A Message Of Reconciliation

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.
–2 Corinthians 5:19-20

If we are going to share the gospel effectively, the fourth component is that we have to understand the message that we are sharing. In 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 Paul said, “Now all these things”–he was talking about the gospel–“are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and he 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.” In Ephesians 6, Paul compared us to soldiers, but here he referred to us as “ambassadors for Christ.” An ambassador, in Paul’s day, was somebody who was appointed by the king to represent him in a foreign country. Specifically, the ambassador was in that foreign country to deliver the king’s message and make people aware of his judgments. The job of the ambassador was not to formulate his own message; he simply delivered a message on behalf of the king.

Paul was saying all of us are representatives of the King, left here on earth to deliver His message to the world. What is that message? Paul called it a message of reconciliation. We are to announce to the world that even though God is a holy and just God, He is willing to forgive people of their sins if they will turn to faith in Jesus Christ. Now, God could have delivered that message in another way. He could have written it in the sky if He wanted to so that everybody could see it and appropriate it on their own. But the Bible says He has entrusted to you and me that message of reconciliation.

I believe that God wants to save everyone. Yes, I believe in predestination, but as I read the Bible, it is clear that God loves people and He wants to be reconciled to them. In 2 Peter 3:9, the apostle wrote, “The Lord . . . is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” God wants to win people to Himself, but He has chosen to give you and me that word of reconciliation. Think of it as a chain that begins in the heavens with God. He is speaking His message of reconciliation and forgiveness to every unbeliever in the world today, and you are the final link between Him and that unsaved person. And if you do not understand what the message is, then the chain is broken. That is why the Bible says we need to understand the message of reconciliation that God has chosen to deliver to the world.

Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Booting Up For Service” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2011.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org