The Kingdom of God Begins Now
Romans 13:8-14
In times of distress, we often dream of heaven. We cry out “Maranatha” (O Lord Come). We think of the millennium and a reign of the Prince of Peace while we seem surrounded by the noise of war. We await justice while we live in a world where justice is all too often perverted. We seem to have so little strength to combat the moral decay we see around us, so we just resign ourselves to the day when Jesus returns. Everything will be all right then. It is, or course, only right to orient ourselves toward the return of Christ. Paul tells us in Colossians that we are first of all to look upward to Christ who is seated at the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1) In Colossians 3:4, Paul adds:
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Colossians 3:4 NKJV
When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
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Paul in Colossians here is addressing the same issue we see here in the Romans text today. We are not called to passively resign ourselves to await the Kingdom. We are called to active obedience and witness to Jesus in THIS world. Jesus Himself in His prayer in John 17 says in John 17:15
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John 17:15 NKJV
I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
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As we can see, Jesus wants us to proclaim the Gospel to this present evil age. (See Galatians 1:4) We are not called to climb a mountain top an passively await the Kingdom. (See 2 Thessalonians 2:1) The nation of Israel was called out to Sinai in the wilderness to be His people. But the nation of Israel was not to remain forever in this splendid isolation. They would soon enter into Canaan land with its wickedness. It was God’s purpose for Israel to be a witness to the nations. It was to be a message of judgment, but even in the midst of this judgment, Rahab the Harlot would find grace through her faith in the God of Israel.
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So let us now examine this morning’s text from the Epistle to the Romans and see what it tells us about how we should live our lives while we wait for the fullness of the Kingdom to arrive. The first thing we need to do in examining a text is to look at the text which comes before it. At the beginning of Romans 13, Paul teaches us about our obligations to secular authority. We are to show proper respect to the secular authority. We should pay our taxes. We should also obey their laws, so long as it does not contradict what God says in His Word. I would add that if we find that we cannot comply with these laws out of conscience, we should not take up arms against the government and be willing to suffer for conscience’s sake should we be arrested for disobedience.
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Paul here in Romans 13:8 now turns to our Christian obligations. Whereas, once we have met the secular obligations just described, we are free from further obligations. But there is an obligation the Christian has which has no end. when a loan is repaid, the obligation to pay the lender is ended. But even after all our obligations have been paid, the obligation to love one another remains. This is a debt which is always being paid. We are to love one another. Paul is talking about this as love between Christians. If we cannot show proper love to our fellow believer, it is impossible to properly love the unbeliever. Our love for each other is a witness to the sinner. Jesus Himself tells us in John 13:35: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
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But what is meant by “love” here? We must strictly define this word in its proper Christian context. It is far more than human love or an emotional attachment. The early Christians adopted the Greek word “agape” to describe this love. It is not “eros” which is sexual love. It is not “philos” which is the love between good friends. It refers to a deeper and even sacrificial love which requires the deepest level of commitment. Jesus himself describes what agape love is all about. In John 13:1 we read: “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” Jesus is about to go to the cross in our place. There is something special about this love to what in the King James says “to the uttermost” which is better than most modern translations which use “to the end.” The Greek word here is “telos” which is hard to render in English. Telos has the idea of the end of a process, such as when a building is completed and is working as designed. The building process has finished. So what is meant here by “to the end.” We find the answer to this in John 19:30: “So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.” The Greek word “finished” is a verb form of the noun “telos’ (tetelestai). The tense of this verb is in what is called in Greek the “perfect” tense which stresses the ongoing ramifications of this act of love. By this, Jesus cancelled our debt and freed us from sin, including the obligation to sin.
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Whereas, only Jesus has ultimately expressed this perfect love, we are still under obligation as disciples to love each other in this manner. Jesus Himself tells us in John 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” One should see from this that the obliging love we are called to is far more than just being friendly to the brethren. In times of persecution, a believer might be arrested and offered a pardon if he would betray other believer and reveal. Torture was also applied in order that this Christian might “rat out” other believers. How costly a love is called for.
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Paul then quotes from what we call the “second table of the law,” the part of the Ten commandments which described Israelites obligations to fellow Israelites. He ships the first table here which describes the Israelite’s obligation to Yahweh the Lord. This must be assumed to be equally obligatory, but Paul’s purpose is to describe our conduct within the church body which is His body. Jesus summed up the first table by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5:
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Deuteronomy 6:4–5 NKJV
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
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As far as the second table is concerned, Jesus quoted from Leviticus 19:18: “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” Paul quotes from this verse also in this passage as being the summation of the second table. But we cannot love our neighbor as ourselves is we are filled with self-hate. Often we project this self-loathing upon others, including those whom we “love.” So how can one love himself? The answer is found in the first table. We must be in proper relationship with God. When we love God with all our being, it is then possible to love ourselves and then extend this love to our neighbor.
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How do we come into this right relationship with God? Paul is adamant that it cannot come from keeping the Ten Commandments. Even though the Law is itself good and is God-breathed as the perfect expression of His will, the sin within us prevents our obligation to keep the Law. We have a debt obligation that can never be paid back. Paul describes this dilemma earlier in Romans. We are justified by faith and not by the works of the law. (see Romans 3:20 and also Galatians 2:16). It is the faith in Jesus Christ who died for our sin and cancelled our obligations. Paul was aware that this freedom of obligation to the Law might be used as excuse to sin (see Romans 6) Paul reminds us that we have died in Christ. We have not only been freed from the obligations of the Law but also the obligation to sin as well. In place of these obligations, we have the continuous obligation to continue in the love and grace which has been revealed to us.
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Paul then tells us that is is high time that we live this truth. He says it is time to awaken from our sleep. Sleep is often used as a metaphor for “death.” When one died, they often used the word “sleeping” to refer to death. In a similar context to this text, Paul says in Ephesians 5:14:
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Ephesians 5:14 NKJV
Therefore He says:
“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.”
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Paul calls us to live the resurrection life now. When Jesus talks about the Kingdom in the beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-11, He does not just refer to the future. Some of the beatitudes to refer to the future such as: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” The meek certainly do not rule here in this present evil age. To the world, meekness is not a virtue but is a term of derision. “Meekness is weakness” as they say. But we should notice that two of the Beatitudes refer to the Kingdom in the present tense. We read in the very first Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. This means that there is a present reality to the Kingdom. It does not begin at some time in the future. But notice that the last Beatitude also is in the present tense: Matthew 5:10 says:“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The Kingdom of Heaven is present in us even when we are being persecuted. When Jesus change from saying “those” to “you all” in verse 11, he makes the reality of persecution coming to the believer. It isn’t an abstract persecution or a persecution of certain other people. It says “Blessed are YOU!”
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The reality of persecution facing all believers requires us to all the more fervently love both the LORD as well as each other. This is the antidote to the “Kingdom now” theology which is so popular today, which is known by slogans like “Name it and claim it” as though we already ruled in the power of the Kingdom. There is too much Scripture which tells us that those who will live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution. (See 2 Timothy 3:12, for example) The proponents of “Kingdom Now” are right in the fact there is a present aspect of the kingdom. where they err in how the reality of this Kingdom is to be expressed. We don’t anticipate the time in which we will rule and reign with Jesus in glory. This is not the time for the golden streets and gates of pearl. Just as Jesus came in humbleness to earth and lived amongst us in suffering and poverty, we also are called to live such a life down here. After Jesus arose, He ascended into glory to sit at the right hand of God. There has always been discussion about whether Luther’s “theology of the cross” should prevail or Calvin’s “theology of glory.” The answer to this is as long as we live in this live, we live under the shadow of the cross. We anticipate the coming theology of glory and hope for it. But this is not now. For the present, we are called to a life of witness, including our witness by taking up our cross and following Him.
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Paul reminds us that the dawn of the new age will soon come. The night is coming to an end. We must understand this short time from God’s perspective where a thousand years of our time is but a day. (see Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8) So now is the time to put off the evil deeds done in darkness and put on the armor of light. Paul gives several examples of the things to pur off such as wantonness and chambering. St. Augustine was deeply affected by the words of Romans 13:11-14. He would be the ultimate example of the “seeker” who tried to find truth in all places. His mother was a Christian and father a pagan. He spent years searching through neo-Platonism, Manichean philosophy and other sources of “truth” including Christianity. He lived what he described as a very loose life. He even wrote in his “Confessions” about the time he destroyed the pears hanging from his neighbor’s pear trees. He had a child out of wedlock. And although Augustine’s wantonness would be considered tame with what we see in today’s society including many of our “churches,” He felt guilty and could find no relief for his sins. He even went to Milan to converse with the Bishop there (St. Ambrose). while he was there, he said he heard a child’s voice say “take up and read” which Augustine took as a command to take up the Bible. When he opened up the Bible, his eyes fell upon these verses, and He was radically changed, He was familiar with many of the Christian teachings which he tried to harmonize with philosophy. But this was a theology of the head. It was at this point he believed and took it personally. He had finally put on the Lord Jesus Christ and no loner would make room for earthly lusts and desires.
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What we need to learn is that all too often, we are still dissatisfied with our Christian life. We take out this dissatisfaction upon our fellow church members. We are continuously complaining that it all seems to hollow. The church is full of hypocrites. Although I would admit that there are plenty of hypocrites who come to church, it tends to mask that we might be hypocrites also. We think we can dabble in the world even as we dabble with Christianity. But we can never be happy in Jesus until we, as the song “Trust and Obey” says “until we trust and obey. Trust shares the same root as “Faith.” But even Paul does not refer to an empty faith. Paul begins Romans by saying that the purpose of His epistle to the Romans was “unto the obedience of faith.” (Romans 1:5) Faith is linked to obedience to the Gospel. At the very end ofbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb Romans, we read in Romans 16:26: “but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith.” These two verses are sandwiched at each end of Romans. The fancy technical term for this is “inclusio.” This gives extra importance to “obedience of faith.” All of Romans describes what this “obedience of faith” is. Let us take seriously the call to the Christian life and witness, demonstrated in our love fore Christ and each other as a witness to the world.
