Now Is the Time

We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says,

"In the time of my favor I heard you,

  and in the day of salvation I helped you."

I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)

Implore. Urge. Now is the time. Is there a better time? What could keep us waiting? It is clear that God has not changed. His heart has always been for each of us and all of us. So what are we waiting for?

Maybe all we want is forgiveness. All we want is to be let off the hook. Really at the heart of that "forgiveness" is the desire to be rid of God, just to get him off our backs. The forgiveness that God offers is for reconciliation. It is to make things right between us. As a lexicon puts it: "to reestablish proper friendly interpersonal relations after these have been disrupted or broken." God does not want to just make us right and merely obedient; he wants to live with each and every one of us in a paradise where we can work and walk with him in the "cool of the day," just like old times.

This reconciliation goes even further. God would have us become his very own righteousness. He wants to re-form us into all that is so right and so good about God: becoming like Christ, full of love, joy, peace, hope, and faith. He wants to be with us and in us so that we might enter into "an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands," be "clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." (2 Corinthians 5:1,4) We will become all that we are supposed to be.

The day of salvation is today, not only after we leave these bodies ("tents"). Eternal life is a conversational relationship with the only true God and with Jesus Christ whom he sent. (John 17:3) Eternal life is the same thing as the abundant life promised by Jesus (John 10:10). Eternal life can start now and continue on forever. . . or not. Salvation is not merely an experience, but a whole string of experiences stretching into eternity. Salvation is a life or it is nothing at all.

What is it like to receive something in vain? It would be like taking a gift that someone gave you and putting it into permanent storage or even throwing it away. It would be like receiving an education and forgetting all that you learned or even undermining it in all you do. It would be like finding a treasure and keeping safe, but never investing or spending it. Is it possible for God's reconciliation to be shelved, forgotten, and left unspent? Tragically, it happens all the time.

Put simply, we may just not really want God or a relationship with him. We may want his favor and his gifts, but what Jesus really came to give was reconciliation. A relationship put right. Those who work with God try to make this opportunity known, as God has always been doing, holding open his arms, holding out his hands. He calls out to you, "Come home from that distant land. Follow me and learn me. Be filled with the kind of Spirit and life I have." "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17) What are you waiting for?

The Nature of Abundant, Eternal Life

Looking upon Evangelist very carefully, [Christian] said, "Whither must I fly?"  

Then said Evangelist, pointing with his finger over a very wide field, "Do you see yonder wicket-gate?" 

The man said, "No." 

Then said the other, "Do you see yonder shining light?"  

He said, "I think I do." 

Then said Evangelist, "Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto: so shalt thou see the gate; at which, when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do." 

So I saw in my dream that the man began to run. . . .  The man put his fingers in his ears, and ran on, crying, "Life! life! eternal life!"  So he looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the plain.  

Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim's Progress

As we journey into the light (or run as Christian did), we will find the gate to life before us.  We may not fully or even partly understand at first, but the light of God's revelation leads us to that life.  The gate is Christ himself.

Christian meets Interpreter later, who communicates some of the nature of eternal, abundant life.  On Monday, I realized a few things about the nature of that life as I went through some readings the The Path to Life prayer book from Renovare.

First, I remembered the substance of that life.  Jesus Christ is the path to life.  John reports this from Jesus' prayer: "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."  (John 17:3)  This is what this additional life given to us is made of.

Now some of the attributes of that life are explained in the book.  Where abundant, eternal life is, these attributes will be found:

• a prayer-filled life, in which we enjoy the intimacy of our Father's presence;
• a virtuous life, in which our every act and word becomes more expressive of God's love;
• a Spirit-empowered life, in which we offer our spiritual gifts for the common good;
• a compassionate life, in which we seek the peace and love of God in community;
• a Word-centered life, in which we are immersed in the fathomless depths of Scripture; and
• a sacramental life, in which we discover the everyday world around us to be infused with God.

The substance of the "fleshly," carnal, earthly, or merely natural life would be in opposition to the abundant life Jesus promised.  So the substance of it is that self-gratification is the path to life.  "Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things."  (Philippians 3:19)  The attributes of such a life might be as follows:

• a prayer-less life, in which God is distant and only fear of his wrath is experienced;
• a life of self-indulgence, in which our every act and word becomes more expressive of how much we value ourselves and our pleasures;
• a flesh-empowered life, in which we count on our own abilities and ingenuity to get us through life;
• a life in the rat race, in which we seek to come out on top whatever the cost;
• a mind-darkened life, in which our minds are ruled by our desires and we cannot fathom what the truth might be; and
• a  meaningless life, in which we discover the everyday world around us to be merely an accident going nowhere.

Of course, you can fill in the blanks yourself.  I think it may be a good exercise in counting the cost.  We need to count the cost of following Christ, but we also need to count the cost of not following Christ.

Also, meditating on aspects of the abundant, eternal life can lead to the question, "Is this really what I want?"  If not, we need not panic, but we do have to come to a place where we want to want it.  Then Jesus can step in and help us, as he must.

We cannot have both.  Being still before God and waiting on him requires that we in some sense turn ourselves over to him as our King and Master.  We cannot have two masters.

So we gather to honor King Jesus.  We honor him most by seeking his kingdom, his rule, his oversight in our lives and minding him, setting him always before us.  We begin with fits and starts, but he leads us onward by his power and kindness.  What we cannot do is stay where we are now.  The life is a pilgrimage, not a tour.  But that can be a relief because don't we actually want to get somewhere?

May the Lord lead you kindly this week from life into life and out of darkness.

(A letter to our Spiritual Formation group)