March 23

Now is the Accepted Time

He hath anointed me ... to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. — Luke 4:18-19

Then there must a be a year or a time which is not the “acceptable year.” We know that this “acceptable year” closed for the Jewish nation when they nailed their Messiah on the cross. They were doomed from that hour.

For a number of years things went on as before. There was a measure of prosperity. Their city stood in its splendour, and the people dwelt in their homes in some degree of peace. But the day of their merciful visitation ended forever when they finally rejected Christ. When Jesus stood on Olivet and looked down upon the city and wept over it, and said, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes” — when He spoke these words amid the rush of tears, the “acceptable year” closed. After that the doom hung over the beautiful city which in a few years burst upon it in all its woe and terribleness.

This is history, but there is another way to look at this matter. There is an “acceptable year” for each soul. It begins when Christ first comes to us and offers salvation. It continues while He still stands at our door and knocks. It closes when we drive Him away from our door by utter and final rejection, or when death comes and hurries us away for ever from the world of mercy.

This “acceptable year” to each one is now.

Has the reader of these words closed with the mercy and love of Christ? If he has, he knows the preciousness of the “acceptable year of the Lord.” If he has not, let him remember that the “accepted time” will soon close. In another place it is called a day, “the day of salvation.” A day is short, and when the time of its setting draws on, no power in the universe can prolong it one moment. It would be a fearful thing were the accepted time to end and leave us not saved.