Isaiah 49:8
“Thus says the Lord: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you. And
in the day of salvation I have helped You:'”
which is repeated by Paul in 2Corinthians 6:2 as he continues this thought;
“Behold now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Now and then are the reasons for being saved, born again. I realize that many people resist the ‘born again’ designation but this is what happens. It’s far better than simply having your slate wiped cleaned, because with wiping the slate you still retain what and who you were. ‘Born again’ is best described in 2Corinthians 5, which tells us that we are a new creation – now!
Salvation brings with it so many gifts, opportunities, and most of all, a way to become who you have always been designed to be – a child of the King. Why would you hesitate? Now is much preferred over Then. You can live in Now, now which is far better than waiting till… then. But some still tend to wait. There appears to be two major reasons many people hesitate at accepting the gift of restoration by accepting in their lives Jesus as Lord. 1. you don’t believe, typically defined as what do you get and have to give up. 2. you are not ‘good enough’, whatever that means. Granted different words may be used but most excuses/reasons fall into one of those two areas.
To respond to the Second major reason first… the answer is that no one is ever ‘good enough’ nor can we, of ourselves, ever be or attain that status. Ephesians tells us that this new status has been prepared for us (chapter 2). Examples: “…made us alive together with Christ…” (v 5); “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” (v 8). Why? Because, “God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us.” (v 4) Just from only 3 scriptures we see: have been saved, gift of God, made us alive, prepared for us, etc. All these verbs are past tense. It’s been done and it’s our decision to accept.
The first reason is that we believe we have to ‘give up’ what we think is important to us. However, we never are asked to do this but we do find ourselves choosing to reject those ‘things’ that are harmful as we learn more about who we now are and Whose we are. Being saved is never a little thing. And once we begin to discover what we have been given as a result of accepting Jesus as Lord, we discover who we are now, such as gaining an inheritance (Ephesians 1:11, Romans 8:16-17, etc.) which tells us we gain all that Jesus appropriated for us – 1John 3:1-2, Romans 8:17. Simply, we begin by repenting and accepting Jesus as our personal Lord. This is the only way.
“There is no other name by which you are saved.” Acts 4:12
