2 Corinthians 5
By Pastor Steve
Ambassadors
I have always loved 2 Corinthians chapter 5. It is filled with great encouragement and instruction. It reminds us that without reconciliation as a way of life, people will struggle to live in harmony. It teaches us that when we observe people from a worldly point of view, we are unable to recognize the new creation that Jesus instills in the sole of humanity. It provides us with the truth that the love of Christ in our lives should be a compelling motivation to live beyond what is merely human and tap into the power that Jesus provides. Paul said it this way:
“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!”
Although all of this is awesome teaching concerning how we are to live for Christ, Paul takes this tutoring a step further when he discusses our responsibility to be ambassadors for Christ. One of the definitions of an ambassador is to be “an authorized agent or messenger.” This means that the individual who is representing Christ is the person who literally brings the message of God’s love to people who are longing for love and acceptance. It is no wonder that Paul preceded some of this ambassador talk teaching us that we need to live life from a spiritual point of view and not a mere human perspective.
Right after Paul stated that people who are in Christ become a new creation he said: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”
As ambassadors and ministers of reconciliation we do not have the right to hold people’s sins against them. Jesus finished the work of total reconciliation when He willingly offered Himself for the sin of humanity. All we are required to do as His ambassadors is to carry that message to the world so they can experience forgiveness from a human standpoint and understand forgiveness from a spiritual point of view through our lives.
Remember—God is making His appeal through your life!
