As we will see, the Bible provides many invitations to live in the here-and now. But in 2 Corinthians 6:2, Paul gathers them all up in one exclamation, “Now is the day of salvation!”
Before we journey through the particulars, we need to see the big picture, and it is an important one, to be sure: right now is the only time we have to live. If we see this, life opens up in amazing ways. If we do not recognize this, we will always be looking for life somewhere else.
Paul uses the strongest of terms to try to get us to see this: salvation. Now is the day of ‘salvation.’ He is not referring directly to salvation in Christ, but rather he is using the word in its general sense: wholeness. Now, right now is the only time we have to be made whole and to live abundantly. Yesterday is past, tomorrow has not yet come.
But today is here. The defining moment, the transforming moment, the life-giving moment is the present moment. See this, and live as God intends. Fail to see this and life will never be what God wills it to be for each of us. That’s what Paul is saying–“now is the day of salvation”–the day to live, to grow, to serve.
Jesus laid the foundation for this when he told us not to look back (Luke 9:62), and when he told us not to concentrate on tomorrow (Matthew 6:34). Why? Because the Kingdom of God is “at hand” (Matthew 4:17). It is here-and-now.
The most amazing news is that in the present moment God has given us all we need to live abundantly, which is exactly what Jesus said he came to give us (John 10:10). We will spend this year seeing how living abundantly, living here-and-now, is a many-splendored thing–how ‘now’ is indeed a day of salvation.
Oboedire 