We are Ambassadors for Christ

“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

Those who met Jesus were eternally changed. The man born blind. The woman who anointed His feet with oil. The leper He healed and the Pharisee who came to Him by night. No one meets Jesus and remains the same. Even Judas after the betrayal cried, “I have betrayed an innocent man” (Matt. 27:4). Either we accept Jesus as the Messiah and become reconciled to God, or we reject Him and live a life of separation and denial. No matter how you view it, anytime someone encounters Christ they are changed.

Sin once separated us from God; but Jesus, being God’s Son, broke the power of sin through His death, burial, and resurrection. When we accept Him as our Savior, God reconciles us eternally unto Himself. Reconciliation is the goal of salvation. Yet the message of reconciliation does not stop here but continues through us to reach others who have never heard the truth of the gospel. Nothing has changed since the call of the Great Commission. God reconciles us to Himself that we might have a ministry of reconciliation.

The words He spoke to His disciples at the resurrection are the same words He speaks to us today. We are His channels of reconciliation to a lost and dying world. We have been blessed by God that we might be a blessing to others.