As God’s partners, we beg you not to accept this marvellous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it. For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.
2 Corinthians 6:1-2
Wow, we are partners with God. But as I quoted Bob Gass yesterday, while we may be partners He is by far the senior partner. “Your salvation wasn’t a joint effort. You didn’t contribute a penny because you were spiritually bankrupt.” There is something deep in the human psyche that wants to earn salvation. You can’t earn it. It is a free gift. It is this marvellous gift Paul is referring to in the first verse of this new chapter. Oh yes, another new chapter but note how it relates to the old. I have told you often enough, make sure you connect up the pieces. Paul’s thought frequently transcends chapter boundaries. If we read the Bible chapter by chapter we will miss the inferences or the connections sandwiched between chapters.
Don’t ignore this marvelous gift. This gift of God’s grace. This massive gift which comes from the substitutionary work of Christ. He took your place, He took your sin, He bore the wrath of God for you. And in its place you gained HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. That is a huge exchange. Don’t ignore it. You can’t do anything else to add to your salvation. You can’t do anything else to add to Christ’s work. Remember He said at the cross – It is finished. The work of saving mankind is complete. You don’t need to do anything more – just accept it. Today! The right time is now. If you hear that inner voice talking to you, you know now where it is coming from. That inner man, that spiritual part of you which groans and longs for its release, its moment of coming alive again. Respond and free it from its inner envelope.
Isn’t it interesting that we think we can decide when we will respond. We can’t even do that. Just as we can’t add to our salvation by working it out, we don’t actually decide when we will accept God’s gift in Christ. I know that sounds strange. Surely we humans have free will and we have to decide for Christ, therefore I will decide when I accept Him. Wrong again. Read this –
“But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.”
John 1:12-13
Literally not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. It is not our human will or plan or decision which kicks starts salvation. It is God. It is His time. His prompting, His Spirit dealing with man’s inner being. If and when you hear His voice – respond. Don’t delay. Don’t put it off. You never know when the moment of His Spirit touching your spirit will come again. You are not the one in control, even though you think you are.
Let’s recap a little from chapter 5 and put it all together.
Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
2Corinthians 5:14-15
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
2Corinthians 5:17-21
Today could be the day of your salvation – if He is calling and you respond.
When life gets too hard to stand… Kneel (note the hard stuff that Paul lists in the verses that follow)
Pray! The shortest distance between a problem & a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor.
Craig Groeschel
Pride is when you take credit for what GRACE did for you.
Jose Carol