Behold Now!

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

—2 Corinthians 6:2

There will never be a better time to come to Christ for salvation than now. For now — today — is the day of salvation.

How important it is to come to grips with the reality that you never have tomorrow, and that the tomorrow that you think you have you may not see.

But you do have now!

You have right now, to go to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, He is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and He is at the right hand of God enthroned as Savior.

He has said “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). That invitation is open and now is the day to go to Him.

How can you go?

The Bible calls it the obedience of faith.

The Scripture declares that the Gospel of Christ is “the power of God to everyone that believeth”, and the obedience of faith is to believe the Gospel.

What is that Gospel?

The Apostle Paul was sent by our Lord as a sinner saved by sovereign grace. Indeed, he says of himself that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15).

He goes on to say:

“Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting” (1 Timothy 1:16).

That pattern is sinners saved by grace through believing the gospel. The same Apostle Paul declares to the Corinthian saints a reminder of the gospel by which they, and all who hereafter believe in will be saved:

1 Corinthians 15:1–4 — “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures…”

This is a true message, a message delivered by God, by which the worst of sinners will be saved from sin’s dominion and power, and also ultimately from the second death which is the lake of fire. That is the destination of all apart from Christ, but if you go to Him in faith He will not cast you out!

Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead. That is the simplicity of the gospel, but that is THE GOSPEL, by which all who believe it are saved, eternally!

But don’t go to Him on the merits of your worthiness. Your worthiness is no good. You have been declared guilty:

Romans 3:10, 19–20, 23 — “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: … Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. … For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God…”

Read that in your Bible. You stand condemned in yourself and whatever you think that you can bring to the table.

“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

When you stand before Him having believed this wonderful truth of the Gospel, you are justified, and as a result of that justification you have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

But the time is now — behold now is the day of salvation. Obey God through belief in His Gospel of Christ today.

There is also another aspect of this “behold now” that we must understand:

The now that we live in is the day of salvation.

One day it will be “the great and terrible day of the LORD”, and day of great judgment. It is called also, “the great day of His wrath” (Revelation 6:17). That is not the day of salvation, for He will come then to judge and make war, and to smite the nations. But we do have today!!

What will we do with today?

God is reconciling the world to Himself through Christ, and God through His apostle Paul declares how that reconciliation takes place:

2 Corinthians 5:21 — “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

Christ became our sin so that we could become His righteousness. We can now be reconciled, but BEHOLD NOW!

Now is the accepted time. In the world’s history and in your personal history, now is the accepted time.

You may never have another chance, and there will come a time when there will be no chance. Judgment will come, but you need not stand before the righteous Judge on His throne having nothing but your sin. You can come to Him as Savior.

You can come to Him NOW while He is reconciling the world to Himself. Come to Him by the cross. He has accomplished all that is necessary to save you!

Behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation!