What does it mean that today is the day of salvation?

AS WE OPEN chapter 6, we find Paul making a personal application and an appeal to the Corinthians concerning these things. Paul and his companions were fellow-workers in connection with the ministry (the words, "with Him," are to be omitted); and they had faithfully brought the word whether of new covenant grace or of reconciliation, to the Corinthians. Now their beseeching was that the grace of the Gospel should not be received in vain by them. Grace is received in vain if it does not work out to its legitimate end and effect. In the epistle to Titus we are told how grace teaches us to live in a sober, righteous and godly way, and the Corinthians were very defective in these things; so the exhortation was needed by them, as also it is needed by us.

Verse 2 is parenthetical and in brackets. The first part of it is a quotation from Isaiah 49:8. The words quoted are addressed prophetically to the Messiah, who was to be rejected, and yet become a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth. In spite of His rejection He should be heard and helped of Jehovah; and the hour when He should be heard and helped would be the time accepted and the day of salvation. The latter part of the verse points out that we are living in that very hour. He has been heard in resurrection, and with His resurrection the day of salvation has begun. It will continue until the day of Judgment supervenes. That of course is the reason why grace has visited us at all. We are not to receive it in vain.

Now the important thing for us is to turn the grace of God to account. To receive it in vain means to profess to have received it and yet to be unaffected by it; like the seed sown among thorns or on the rock, it was fruitless. The apostle desired that the seed might prove to have fallen into good ground, so that there might be fruit. Where the grace of God is truly received there is always a response to it in the heart and life.

He draws their attention to the character of the present day. He says, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." This is the day when God is favourable to men. The literal application of the passage is to Christ, and the setting of it in the scripture is in connection with the world to come. That day will be in a very manifest way the accepted time and day of salvation, but the resurrection and glory of Christ has introduced it, and it is now testified of in the gospel. There is no public display of it yet, but faith can lay hold of it and anticipate the day in which it will be in world-wide display. This day, then, is the day of grace; grace is preached in the gospel and carries with it salvation for all. If it is the day of grace it is the day of salvation and the grace is not to be despised, the salvation is not to be neglected.

He beseeches the Corinthians as coworkers, in view of the ministry of reconciliation, not to receive this grace of God in vain. This is not a contradiction of the doctrine of the security of a true believer. The apostle evidently was uneasy about some of these Corinthian Christians and feared that some had not received the grace of God in their hearts. Their conduct led him to this questioning. If the grace of God comes to man it may be received in vain and lead not to the blessed results in quickening power and real salvation for which it is given. "The security of His children is unquestionable, not so much through their perseverance, as men say, but by His power through faith; but the Corinthians needed and received faithful entreaty, for their ways were not such as became the gospel. They were compromising His glory, who had called them to the fellowship of His Son; and the apostle instead of comforting them with the blessed assurance of the close of Romans 8, would here exercise conscience as well as affection in presence of God's grace" (William Kelly).

Interesting is the quotation from Isaiah 49. A careful examination of Isaiah 49:4-8 is suggested. It is a prophecy concerning the Messiah. His rejection by Israel is there predicted, and the words of the eighth verse, quoted here, "I have heard thee in a time accepted and in the day of salvation I have succored thee" are addressed to Christ, whom Israel rejected. God raised Him from the dead, and though Israel is not gathered, He becomes the power of salvation for the Gentiles. This is the meaning of "behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation." "Now" means this present dispensation when salvation is offered to the Gentiles. But grace rejected, neglected or perverted, as it is the case in this age in which grace reigns through righteousness, will bring judgment, followed by the blessings for Israel and the earth.

"We then, as fellow-workers," etc. (1.) Having declared his message in all its divine simplicity and fulness, he proceeds now, as his manner is (Rom. 12:1; Eph. 2:11; Col. 2:6, sq.), to press it on the hearts and consciences of those who read his words, in the language of solemn and fervent exhortation. And this he does as a fellow-worker, not only with his yoke-fellows in Christ, but with God whose minister he is, and who, whether in His own obedient Son, when fulfilling in the days of His flesh the will of Him that sent Him, or in those who now by His Spirit truly occupy for Him, is the doer of the works which He approves (John 14:11-12). Still speaking in Christ "as of sincerity and as of God" (ante, chap. 2:17), he seeks to stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance, lest haply any among those who boasted in the name of Christ at Corinth should seem to have received the grace of God in vain; lest the word before preached to them should, through lack of faith, have failed of its effect, and vain jangling and soul-deceiving questionings have supplanted in their hearts that love which is the true end of the commandment (1 Tim. 1:5, sq.; Heb. 4:1-2; 12:15). He would have them receive it with an understanding of its value, which should keep them steadfast in the profession of their hope (Matt. 13:23; Heb. 10:23), and not for vanity and continued ignorance of God (1 Cor. 15:34). His grace is absolute and freely offered; let our acceptance of it be sincere. It is the grace of God; let it lead those who claim its shelter to cease from man, and give themselves in heart and mind to Him (1 Peter 4:1-2).

Verse 2. "For He says," etc. In these words, which need not be read parenthetically, we have first a quotation from the prophet Isaiah, and then the Spirit's application of the prophecy to the present work of God. It is to Christ, as the despised of the people and abhorred of rulers, that this language is originally addressed. The whole passage is a magnificent prophetic anticipation of the facts which now characterize the existing dispensation. He has been heard in that He feared, and receives the promise of Israel's eventual blessing when the veil shall have been taken from their heart. He shall be given as a covenant to the people, etc. Meanwhile, He is heard in an acceptable time, and succoured in a day of salvation (Isa. 49:4-8). Raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, He becomes the power of salvation to the Gentiles, although Israel be not gathered. He is preached to the Gentiles, and believed on in the world (1 Tim. 3:16). This is the true force of the emphatic word "now." Israel's spiritual things are now ministered to men at large. Salvation is of the Jews, but their fall is the riches of the world (Rom. 11:12. Notes on Romans in loc.). The intercepted blessings therefore of Jerusalem fall, with additions of which no Jewish prophet was apprised (Eph. 3:5), into the lap of the Church, as the intermediate subject of the heavenly calling. Now, therefore, for the Gentile is the time of free acceptance, and now the day of salvation. But as the same witness has elsewhere (Rom. 11) warned us, that day, though long, is limited. The grace which still woos with such patient importunity the dull ear of the world will, if neglected or perverted to licentiousness, become the swift and inexorable judge of the despisers in the coming day (Heb. 2:3; Jude 4).

There is no need of supposing in this case that a promise to the Messiah included at the same time His people, though we see how strikingly this appears in the use made of Isaiah 50 by the apostle in Romans 8. Here the blessing to the Gentiles is expressly mentioned, so that it seems more akin to James's use of Amos 9:11-12, in Acts 15. And this is confirmed, it would appear, by the fact that the apostle breaks forth into a strong expression of the grace God is now showing, surpassing as it does the actual fulfilment in the days of the kingdom, when the earth shall be raised and the desolate heritage is enjoyed; when the prisoners shall go forth and those in darkness show themselves; when hunger and thirst shall be no more, and heat and sun shall not smite, but the merciful Jehovah shall guide even by the springs of waters; when the mountains shall be made a way, and the scattered return from every quarter under heaven; when the heavens themselves shall sing and the earth be joyful in Jehovah's mercy and comfort for His afflicted people. Yet in presence of such an anticipation, bright as it was in the apostle's heart, there shone a light brighter by far in Him who is exalted into a new and higher glory at God's right hand, which leads him to say, "Behold now a right acceptable season, behold now a day of salvation:" words suggested by the prophecy, but designedly rising above them in strength as expressive of God's present display of grace in the gospel.

Again in verse 8 we have the voice of Jehovah. The humbled Servant whom men would not hear has been heard by Him, helped and lifted up. And this has come to pass in "an acceptable time," and in "a day of salvation." The significance of this may have been lost on Old Testament readers, but the Apostle Paul seized upon it in 2 Corinthians 6:2. The rejection of the Messiah, foretold in verse 7 would result in His death and He would be "heard" and "helped" by resurrection from the dead, and this was to inaugurate the "acceptable time" and the "day of salvation."

Almost exactly nineteen centuries ago Paul reminded the Corinthian saints that they were living in that wonderful epoch: it was NOW. The epoch of grace and salvation still persists. It is still NOW. May we all be stirred to evangelise, remembering that it may not last much longer.

We have still, as all through here, the apostle himself the witness of the trial and in the trial. It is really that he is an example, by way of eminence, of that which still applies to all the people of God. Otherwise, the example would be no example. There would be nothing for us, at least, except a mere ability given to admire in another what would have no meaning for one's self. The life of the apostle, indeed, in all its suffering, may seem very little suited as an example for us in the days that we are fallen upon, days which are none the better indeed for this, and which give the trial in many respects another character. Still the principles remain all the way through, and God's way is to give us principles, the application of which appeals to us for the needed faithfulness to carry out. Joining his fellow workers with himself, the apostle beseeches that the grace of God exhibited in his message may not be received in vain; for indeed now was the time accepted of which God before had spoken, for He had said: "I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in a day of salvation I have succored thee." Now is the time characterized pre-eminently in this way. Its character as a whole, not exceptionally or occasionally, is that of a well accepted time, a day of salvation.

The message of reconciliation having been received by the Corinthians, now the Lord's servants, as fellow-workmen in unity, had further entreaty to make of them. Their profession of faith would be tested, as to whether they had received the grace of God in its living reality, or "in vain." From verses 3 to 10 we shall see that the apostles were severely tested as to the reality of their message: let those who accept the message consider this. Does grace mean as much to the Corinthians as it evidently did to these servants?

Verse 2 is a parenthesis, showing the grace of God fully available at this very time: now therefore is the time to take full advantage of it. This is the very character of this dispensation of God: it is "a time accepted," and "the day of salvation." It is only right then to fully receive its blessing, and fully respond to it.

Since the beginning of the world there never has been such a day as the present, nor indeed shall there ever be such a dispensation again. It is spoken of as “the accepted time” and “the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). It is the day in which God presents Himself to men as the Saviour of the lost. It is the day in which His gracious interposition on our behalf is testified of to the whole world. The day in which He declares that His desire is that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. In grace and love He has intervened on behalf of all men universally. Such a day of privilege for man never was before and never shall be again.

This salvation is infinitely greater than that which was accorded to Israel, when by the hand of Moses He brought them out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage, purposing to bring them into the land of promise, in order that they might serve Him as a free people. That salvation was but temporal, and the great mass of those saved out of the hand of the taskmaster Pharaoh never reached the purpose of God for them. Their carcasses fell in the wilderness on account of their transgressions. And even the generation which was eventually brought into the land were driven out again for their idolatrous practices, and today their descendants are scattered over the whole earth under the government of God, on account of their rejection of the Messiah. But the salvation which is brought to light today, and which is preached in the gospel of the grace of God, is said to be “in Christ” (2 Tim. 2:10), and “eternal” (Heb. 5:9). It is not an outward, earthly deliverance from a carnal bondage, but it is the emancipation of the soul from the fear of death, and from the devil, the world, the flesh, and every spiritual foe that held the soul in captivity away from God. It is a salvation which is not yet revealed, but which shall come to light at the appearing of Jesus Christ, when all those who have by faith received it will come with Him in the clouds of heaven.

God offers to save you on the spot. Sometimes people will tell you they are waiting for God’s time. They cannot do that. It is an impossibility. If God promised to save you five minutes hence you could wait God’s time, but when He says, “NOW is the accepted time,” you cannot wait for NOW. Oh! that the loving importunity of a Saviour-God would lead to a wise and instant decision.

And I will tell you why “Now is the day of salvation.” Because the Saviour has died. Because the work of salvation has been gloriously and perfectly accomplished—the work whereby God can in righteous grace save the vilest sinner who puts his trust in Jesus.

Just as in the parable the servants were instructed by the King to say, “My oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage,” so we, as servants of God, can say, Jesus has died, atonement has been made, all things are now ready, come and trust the Saviour. You will find that if you accept God’s time and offer He will accept you, for did not Jesus say, “Him that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out”? If you make NOW your day of salvation, and “died tonight,” in old Ann’s graphic words, you would be in heaven tomorrow,” ay, sooner than that, for did not the Saviour say to the dying thief, “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise”?