does not stop? The answer is to think about Jesus. Even when he prayed, he should have asked God to enable him to think about Jesus.

That sounds elementary. Indeed, it should be automatic for a Christian to do so. Nevertheless, we don’t find it easy. Does this mean that God makes it hard for us to defeat our spiritual opponents? The answer is no. Yet he does require us to use means and if we want to think about Jesus in the moment of attack we will need to spend time reading about Jesus before the attack happens. I would say that we should something about Jesus every day from the Bible. It is possible to read the Bible in a manner that prevents us reading about Jesus. Reading about Jesus is the equivalent of a soldier polishing his armour, so when a Christian needs to use his armour he can think about what he read about Jesus.

Reading about Jesus in the Bible is reading a love story that moves and enflames our hearts. We should not use the Bible only in the way a mechanic uses a manual. He only uses it when there is something wrong. While there will be occasions when that response is necessary in order to deal with spiritual problems, it is not the everyday way for finding spiritual power. We find spiritual power by thinking about Jesus and his love or, to use Paul’s illustration, by putting on Jesus.

Thinking about Jesus ensures that we will not gaps in the spiritual armour for the flesh to exploit. Look at the sins Paul mentions there. Which of them are we likely to fall into first? I suspect the last one, jealousy, which can be expressed in a variety of ways. Is it possible to focus on Jesus and become jealous of someone at the same time? Jealousy is usually connected to the opposite of humility, and who showed humility to the degree that Jesus did? So when we find ourselves tempted to be jealous, we can think of the way that Jesus made himself of no reputation.

Application

So we have a threefold salvation dealing with our pasts, presents and futures. They are connected to one another, and in each of them Jesus is central as far as each believer is concerned. What we have to do is ask ourselves if he is central to us, and we can know this by looking at what we think about and by discovering if we use any opportunities to feed on sin.