THE GREAT PROVISION FOR HOLY LIVING
Romans 13:14
Man needs strength if he is to live the holy life. He needs more than instruction in what a holy life is. Too much Christian instruction has been based upon the false assumption that all man needs is more information or better instruction. Man's problem is not the lack of knowledge, not ignorance, but weakness. Man is "without strength" in and of himself.

Man even needs something more than motivation. While motivation is extremely important in any important venture, man must have power to perform. Last Lord's Day we looked at the motivation which the certain coming of Jesus Christ to the earth provides for us. But we need something more!

So the Apostle closes this great chapter by pointing us to the primary provision God has made for holy living. Already in these two chapters our great ethical responsibilities have been made clear, and the urgency of our situation has been emphasized, so now he points us to the secret of performing that which is expected of' us. It is found in this closing imperative, "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." There is first a positive side to the imperative, then a negative side. They are both just different sides of the same truth. I want us to look at them in some detail.

WE MUST PUT ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the primary provision God has given for our Holy Living. In Him we have all that we need. Special notice should be given to the fact that all three names occur here‑‑He is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in this aspect that He should be put on.

Lord identifies Jesus of Nazareth with Deity. This title was reserved for the only true God in th‑ Old Testament. This title also designates Him as the one with all authority and sovereignty. He is the absolute ruler. To clothe yourself in the Lord is to clothe yourself in the power and authority of deity. As Lord He is all that God is. As Lord He can do all that God can do. As Lord He is omnipotent and omniscient, As Lord He is all that we need in terms of power and energy.
Jesus identifies Jesus of Nazareth with us. This was the name given to Him at birth which means "the Lord saves." It indicates the desire and willingness of God to be our Redeemer and help in our struggles against sin and evil. Surely as Lord He is able to help, but will he help? The One who wears the name Jesus is the divine answer. God will help!

Christ means "the anointed one". Jesus of Nazareth wears this title as the One anointed by the eternal God to be the king, priest, and prophet to God's people. It marks Him as the One who is the fulfillment of the Divine promise to man. When you put Him on, you put on all that He is, the God‑man who has redeemed us from our sins, and is now exalted to the right hand of the Father in great glory and power, as the one who holds the destiny of the world in His hand.

While "put ye on" is obviously an imperative word, we must not miss its primary meaning. The word meant to clothe oneself , to wrap around oneself. It is the same word found in verse twelve when the Apostle wrote, "and let us put on the armour of light". So in the context, it may well mean to arm oneself, to put on the armour.

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is this armour. You dress up in Him as you enter into the struggles for obedience. Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse made an interesting study in which he took the pieces of the Christian armor listed in the famous Ephesian passage and illustrated how Jesus Christ is actually each piece of the armour. The girdle is truth‑‑Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." The breastplate is "righteousness.'' ''He is made unto us righteousness." The shoes are "peace". But he is our "peace". The sword is the Word of God and this is one of the titles that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. "The Word was made flesh". The only one with which Dr. Barnhouse struggled was the shield of faith, but at last he came to see that actually we even get our faith from Him as a gift. All of the amour the Christian needs to live in this age of darkness and difficulty, the Lord Jesus Christ is.

But what about the application of this passage? Does this mean that I am to seek to be like the Lord Jesus Christ day by day? Is this nothing more than a call to seek after Christ‑likeness? This should not be discounted! The objective of the Christian is to reflect the glorious likeness of our Lord to the world about us. We are to seek to walk as He walked in the world. Yet there must be something more than this here. Anyone who has ever sought to follow His example knows personally that we need more than an example. Man needs the dynamic that will enable him to do what he knows he should do. To me this is the basic thing in this passage. We are to clothe ourselves in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself by placing our full dependence upon Him day by day. We are to venture forth in life depending upon all that the Lord Jesus Christ is for victory over the flesh, sin, and the devil. We are to look upon Him as the divine provision for Holy Living. The result will be the infusing of His adequate energy that we might follow the pattern of His example.

There is a divine purpose involved in this. If personal holiness was the result of personal effort then the praise for our holy lives would go to ourselves. But since we overcome only through the Lord Jesus Christ, all of the praise must go to the Lord Himself. "No flesh shall glory in His presence.''

WE SHOULD MAKE NO PROVISIONS FOR THE FLESH
To "make provisions" means to take "forethought, to give provident care, to make provision for a thing." It would mean for us that we should not give thoughtful attention to the flesh, as to how its desires might be fulfilled.

"Flesh" means all man is apart from God. While it could refer just to the physical side of man, it probably means more the sinful nature within man. However we should realize that one of the primary fields of operation for the sinful nature particularly takes advantage of the physical desires‑‑such as the desire for food and drink, the desire for sex, or the desire for pleasure. Grabbing hold of these desires, it corrupts and gains control of the whole person. The admonition is that we are not to give any attention to the flesh, or its desires.

One mother reluctantly gave permission to her nine‑year‑old boy to "take a look" at the old swimming‑hole on a warm day in early spring. But he was strictly admonished to stay out of the water. When he came back, his hair was very wet and the mother demanded an explanation. "I fell in", Jackie explained. " Then why are your clothes dry?" she asked. "That's easy," he answered; "I had a feeling I was going to fall in so I took them off just in case." This is what happens to us so many times.

Have you observed how deceitful your heart is at this point? You can become very adept at deceiving yourself. You can convince yourself that what you are doing is really all right when actually what you are doing is make provisions to satisfy some evil desire of the flesh. You set yourself up for spiritual defeat.

It is interesting that this negative admonition follows the positive one. I am convinced you will never be able to break your focus upon the flesh, and the pattern of satisfying its evil desires until you first begin to day by day put on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only then that you will find the strength to remove from your home those books that constantly provide for the desires of the flesh, or cancel that membership in that club where your flesh finds some food, or quit frequenting that place where you know you will meet that certain person who becomes food for the desires of the flesh. A break must be made. Your attention must be placed upon Jesus Christ and all that He is.

The holy life can be lived by mortal men right in the midst of the dark age in which we live. The fact that Jesus is coming provides us the motivation to live it, but the power of Jesus Christ dwelling within us provides us the power to live it. Let me encourage you to get up in the morning, look up to the Lord Jesus in a moment of prayer and trust, and ask Him to be in you all that you need for every situation you may face in the day just ahead.

One of the true saints of our generation has borne witness as to how she lived in a Japanese prison camp facing all kinds of difficulty by daily affirming, "Lord Jesus I trust you to be completely adequate for every situation I may face today."
He did not disappoint her. He will not disappoint you.