We are far removed from the time and people of the text in Acts 24:24-26. Felix, sitting on a throne represented all the vices of the Roman empire. Yet, as distant as all this may seem, he still has much in common with some people here today. His reply to Paul was that there was no convenient season for him to accept salvation. How sad! If there is no convenient season, what are the alternatives?
Everything has been already done. A man died. That man was Jesus Christ. He died for people like Felix. There are written instructions that existed for Felix at that time that are meant for us today. It’s called the Bible. In it are the very plain declarations that if we do not receive Christ into our hearts as Savior, we face an eternal damnation. This is not a declaration of a pious person. It is a warning from God’s own holy Word. As far as Felix was concerned his only recourse was reason. Some people fall back on their ability to use logic in comparison to spiritual matters. However, no amount of logic can decipher what to do about personal sin.
Something must be done yet. How often it is that a person gets the opportunity to face his spiritual destitution. We look at the sanctified mirror that says there’s nothing satisfactory truly about this world. Nothing is rewarding. Nothing is lasting. The Los Angeles firestorms are an example of this. All that mattered was to escape alive. People have said over and over that everything else is just things. How sad it is that we invest so much of ourselves in things that we neglect what really matters for all eternity.
Nothing can be done without man’s response to God’s invitation for salvation. Rationalizing or making excuses can only go so far. If you were standing before Jesus Christ himself this very next minute, what would you say to him that justifies the life that you have lived? It is not a matter of explaining away our sin. It is a matter of rejecting Jesus that is the issue. If we ask ourselves to go into a state of repentance, we are admitting ourselves into a necessary condition. Repentance is not a matter regretting certain behaviors. Repentance is a discarding of all that we have lived that is in rebellion to God’s Word. It is not merely that we regret doing something wrong. It is that we own the consequences as well that stands in rejection of God.
To not have a convenient season is to not have a season at all! What would make it possible to be convenient that a person would surrender their lifestyles of sin that is self-correcting to a holy God? What is it to be convenient anyway? The Christian life is not convenient. To live as a Christian is quite inconvenient. It is full of hazards. It contains demands beyond what a human would consider adding into their life. It is quite inconvenient to accept Christ as Savior. That is why it is so important to do so.
Christian Writer 