What Day Is It?

for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—  2 Corinthians 6:2 NASB

Now– This citation in Paul’s letter is often used to underscore the immediacy of the salvation message. “Turn back to God now, before it’s too late.  Repent and be saved,” is the way it’s often handled. Perhaps Paul did want to press the urgency of his words to the wayward Corinthian believers.  But the passage he cites really isn’t about “getting saved” at all.  It comes from Isaiah:

Thus says the Lord, “In a favorable time I have answered You, and in a day of salvation I have helped You; and I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people, to restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages;  (Isaiah 49:8).

As you will conclude from the deliberately capitalized pronouns, this passage is about the Servant of the Lord, the Messiah, according to prophetic interpretation.  It’s capitalized in the NASB because of the doctrinal influence of the Trinity, but, of course, it isn’t capitalized in the Hebrew and it doesn’t necessarily require a Trinitarian exegesis.  But I digress.  What I want to highlight is the sense of urgency.  Paul’s use of Isaiah’s words makes this point: whatever needs to be done needs to be done now.

The Greek term is nýn.  A lot can be said about this word concerning temporality.  Its range extends from past to future, from delineated periods to pregnant moments, but here Paul uses it to express an appointed time for action, a slice in the flow of human existence that requires immediate attention. And now (nýn) that we know this, we need to notice something else. “Now” doesn’t apply only to salvation.  In fact, we probably misapply the Isaiah comment if we limit it to a moment of divine rescue.

Here’s what I mean:  “All the unkept promises if they are ever to be kept have to be kept today.  All the unspoken words if you do not speak them today will never be spoken. The people, the ones you love and the ones who bore you to death, all the life you have in you to live with them, if you do not live it with them today will never be lived.  It is the first day because it has never been before and the last day because it will never be again.  Be alive if you can all through this day today of your life.  What’s to be done? What’s to be done?”[1]

Maybe “salvation” begins with doing “now” what needs to be done, not for some eternity but for today.  This is the only day that what you need to do can be done.  So, do it—nýn.

Topical Index: nýn, now, Isaiah 49:8, 2 Corinthians 6:2

[1]Frederick Buechner, Listening to Your Life(HarperOne, 1992), p. 89.