Compelling Love

https://hightimetoawake.com/rom-13-verse-11/

“It is high time to awake out of sleep”, “cast off the works of darkness” and “put on the armor of light,”  “the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:11-14), “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).

Romans 13
¹¹ And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. ¹² The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. ¹⁴ But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

The Holy Spirit sends red light signals to us when we are about to step out of our armor of light.  To ignore those signals is like not obeying traffic signals when driving, as a  blogger on the “Partners in Hope” website writes:

Psalm 119:1-3, 35 (NLT)
Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord. Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts. They do not compromise with evil, and they walk only in his paths … Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found.

“A driver who ignores traffic signals is “an accident looking for a place to happen.” …  The Scriptures too have some “red lights” that should make us stop and consider our lives as Christians. They are the prohibitions against behaviors that are detrimental to our walk with the Lord and our growth as Christians. Some “red lights” include thoughts such as envy, pride, hatred, lust, irreverence, and selfishness while others have to do with outward behaviors such as sexual immorality, abuse and addictions.

“When the Holy Spirit alerts us to the presence of “red light” thoughts and behaviors in our lives, we should immediately hit the brakes. We don’t always see the surrounding circumstances that require the red light in order for everyone to be safe, including ourselves.  God knows.  God cares and God prescribes boundaries and safety lights for the best of reasons.  We would do well to pay attention and follow the signal.”

http://pihtoday.blogspot.com/2013/04/thursday-april-4-2013-following-signal-1.html

In 1966 I wrote the following poem expressing the aspiration of Christians to walk with God continuously:

High Time
Is twenty-four too many hours to give a day to You?
Is seven days too many days to give each week to You?
Is fifty-two too many weeks to give per year to You?
No, all my time is just enough to give my life to You.

The only way to walk with God continuously is to put on the armor of light, which is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ  (Romans 13:12,14).   In Romans 7, Paul describes how without this armor he fails to do what he wills to do, because of the law of sin and death that is at work in him.  He has no rule over his own spirit, and the result is as described in Proverbs 25:28, “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit Is like a city broken down, without walls.”

Romans 7 (NKJV)
¹⁹ For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ²⁰ Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. ²¹ I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. ²² For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

²³ But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Finally in Romans 8 Paul gives the key to being delivered from this “wretched” condition.  Putting on the armor of light, we are able to “not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” 

Romans 8 (NKJV)
¹ There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. ⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. ⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

In Romans 12, Paul continues the theme of setting one’s mind on the things above, and living according to the Spirit.  He exhorts, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Romans 12 (NKJV)
¹ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Worship leader Buddy James in a sermon at New Life Church Novato on June 16, 2019 summarized faith leading to wholeness through surrender: “Embrace grace by faith.  Step into wholeness.  Step into surrender.”

Paul speaks again of this transformative change in Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ who is our armor of light. (Romans 13:12,14)  The Holy Spirit is faithful to send us signals to hit the brakes when needed to keep our armor on, guiding us into all truth (John 16:13).  Truly, the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).  We are in Him and He is in us, as Jesus teaches in John 15:4, and prays in John 17:21-23, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, 6/19/2019, https://compellinglove.net/

Photo credits:
(1) https://hightimetoawake.com/rom-13-verse-11/
(2) http://pihtoday.blogspot.com/2013/04/thursday-april-4-2013-following-signal-1.html
(3) https://biblia.com/bible/esv/John%2015.4
(4) https://matttullos.com/tag/colossians-127/