Ambassadors of Reconciliation

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21

When I looked up the word reconcile, there were several definitions but there were three that stuck out and that are fitting in relation to these verses. The first is: to reestablish a close relationship between.
The second is: to bring into agreement or harmony; make compatible or consistent.
And the last one is: to win over to friendliness; cause to become amicable – as in hostile persons.
Now the first one describes the desire of God to reconcile us to Himself. The second one describes the Word of God and the Holy Spirit that brings us into agreement with Him and makes us consistent. The third one describes how through Jesus God brings us from hostile to amicable or into a friendship with Him.

Everything belongs to God and when God first created man, He created Him with relationship in mind. He created man to be His friend, to have dominion over the earth that He created and to reveal His plans to. Adam and Eve had that for a little while but then they disobeyed and ate the fruit. Disobedience is rebellion. When man rebelled against God by disobeying His command to not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the friendship they had was severed. God could no longer commune with man and speak freely His plans for mankind because man was now sinful and God cannot look at sin. Ok enough history!

The awesome part of all of this is that God KNEW what man was going to do and set a plan into motion. That plan was to send His only begotten Son into the world to reconcile US to HIMSELF. Can you believe it? God wants us to be His friends and He loves us so much that He sacrificed His only begotten to bring us back to Himself. But wait! It gets better! Now that we are reconciled to Him, those of us that have received Christ as Lord and Savior, we are now given the ministry of reconciliation! How do we do that? By doing what Jesus commanded in Mark 16:15 – Go and preach the Gospel to all the nations. The nations does not necessarily mean that we will travel the world. Some of us will probably never leave the state we were born and raised in but in a country such as ours the nations are here; our neighbors, our families, our co-workers. I think every nationality of the globe has a percentage in the U.S.

Those of you that know me know that I like to look up words so the next word I looked up was ambassador and I found two definitions that fit these verses as well. The first is: A diplomatic official of the highest rank, sent by one sovereign or state to another as its resident representative.
The second is: An authorized representative or messenger. As sons and daughters of God, we are of the highest rank because we are princes and princesses of the King of kings! He is the Sovereign One who sends us to represent Him in this place we call our temporary home. How many know that we are not citizens of this world? We are citizens of heaven! Therefore we are resident representatives here on earth until we go home to be with the Lord. We are authorized representatives or messengers because we have been given authority through Christ. The message we bring is a message of hope, peace, love, salvation and yes, reconciliation! Because He made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God through Him!!! Praise God!! Let’s be good ambassadors for we represent the most Sovereign of sovereigns, the King of kings and the Lord of lords!! He wants all to be reconciled and He does not desire that any should be lost. Let’s proclaim the message of the Gospel of Peace that through us God would plead with the lost and the hurting and the hostile to be reconciled to Him.

If by chance you have not been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, let today be the day where you say yes to Jesus who has been knocking on the door of your heart waiting for you to invite Him in.