Ambassadors of Christ
Daily Reading: (2 Corinthians 5:20): “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
There are many Christians who are not engaging in the ministry of reconciliation as an ambassador of Christ because no one ever told them what they are and they never studied out properly what this text is telling them. God had selected you and appointed you as Christ’s ambassador with a life changing message.
What is an ambassador exactly? Presbeuō in the Greek means to be an ambassador. An Ambassador is a person who acts as a representative or promoter of a specified activity. So all believers have been chosen to act as a representative of Jesus Christ with a specific activity in mind. What exactly does God have in mind for us or what exactly are we in our lives to be about? For far too long the church universal throughout the ages has at times misrepresented our identity and has promoted the wrong message. We have been more focused on what we are against then promoting the message of what we are for. We are ministers of reconciliation as the very ambassadors of Christ. Our churches should be the most reconciling, peaceable, happy places in town.
The message or the activity that we are to share it is right there in the text twice. First in the verse before this declaration of what we are (verse 19) and then right after it (same verse 20) just to reinforce it and make sure we understand it.
What is my role as an ambassador? Verse 19 and 20
“This is the message of Christ’s ambassadors: 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.”
And then…
“God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
If you are about anything other than this you are off mission as ambassador.
As Christ’s ambassadors- you are a minister of (katallagē): the restoration of the favor of God to sinners that repent and put their trust in the expiatory death of Christ.
Wherever God has placed you, whatever gifting He has given to you, it shall be used to tell others the good news of the Gospel of Jesus that in Christ there is favor with God forever.
Paul reinforces the supremacy of the ministry of reconciliation and the only thing he changes is he calls it a word or message of reconciliation (verse 19) instead of a ministry (verse 18). He uses the Greek word ‘Logos’. In chapter 1 of John, John identifies Christ as the Logos. What this means in this subtle shift is that the way we proclaim the favor of God (the ministry of reconciliation) is by proclaiming Christ as the reconciler and the only way to bring restoration in relationship with God our Father (2 Corinthians 5:19).
An ambassador is a representative. His message, his authority are given to him by his king.
What authority do we go out into the world on this reconciliation message with… the authority of Jesus, all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).