AN OPEN INVITATION

 

Revelation 3:20

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

                I recently received my invitation to get my COVID vaccine, which I accepted. Tomorrow I will finish the process by getting my second shot. Right now, those invitations are going out to only a select group of people, but soon they will be extended to everyone. Everyone who says yes to the invitation will get the vaccine. Those who say no will remain unprotected.

                Until Jesus came, the invitation to enter into a covenant relationship with God was basically restricted to the people of Israel. They were the chosen people of God. They were given the Law and invited to place their full trust in Jehovah. When Jesus came into the world, the invitation to enter into a covenant relationship with God was extended to all people. In fact, Jesus made it very clear that He expected His followers to announce this invitation far and wide.

Matthew 28:19-20

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Acts 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

                This is the good news of the Gospel. The invitation is open to all who will receive it. We have the opportunity to enter into an eternal relationship with the living God. It has been offered to all as a free gift. It is not something we deserve or can earn, but we can receive it by faith.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast.

                By receiving this gift, we move into a new reality. We move from exclusion to inclusion, from hopelessness to hope, from despair to joy, from being abandoned to being accepted. We are embraced by the love, grace, and mercy of God. We have the chance to exchange the uncertainty of life for the certainty of life eternal.

Ephesians 2:12-13

…remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

 1 Peter 2:10

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

                Many people are waiting for their invitation to get the COVID vaccine. But no one has to wait for their invitation to enter into eternal life through Christ Jesus. The invitation has already been extended. All it takes from you is to say yes.

Acts 2:21

And everyone who calls

on the name of the Lord will be saved.'