DECEMBER 31, 2024
“Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” (Romans 13:11)
This text is a call to action. The Apostle is actually sounding a wake-up call: “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” As we are about to enter upon another year, let us look back and assess our performance over the year that is now past. If we have become slack or lethargic respecting our Christian faith, then we need to be awakened. Not only would the Apostle awaken the sleepers, but he calls upon them to put off their night clothes and put on their day clothes. In fact, he sounds the bugle, as it were, calling upon the “troops” to get ready for battle. “Let us cast of the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”
Clearly there is a note of urgency here. “It is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” The term salvation in this place signifies complete salvation, or final salvation, which awaits the day of Christ’s Second Coming. The Apostle Peter tells of how in the meantime believers experience manifold trials and tribulations by which their faith is being perfected unto the appearing of Jesus Christ, when they shall receive the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls. It is this final salvation, which our text asserts is nearer than when we believed. With every year that passes this ought to be foremost in the minds of Christians, who are “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.”
This is clearly something that believers look for with great desire. Unlike the unbeliever, who would“put far away the evil day,” Christians await this glorious day with longing hearts. While the sinner wishes for more time to indulge the flesh, the tried believer marks off the days, saying, “even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.”
The Apostle measures between two fixed points. There was a point in time when every child of faith first believed. Even if we cannot pin-point the exact moment, God surely knows the very tick of the clock when we passed from darkness to light, from death to life. God also knows, and He alone, when our Lord shall return. Between these two fixed points we as believers are sailing. It is good for us at the end of the year to look at the “log” and take notice of where our vessel is. Is it on a straight steady course, heading for the desired haven, or is it drifting? As believers, we can offer mutual congratulations that we are nearer to the heavenly port than when we first set sail, so let us hold on course.
The Apostle in this reminder is clearly mindful of a past and a future. There was once a custom when folks would set sail from England to Australia that they would toast friends behind ’til they reached halfway; an then they would change and toast friends ahead. Let us look back to the point of our believing, to the things that are behind us. With what joy we look back and recall when first we believed. “O Happy Day!” For some, that glorious day is not the distant past. Others of us are looking back over many years, and numerous storms and trials. Yet, our vessel did not capsize. This kind of retrospect strengthens the believer’s faith. We can sing heartily,
“Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
His grace hath brought us safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.”
We can therefore look ahead with anticipation. Let us not slumber, but rather be renewed in spirit, being reminded that our salvation is now another year nearer than when we first believed.
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