Now Is the Day of Salvation

In one paragraph

Pastor Billy opened with a personal story about his high school English teacher, Miss Margie Palmer, and used her classroom and her demands to frame the core message of 2 Corinthians 5:17-6:2. The sermon pressed on one question: when will you bow the knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? Today, he said, is the day. Miss Margie Palmer taught English at Harris County High School for decades....

Read together

1. 2 Corinthians 5:17 anyone in Christ is a new creation, old things passed away, all things become new
2. 2 Corinthians 5:18 all things are of God who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation
3. 2 Corinthians 5:19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing trespasses, committing to us the word of reconciliation
4. 2 Corinthians 5:20 we are ambassadors for Christ, God pleading through us, imploring people to be reconciled to God
5. 2 Corinthians 5:21 God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him
6. 2 Corinthians 6:1 as workers together with him, pleading not to receive the grace of God in vain
7. 2 Corinthians 6:2 now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation
8. Isaiah 49:8 messianic passage quoted by Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:2 about the acceptable time and day of salvation
9. Isaiah 45:23 God swearing by himself that every knee shall bow and every tongue swear allegiance
10. Philippians 2:9-11 God highly exalted Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord

Talk about it

1. Jonathan Edwards wrote that natural men have 'no refuge, nothing to take hold of,' and that only God's forbearance keeps them from judgment. How does that kind of preaching sit with you, and what do you think is its place alongside the message of reconciliation Paul gives in 2 Corinthians 5?
2. Pastor Billy described the passage from 2 Corinthians 5:17 as having two tenses working together: the old things passed away once, at the cross, while the new things 'have become new' in a way that carries continuous effects into eternity. What difference does it make to you personally that the new creation is not just a past event but an ongoing reality?
3. Paul writes that God 'was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them,' and then immediately says He has given us the ministry of reconciliation. In what practical ways do you see yourself as an ambassador carrying that message, and where does it feel hardest to do that?
4. Pastor Billy used the story of not having memorized the Hamlet soliloquy to illustrate that reciting it perfectly after the teacher called on him still earned a zero, because the moment had already passed. How does that picture help you think about the urgency in Paul's words, 'Behold, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation'?
5. Philippians 2 says every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and Pastor Billy asked whether we will do that in this life or wait until we are standing before God. What does it look like, day to day, to live as someone who has already bowed the knee willingly?