“Thus saith the Lord, ‘In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee.” Isaiah 49:8
In Psalm 69, the Psalmist speaks of “an acceptable time,” as that point at which the Lord, in His wisdom and mercy, God answers his prayer. The important point with regard to this “acceptable time” has to do with the matter of God’s intervention, the revelation of his salvation, His power and glory. In the book of Isaiah, we find written what the Lord Jesus will refer to at the beginning of His ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because He hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek.” (Is. 61:1) The Lord, in Isaiah, goes on to say, “…to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.” (v.2) What does He mean by “the acceptable year?” To answer this we must see the difference between this “year” and the “day of vengeance.” One is a period much longer than the other, but when the shorter of the two occurs, it is sudden and final. The mention of a “day” as opposed to a year, brings not only intense scrutiny with regard to the working of God, and its importance, but also of the importance of the period leading up to it. The body of Christ, in this church age, is in that period of the “acceptable year,” which precedes the “day of vengeance.” What then is to be the attitude of the believer, faced with such a great salvation, and all the promises of God concerning that salvation. The Apostle Paul brings these great truths together in his second letter to the Corinthians. He is writing to the Corinthian believers concerning the fact that they should not receive the grace of God in vain. What does he mean by this? When Israel was brought out of Egypt by the might, and strong hand of God, God had given to her great commandments, but also, great promises. Her adherence to the commandments would put her in a position to receive the benefits of God’s salvation, not just with regard to being delivered from Egypt, but entering into the promised land, there to see and know the glory of God, and to know the blessing of God. Through Moses, God would command Israel, to go and possess the land of promise. Through Joshua that conquest would occur, the whole of it based upon the promises of God, the God of the present moment. The promises dealt with the victory over their enemies, and the possession of the land. For Israel, after forty years of wandering in the desert, the “acceptable time” had come for her to go up to possess the land. The “year” had begun, in essence, to possess the land. For the church, Paul goes a step further, and this because of the greatness of the salvation that is consistently, irrevocably hers in Christ. He writes: “I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2) To receive the grace of God in vain, is not to respond wholly to the opportunity at hand to glorify God. It means that the vision has been lost or obscured with regard to the greatness of the salvation in Christ, the victory that is ours. The abounding grace of God is available to the believer TODAY, to respond in faith, and commitment, to follow Christ wholly. How is this to be applied to our lives?
Paul wrote in another passage to the Corinthian believers of the fact that he was running a race. To Timothy, he would speak of fighting a fight. He would write to the Colossians of walking worthy of the Lord. In all of these pictures, all possible by individually abiding in Christ, the believer, like Paul is to seek earnestly to apprehend that for which he has been apprehended by Christ.
Dear Father, Give us abounding grace in this day of salvation, to appropriate Christ consistently and fully. In Jesus’ name, Amen.