“Are we there yet?” Who can’t remember asking that question as a kid in the backseat of a car on what seems to be a “take forever” trip? Which parent hasn’t heard that question asked, often over and over again, from the backseat . . . they too being just as anxious to get to the destination as are their impatient passengers. “Almost there,” we’d say to our kids, “We’ll be there soon . . . just a little while longer.”

“Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light . . . put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Romans 13:11-12, 14 ESV)

So, if someone asked me, “List some of the attributes of salvation” . . . how might I respond? Salvation is a gift . . . it is free . . . it is by grace . . . it is through faith . . . it is forever . . . those might be some of the things that come to mind immediately (they just did). But I don’t think I’d be as quick to answer, “Salvation is nearer now than when I first believed.”

We’re getting nearer . . . we’re almost there . . . won’t be long now. It’s closer now than on the day I first believed . . . closer now than on that night I yielded . . . closer now than when “my calling” seemed to become clearer . . . closer now than it was yesterday. And so? So, time to keep my head in the game . . . time to resist the urge to snooze . . . time to refresh the holy determination to put on Christ. It’s time to get ready . . . time to reset . . . time to renew . . . time to revive . . . for my salvation is nearer now than it was then . . . for the day is at hand.

The day is at hand . . . the day of His return? . . . that day of shining glory in heaven? Yes to both!!! . . . the day is at hand. The culmination of my salvation is as close now as it has ever been. The past is gone . . . the present soon will be too . . . but the future only gets nearer. And oh, what a glorious future it is for the believer . . . I need to keep it ever before me.

The Scriptures remind me, again and again, that it’s so much about perspective . . . that thinking about the right stuff will motivate me to faithfully desire to act with the right behaviors. I am to think about things that are true and honorable and just and pure and lovely and commendable and excellent and worthy of praise (Php. 4:8) . . . I am to set my mind on things above and not on things of the earth (Col. 3:2) . . . I am to lift up my eyes to the hills from where my help comes from and see the LORD who made heaven and earth (Ps. 121:1) . . . and I am to remember that my salvation is nearer now . . . and that the day is at hand.

So, it is time. Time to wake up . . . time to get my head in the game . . . time to engage with the high and holy calling with which he has called me . . . time to put off that which is darkness and put on the armor of light . . . to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, that by His grace and through His power I would live in the light of His imminent return . . . live in the anticipation that this could be day I find myself facedown at His feet . . .

Are we there yet? Almost . . .