The Acceptable Time

Some people will say the reason they are not Christians is that it is just not their time yet. They don’t think they are ready.

That would be like someone who is drowning in the middle of the ocean saying to the lifeguard, “I am not ready yet.” What part of dead do they not understand? I would say that if you are drowning, then you are ready for salvation.

Unbelievers are in a worse state than a person who is drowning, because they are separated from God by their sin. If they are wondering when they should come to Jesus Christ, the time is right now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next month. It’s right now. God says, “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

This is the acceptable time. We don’t know how long it will last. There is coming a day when Jesus Christ will return to this earth for His people. There is coming a day when He will catch all true believers up into Heaven with Him. We call it the rapture of the church. It is that moment that we look forward to as Christians, when we will go to be with the Lord. It is described in Scripture as happening “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52).

Now is the time when God is looking in grace upon those who are separated from Him by sin, and the gospel is going out to them. Now is the day of salvation.