Wake up and get dressed (Part 1: Were the early Christians wrong? Did they believe Jesus was coming back during their lifetimes?)

In Romans 13:11-14, the Apostle Paul uses a simple metaphor of waking up and getting dressed in the proper clothes as a powerful call for followers of Christ to practice following Him.

Before we examine his teaching, we recognize that a lot is said about time in this passage – “knowing the time, that it is already the hour… the night is almost gone, and the day is near.” Many have often accused Paul (as well as other New Testament writers) of believing that Jesus’ return was imminent in their day, and therefore since Jesus has yet to return those same accusers argue that other things the Apostles taught must have been wrong too.

But that accusation usually comes from a misreading of passages like these. Paul, here, is talking about the fact that we are living in the last days – the time in which we await the Second Coming of Christ. Anytime the New Testament speaks of “the last days,” it doesn’t mean that the authors believed they were living in the last few 24-hour periods of time, but rather that since the resurrection and ascension of Jesus a new time period in God’s salvation-history has begun that will come to a conclusion once Christ returns in judgment. In other words, of all the marvelous things that God has done, Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and ascension was the final great act to take place before the Day of the Lord (the day when Christ will return to judge the living and the dead). Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”

So yes, we are living in the last days (just as the New Testament writers were and, if the Lord tarries, just as our brothers and sisters in Christ will be 1,000 years from now). There is no further revelation from God to mankind necessary (though the Holy Spirit certainly speaks to those who are in Christ today, always clearly and in ways that agree with the Bible – God’s Word), and the next great act of the Lord will be the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to judge the world. This Second Coming of Christ will happen at an hour that we do not expect, and therefore we are called to wake up, get dressed, and be ready.