Based on 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 (New King James Version)
“We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Many times, I have heard some believers say that: “A person is saved in the Lord’s time.” If we understood what we read today and many other passages in the Bible, we understand that a person decides to come to Christ not only when God wants them to, but rather, when they have understood after diverse experiences (the majority of times) that there is no other good option (which is unfortunate). What we understand is that God is willing and desires the salvation of the entire world, as it says in the Gospel of John: “For God so loved the world…”, which implies that He desires for all to come to the knowledge of the Truth, and that He calls many times. The issue is that many either don’t realize that He is calling, or that they take things for granted.
The first problem is our own sense of security in ourselves, or our pride, that we cling on to the illusion that we are in complete control of our lives (as we have seen before). We believe that we have complete control over our time here on this earth which is far away from reality. The Word teaches us the following: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” James 4:13-14. The truth is that our lives are very uncertain, and we neither have an idea nor control over anything in all reality. The only thing we do have control over is our own free will which we use many times to just do the desires of our pride or our ignorance, like ignore the fact that we are excessively small in a world that is completely not under human control. This may sound a little harsh, but it is only the truth.
The Bible teaches us that God gives us opportunities, and they may be many throughout the course of our lives. This is known as the “Grace of God”. If we see for a moment this short phrase, and its key word “grace”, we should understand that through God’s good pleasure is that He gives us these different opportunities of which the Scriptures counsel us as follows: “Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, ‘Today,’ after such a long time, as it has been said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.’” Hebrews 4:6-7. In other words, if the Lord is giving you the opportunity, and He again highlights “today”, that you should not harden your heart (which clearly illustrates free will, that it is not necessarily God the One who determines who gets saved or not, or that He determines when a person is saved).
I hope you are asking yourselves this, “when is this moment of God’s grace?” To be able to understand this, we need to understand something that is quite essential: The Word of God. The Word itself teaches us this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” John 1:1-4. The Word is Christ, which explains to us that the Word of God is a Person expressed in a language. When the Word of God appears in the scene of your life (per se), that is in fact when God is trying to speak to you in some way. God speaks through His Word. When you see verses of the Bible somewhere, or you hear them somewhere, that is God that is trying to reach out to you somehow. He is trying to share that life that can only be found and is Jesus, because again, He is the Word. As we just read, “In Him was life…”
As part of this call, when He calls you even more clearly, He sends a message that has to do with repentance and conversion. This is the complimentary foundation of the Gospel. It is not just about believing in Jesus as Lord only. This is what sound doctrine teaches us: “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’” Mark 1:14-15. And also, this: “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts 3:19. This is also what the Lord taught us: “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’’” John 3:3-7.
The Bible also warns us in the following manner: “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” Isaiah 55:6. God calls, and He many times insists, but there is a limit, a moment when that time can stop, and it may be much before you leave this place. Because we are also warned very clearly that sound doctrine will cease to be heard, that this message will end, and therefore, the opportunities may end, either individually, or as a group. Because the Word says this: “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” 2 Timothy 4:1-4. Today, we hear many fables, things that sound like the Truth, but they are not truth. They are undercover lies, even though people many times use Bible passages to substantiate them.
In the end, the time of salvation is today, not tomorrow or later, because now is when you are listening (or reading) something sound, and because you do not know what tomorrow may bring. If you don’t know the Lord yet personally, do it today. If you have strayed away from Him, the moment of repentance and conversion is today. God is speaking to you today! Do not leave for tomorrow what you should do today, and immediately. Will you take advantage of this opportunity the Lord’s grace gives, while He can still be found? Lord bless! John