“This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. ¹² The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living.” (Rom. 13:11-12 NLT). 

Footsteps #376. Paul, 4 years after his Roman letter (written in AD 58), would write a similar but expanded version of this sentiment in Ephesians 6:11-19 as one of his ‘Prison Epistles.” 

Romans 13:11-14 is fascinating because Paul was talking here to believers, telling them to wake up and get it together because Jesus was coming back, and the dawn of the eternal day was at hand. The fact that this was written almost two thousand years ago doesn’t matter. We must always live in anticipation of the nearness of Christ’s coming. As far as we all are concerned, as far as our own personal experiences go, the Second Coming is as near as our own death. Whether next week or in 40 years we close our eyes in death, and whether we sleep only four days or for 400 years – it makes no difference to us. The next thing we know is the second coming of Jesus. With death always potentially just around the corner for any of us, time is indeed short, and our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 

Although Paul doesn’t deal much in the book of Romans with the Second Coming, in the Thessalonian and the Corinthian letters he covers it in much more detail. It is a prominent and crucial theme in the Bible, especially in the New Testament. Without it and the hope it offers, our faith is really meaningless. After all, what does “justification by faith” mean without the Second Coming to bring that wonderful truth to complete fruition? The apostle realised that our world is in the midst of a battle between good and evil and that each individual’s heart and mind is the scene of a microcosmic great controversy, an individual manifestation of the macrocosmic struggle between Christ and Satan. 

One of the great fears of Christ and Paul was that the Christians wouldn’t keep awake, but would rather slumber and sleep and therefore get caught unawares at the Second Advent (Matt. 25:1-13; 1 Thess. 5:1-11). 

If you knew for certain that Jesus was coming next month, what would you change in your life, and why? If you believe you need to change these things a month before Jesus comes, why shouldn’t you change them now? What is the difference?