#DailyDevotion Now, Today Is The Day Of Salvation
2 Cor. 6:1-2 As men who are working with God we plead with you: Don’t let God’s grace be wasted on you. 2He says: At a favorable time I have heard you; On the day of salvation I have helped you. Look, now is the favorable time. Look, now is the day of salvation.
Paul had just told the Corinthians how God had reconciled thems to himself through the offering of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ for their sin, make peace between them. The Father made Jesus become sin so they could become the righteousness of God. It is this grace Paul appeals to them to not waste. He then quotes in part Isaiah 49 which I quote more fully: The LORD says: “When the time comes to be kind, I will answer 8You; when the time comes to save, I will help You. I will protect You and give You to be the Covenant of the people, to restore the country, to allot again the possessions that have been laid waste. 9I will say to prisoners, Come out, and to those who are in the dark, ‘Show yourselves.’ They will feed on all the mountains and find their pasture on all the bare hills: 10 They will not be hungry or thirsty, nor will the hot wind or the sun strike them, because He Who is kind to them will lead them and bring them to springs of water. 11I will make all My mountains a road, and My roads will be high. 12Look, some of them are coming from far away, others from the north and the west, and others from the land of Sinim.”
Jesus is the one who is the Covenant of the people by becoming the sin offering. His incarnation, life, death, resurrection is the time to be kind and the time to save. The Corinthians and we are the prisoners who are told to come out. The promises then surrounding these are the kingdom of God which we are waiting to be made manifest. We look forward to the day when we will no longer be hungry or thirsty, when the sun and hot wind no longer scorch us. Even now we are being gathered into his kingdom from the four corners of the earth and on that day we will be called out of the graves into the New Jerusalem.
Don’t let this grace be wasted on you by going back to your life of sin. Don’t let it be wasted on you by turning your back on the LORD and his Church and returning to the ways of this world. You may think you think you have forever. You have now. You have today. No other time is promised to you for the LORD’s salvation in Jesus Christ. Today is the day the LORD Jesus Christ helps you. Every today and every now the LORD’s grace is given to you through his word to be free from sin and the fear of death. Make use of this grace and believe in Jesus. Trust Jesus has reconciled you to the Father. Believe his righteousness has been given to you. As God makes the opportunity make this grace known to those around you so they too can rejoice in the now, in the today of the LORD Jesus Christ’s salvation. We now are called to be gracious and merciful to others as the LORD Jesus and the Father have been gracious and merciful to you, especially to those are your enemies. You were once an enemy of God too. But he brought you the good news of Jesus Christ from someone else and made you his friend.
Heavenly Father, have mercy on us today for the sake of Jesus Christ and give us faith in all that he has done for us that your grace would not be wasted on us but rather we give that grace away to others as you give us opportunity to do so. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.