(1) We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (2) (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
This Chapter opens with an address to the Church, on the kind reception of the services of Paul, and his companions in the ministry. He calls them workers together; that is, fellow laborers, in the word, and doctrine. But the words with him, are not in the original. Some have thought, and properly thought, that they ought not to be there.
The ministers sent by the Holy Ghost to preach the word, can hardly be called workers together with Him. It is too high an honor. Neither is it correct. For although the Lord speaks in his word, and by his word, in the labors of those servants he sends; yet the word is wholly his, the work his, and the sole glory his. It is always best, in order to hide pride from the eyes, to lay low in the dust before God. And Paul had too humble an opinion of himself to make use of the phrase in any way of self-importance.
But, leaving the consideration of this part of the subject in this verse, to those of the ministry, whom it more immediately concerns; it will be more suited to the purpose of a Poor Man's Commentary, to enquire into the meaning of the Apostle's words, when he saith: we beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. Paul could not be supposed, by this expression, to imply the possibility of receiving the graces of God the Holy Ghost, in his Almighty work on the soul, in vain. When God the Holy Ghost regenerates a child of God, and quickens the soul which was before dead in trespasses and sins; the spiritual life the Lord the Spirit then gives, can never die. This, his sovereign act, is equal to the gift of the Father, in choosing, and the grace of the Son, in redeeming; and which brings the child of God into a life-being of apprehension, to all the blessings of the Covenant. He is then made a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, 2 Peter 1:3-4. He is then born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, 1 Peter 1:23. A child of God, therefore, cannot receive this grace of God in vain; for it hath no one dependence whatever upon any act of his own. In the new-birth of grace, as much as the birth of nature, the receiver of the mercy hath no agency in the deed. They that are born again, are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, John 1:13. But the outward means of grace may be administered, and even God's children, from the remains of indwelling corruption, and the powers of Satan, and the cares of the world, too often receive them with the ear, while the heart, is for a time, uninterested in them. The Church of old, is described in this state, from a sleepy frame into which she had fallen; and out of which, Jesus roused her. See Song of Solomon 5:2 and the Poor Man's Commentary upon it. Reader! it is blessed, when a child of God is kept alive by inward grace, in the use of outward means;, that the administration of the word, and ordinances, may never be barren, and unprofitable.
The blessed words which follow, in the former part of them; for he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: these are not Paul's words, but God the Father's words to his dear Son, as Mediator. In Isaiah's prophesy, Isaiah 49:8, we have them recorded. They form a part, of what God the Holy Ghost hath been pleased to inform the church, concerning the gracious transactions which took place between the Almighty Persons of the Godhead, in relation to the Church, before all worlds. The Reader will do well to read the whole Chapter, for it is most blessed. But the words Paul quotes in this place, are chosen by him to shew, that during the whole time-state of Christ upon earth, Jehovah heard him, and succoured him, and accepted him, for his Church and People. This, therefore, might well be called the accepted time. In another Scripture, it is called the acceptable year of the Lord, Isaiah 61:2 with Luke 4:19. And elsewhere, Jesus by the spirit of prophecy stiles it, the year of my redeemed, Isaiah 63:4. And truly it was an accepted time for the Church in Christ, when the Person, blood-shedding, sufferings, obedience, and death, of Christ, was accepted, for the everlasting salvation of his People. But the words Which follow, are the words of the Apostle. Behold! now is the accepted time! Behold, now is the day of salvation! The Apostle, under God the Holy Ghost, very blessedly makes this conclusion, for the joy, and encouragement of the Church. For as in the day of Christ upon earth, this was the day for his accomplishing salvation, and which he most effectually did, by the sacrifice of himself: so now, during the time-state of the Church upon the earth, and the time-state of every individual of the Church, this is the accepted time, and the day of salvation; in which God the Father's everlasting love, in the choice of each child of God in Christ, is proved: an interest, and union, and oneness with Christ, as Christ, is discovered; and the quickening, regenerating, renewing, and sealing grace of God the Holy Ghost, is felt, and enjoyed; when the Lord by his sovereignty, makes the souls of the redeemed willing, in the day of his power. And this now, the Apostle speaks of, and dwells upon, is not a limited now, as some, to their own souls distresses, and to the distresses of others, have supposed, as if a poor sinner's receiving grace depended upon his receiving it now, which may be refused to him tomorrow: which would be making God's grace depend upon man's will; and the Omnipotency of the Lord rest, for accomplishment, upon the sovereign pleasure of man. But the now the Apostle speaks of, is a now, which to the Church at large, continues, as long as the world shall continue; and to every individual of the Church, as long as that individual shall continue in his present time state. For it must remain, until all the redeemed, for whom Christ died, are brought in. All that the Father giveth me, said Jesus, shall come to me, John 6:37. And the accepted time is not the time of man's appointing, but the Lord's. The now of God, is the day, when God makes willing, Psalms 110:3. The laborers in the vineyard called at the eleventh hour, never had the now, until that eleventh hour. The thief on the cross knew nothing of the day of salvation, but in the moment of death. Reader! there is always to the child of God the accepted time, when God's time comes. And every child of God finds, that the blessed now, when the fulness of time is come, and He who first sent forth his Son to redeem, sends forth His Son to redeem, sends forth the Spirit of his Son into the hearts of his redeemed, to quicken, whereby they cry Abba, Father! Galatians 4:6.