2 CORINTHIANS 5:20

As followers of Christ, we are honored to be classified as ambassadors of life and reconciliation. The apostle Paul candidly stated, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). He twice repeated in the passage that God has given to us “the ministry of reconciliation (v 18) and has trusted us enough to commit unto us “the word of reconciliation” (19). Everywhere we go and every chance we get it is our inescapable duty to urge and convince all of humankind to be reconciled to God.

The profound message of the gospel simply is this – “that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself…” (19). It assures us that God does not hold our trespasses against us. We owed a debt we could not pay. He came to pay a debt He did not owe. Instead of leaving us on our own, lost and sin-dead, knowing it was impossible for us to be reinstated into fellowship with God, Jesus came and went to the cross to pay the price of our redemption and to bring about our reconciliation. The message remains that God through Christ forgives us of every sin and pardons our every transgression.

I find it enlightening how the Message Bible paraphrases the thought of our reconciliation in the book of Colossians. It states, “Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the cross and marched them naked through the streets” (Colossians 2:13-15). As a result, what a message we have been commissioned to share. We have been imparted a most sacred trust.

As His carefully handpicked ambassadors, we dutifully represent him. We are never at liberty to construct and compose our own message. We represent our Lord and Master and act only as the spokespersons for His interests, policies, and viewpoints. We are His official envoys. We are diplomatic agents of the highest rank, appointed to represent Jesus our King, in this foreign land of sin and woe. May we never take this role lightly. We seek never to forget that we were supremely appointed by the supreme God to declare only His will and never to succumb to the temptation to adjust or compromise his divine will to suit our whims and fancies.

The apostle Paul strongly reinforces the idea that God makes his appeal to all of humankind through us. The God, revealed in Christ, is calling the masses to Him through us. He captions it this way, “…We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (v20). Just to think that we are called upon to stand in Christ’s stead. He stood for us, representing us before God, and now we are called upon to stand and faithfully represent Him before others. I pray that God will help us to always see what an honor it is to stand in Christ’s stead, reconciling all we can to Him. In Christ’s stead, we unfailingly desire to help all to be reconciled to Christ before it is too late. We preach victory, liberation, change, and forgiveness – In Christ’s Stead.