In Romans 13:11-14 Paul calls you to wake up, to walk properly, as in the daytime, and to put on Christ.
“[I]n the Old Testament the bond between God and Israel, as his covenant people, is expressed in a variety of ways, but perhaps most evocatively in the description of God himself as ‘the portion’ of his people (Pss. 73:26; 119:57; Jer. 10:16). Reciprocally, they are ‘the Lord’s portion’ (Deut. 32:9)…. The climactic realization of this covenant bond, this reciprocal possession between the triune God and his people, the church, is centered for Paul in union with Christ.” (Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., By Faith, Not by Sight, pp. 40, 41).
This Friday evening the 101 Bible Study meets in Astoria to look at that passage of Scripture.
“Christ is not only the object of faith and his glorious appearing the pole star of hope but he is also united to believers now in the bonds of mystic union. And they are united to him. Because Christ is united to believers, he is in them in the life they now live upon earth — he is formed in them the hope of glory. And because believers are now united to Christ, they are in him in the glory of his exalted state — their life is hid with Christ in God. Christ is with them where they are; they are with him where he is. A great mystery, beyond doubt. But this is what is true of Christ and his church.” (John Murray, “Structural Strands in New Testament Eschatology.” Unpublished manuscript, Westminster Theological Seminary Library, Philadelphia).
“With an eye to current ongoing discussions, where charges of ‘antinomianism’ and ‘legalism’ are often exchanged—sometimes warranted, sometimes not—it will help to keep clear that in its application salvation is neither justification-centered nor sanctification-centered, but is and has to be both because it is Christ-centered. Both justification and sanctification are central to the gospel, because union with Christ in all his benefits is its center.” (Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., “The Work of Christ Applied,” in Christian Theology. Reformed Theology for the Catholic Church, M. Allen and S. Swain, eds., 2016).
“… a transforming influence proceeds from Christ, such an influence as He could bring to bear upon us only in the capacity of the glorified, i.e. the risen Christ, and which has for its goal the acquisition of the same glory-image on the part of believers.” (Geerhardus Vos, The Pauline Eschatology, p. 157).
“All the ethical admonition, comfort, and power that radiate from this farewell have no other purpose than that the church on earth should understand itself as belonging to him in heaven and that it should abide in him as he abides in its members. In this the church, together with Jesus—in accordance with an ancient depiction of the people of God—appears as the vine and the branches in which he, responding to the church’s faith and prayer, its life under his word, its affliction, and its calling in the world, will prove himself to be the Living One.” (Herman Ridderbos, The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary, p. 483).