Chapter # 13 Paragraph # 2 Study # 5
January 10, 2021
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: Paul's appeal to the Roman believers is that they "ponder" the "facts regarding the Promise of Salvation" so that they will be open to his summons to enter into the "walk" of "Love" in this present, evil, world.
Introduction: In our last study we considered certain implications of "the Walk of Love" to which Paul summoned his readers. A major "implication" is given in Paul's declaration that, because his readers are aware of the "season", it is "the hour" for them to be awakened so that they may more fully participate in the salvation that was promised to them and in which they believed. In conjunction with the presence of the present hour, Paul set forth this major "implication": that all believers everywhere, and at all times, are in serious danger of being lulled to sleep and, thereby, to be robbed of significant elements of "The Promise". It is a fact of our experience that we are constantly being drawn to sleep when we should be on heightened awareness of the event which will occur in an hour when we need to be fully awake. Thus, this major "implication" is that there is something dreadfully "wrong" with us, and the "wrongness" never goes away. The "wrongness" is our entrenched propensity to "love the sleep of the night", which is a metaphor for living in the darkness of self-absorbtion wherein we "love" ourselves more than God or our neighbors. We were called to "love" God and others and were given the Promise of Salvation so that we could. But the pull of sleep is very great [take the disciples' experience in the garden as a metaphor of Paul's meaning: the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak; thus the disciples' "slept" into the very "hour" of their greatest danger, pretty much unaware of what it was to cost them]. Thus, Paul called upon his readers to "ponder" their "reality" as "believers" in the genuineness and inevitability of the arrival of their salvation.
This evening's study concerns "the genuineness and inevitability of the soon coming arrival of that salvation".
- I. The Big Issue: The Nearness of The Ultimate Experience of God's Promise of Salvation.
- A. The "promise" of "The Salvation".
- 1. First, it is a promise of deliverance from the inevitable future experience of all who do not believe it.
- a. This, in its greatest reality, is what the Bible calls "The Lake of Eternal Fire" into which all who are not "saved" shall be cast with no hope of ever being delivered from it.
- b. This, in its greatest requirement, is what the Bible calls "The Forgiveness of Our Sins" so that the condemnation of those sins is to never be our experience.
- c. And this, in its greatest provision, is what the Bible calls "Redemption by the Death of a Qualified Substitute" so that "The Salvation" is the future for all so "redeemed".
- 2. Second, it is rooted in actual historical events that set the stage for "faith" in the eventual reality, by reason of the individual experience, at a specific point in time, of "forgiveness", on the basis of an historical redemption accomplished by the Death of God's Son, Jesus.
- B. The "event" of the onset of the ultimate experience of God's promised deliverance: The Advance of "The Night".
- 1. Paul's words are "The Night Advanced".
- a. These words are clouded by translations that say "the night is far spent" or "the night is almost gone".
- 1) Paul's meaning is not that "The Night" has been a period when darkness has made sleep very appealing so that people are blissfully unaware of what is going on with them.
- 2) Rather, Paul's meaning is that "The Night Advanced" in its pursuit of a nefarious goal to prevent the possibility of the promised salvation from ever happening.
- a) In every other place in the New Testament where the verb "advanced" is used, it is used to indicate "progress toward a specific goal".
- b) In the metaphor of a Kingdom of Darkness which operates in "The Night", the Bible presents the objective of the Kingdom of Darkness in terms of extreme events specifically designed to keep the Redeemer from being able to "redeem".
- i. Many historical events are given "meaning" when we understand that Jesus' coming as the Seed of David was opposed by attempts to kill off the progenitors of that Seed (all of the history of Israel as the object of an attempt to erase Israel from that history are indicators of this objective).
- ii. The climax of the biblical record of those attempts is given in Revelation 12:4, which is cast in terms of the original heavenly rebellion (having been unable to kill off the progenitors, the dragon sought to kill off the Seed at his birth and many times after).
- iii. Not understanding the wisdom of God, the dragon actually fomented the events that led to the Cross in order to prevent His production of the final experience of the Promise.
- b. Thus, "The Night Advanced" refers to the last event that was designed to prevent "The Salvation" from coming into actual history: the Cross.
- C. The point is: God superimposed His plan of redemption upon the attempts of "The Night" so that "The Salvation" was effected in respect to its Provision and Requirement so that all that remains is for the Reality to be brought into history: The Dawning of The Day.
- 1. This "Reality" has two major aspects: deliverance from the Lake of Fire, and the bringing in of The Kingdom of The Day (salvation is both "from" and "unto").
- 2. The final reality is the eradication of "The Night" by the "Dawning of the Day".
- a. This eradication is described in terms of the Resurrected Seed, put to death by The Night, returning to His redeemed with salvation in its fulness.
- b. This "dawning" of the "near" day is identified as "Our Blessed Hope" in Titus 2:13 and is described in terms of "the glorious appearing of the Great God and Our Savior, Jesus Christ".
- II. The Big Problem: The "Nearness" of The Day Is Dismissed By Reason of Man's Perception That Delay Erases "Nearness".
- A. Delay is historically established: every generation has been urged to look eagerly for the coming of the Son of God from heaven: 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; but He has not come for 2,000 years and many generations of "believers".
- B. "Nearness" is not presented by Paul as "inevitable in any given generation"; it is presented in terms of the major events that make "Salvation" appear in its ultimate expression.
- C. Because Paul's point of view is completely within the circle of "those things which make The Promise an inevitable reality", his "nearness of The Day" is cast in terms of the two events which usher Salvation into history: since the Night Advanced and accomplished the first of those events, there remains only the Dawning of the Day for the final accomplishment.
- D. Paul's rationale is established by Peter's declaration that even if men do argue for the passing of many years as a basis for scoffing, the divine perspective is "two days" and counting.
