Our “Morning” Routine

The night of our struggle with sin is waning; dawn is at hand. It is time for Christians to wake from their slumber and go to work. So said Paul in the passage we studied yesterday, challenging the Roman Christians to remember that they have been foreknown, predestined, called, and justified by God, who soon will complete the process when He calls them home for their final and complete glorification. Since all that is so, Paul tells his readers in today’s verses, here is what you ought to do. Here is how a Christian gets ready for “the day.”

First, the believer is to take off his nightclothes. Paul says, “Let us cast off the works of darkness.” As sinners, we are “clothed” with unrighteousness so that we rebel against God and engage in all sorts of unholy practices. Earlier in Romans, Paul told his readers that they formerly were “slaves of sin” (Rom. 6:17); it was their master, so they had no choice but to obey it. But Christ broke the power of sin over His people, enabling them to desire to obey God. And so, here in Romans 13:12, Paul is challenging these believers to fight the impulses of their sinful natures, to refrain from sin, and to live as followers of Christ should. They are to “cast off” such “garments” as revelry (boisterous carousing) and drunkenness; lewdness (sexual sins) and lust (any lascivious behavior); strife and envying. All such activities represent attempts to fulfill the lusts of the body, but Christians cannot live this way (Rom. 8:5–9).

Second, the believer is to put on “the armor of light.” To put it another way, he or she is to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is clearly a reference to sanctification, to the process of growing more Christlike. The Holy Spirit, of course, is working to accomplish this very thing within us, but we are called to work with Him toward the goal of righteous living.

Notice this: Paul wants us to “walk properly, as in the day” (emphasis added). “The day,” that time when we will be fully glorified, is not yet here (Rom. 13:12)—but we are to walk as if it is! In other words, we are to be striving even now to live as righteously as we possibly can. We are transitioning to glory. This is not a time for one last sinful fling. This is a time for learning and adapting to the ways of that realm where we will spend eternity. The dawn of our first morning in heaven is fast approaching. It is time to awake and begin to prepare.