Calvary Road Baptist Church
“AMBASSADORS AT CHRISTMASTIME”
Second Corinthians 5.18-21
How about a Christmas season challenge ten days before this year’s celebration of the birth of Christ? What say we focus on our purpose for a celebration that was greatly misused in Europe before the Reformation, typically misused in Europe after the Protestant Reformation, and not initially celebrated at all in the early years of the New England colonies, where celebrating Christmas was actually a violation of law in the New England colonies?[1]
I urge you to keep in mind, as we approach Christmas that we are ambassadors. Noah Webster defined “ambassador” in the 1828 edition of his dictionary as
“A minister of the highest rank employed by one prince or state, at the court of another, to manage the public concerns of his own prince or state, and representing the power and dignity of his sovereign.”[2]
That was the definition of the word “ambassador” almost 200 years ago. Back in those days, being an ambassador was a great honor. And when the president of the United States could not, in those days, communicate by telegraph, talk on the telephone, or via the Internet or broadcast television, he relied exclusively on his ambassadors to state his position to the leaders and citizens of other countries.
It is quite different nowadays. Ambassadors are almost an afterthought these days, used more as a polite cover for spying operations in other countries than actually fulfilling the role of authorized representative. As a result of the variety of ways a president or head of state can communicate his thoughts through modern media, the public pays little attention to the function and authority of an ambassador. For example, how many of you know the current United States ambassador to the United Nations? Her name is Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Don’t feel bad. She is not nearly as notable as were ambassadors Jeane Kilpatrick or Nikki Haley.
When God does business here on earth, He does not function as modern presidents and heads of state operate. God delegates both authority and responsibility to believers in Christ and authorizes us to represent Him on planet earth, mainly through our involvement in our local Church. The Apostle Paul refers to ambassadors in his second letter to the Corinthian congregation, 5.18-21. Before we read that passage, we determine who the ambassadors are that Paul refers to. He mentions we who must appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ to the Church at Corinth in verse 10. He then refers to we who are constrained by the love of Christ in verse 14. And then to we who are, because we are in Christ, new creatures in Christ, in verse 17.
Paul declares himself and others who know the Savior to be ambassadors for Christ in the text before us. And if you want to understand just how God seeks to work through believers like us (assumed to be members of Churches) to bring souls to Jesus Christ, you’ll find what you’re seeking after in Second Corinthians 5.18-21:
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 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.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Because of the tragic carnality of the Corinthian Christians, which resulted in them behaving so much like unsaved people, it should come as no surprise to us to discover that they had either forgotten or never realized that a Christian’s citizenship is in heaven. Thus, it seems pretty reasonable that Paul would have to describe, in detail, the roles that he (and we), as ambassadors, and that God, the Head of state in heaven, fulfill in this significant undertaking called the redemption of mankind.
Let us be careful over the next ten days that we remember and conduct ourselves as ambassadors as we examine Paul’s explanation for his ministry (and, by extension, ours).
IN VERSES 18 AND 19, WE SEE THAT IT IS GOD WHO DECREED THE BASIS OF OUR MINISTRY
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
As we look at verses 18 and 19, I want you to pay attention to the time frames involved. As the apostle wrote, note which things happened in the past and which things were happening.
First, take note of things related to God and us who are believers in Christ, verse 18:
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”
See the phrase, “And all things are of God”? Paul is using this phrase to tie things together with Second Corinthians 5.17:
“All things are become new.”
The “all things” of both of these verses specifically refer to matters related to the salvation of lost men and women. In the main, verse 18 deals with both the salvation and the service of the child of God. You will see that, concerning Paul and Timothy’s salvation, Paul refers to both the procedure related to their salvation and the Person responsible for their salvation.
How did Paul and Timothy come to know Christ and receive the forgiveness of sins? How does anyone estranged from God become children of God? God reconciled them to Himself. Specifically, at a time in the past, God reconciled them to Him. But notice that He was not reconciled to them. Think about that. That’s significant. With reconciliation, you usually think of two individuals who are apart coming together. But if One has never moved from the position He occupies, then only the one who has moved, the sinner, is the one who needs to move back for the reconciliation to be accomplished. To restate, since God never sinned, He doesn’t need to move at all in our direction. But for us to be reconciled, to be brought together with God, we must be moved toward Him to be saved. Amen?
In the past, Paul and Timothy were reconciled to God. That is the procedure involved in their individual and personal salvation experiences. But who is the Person responsible for their reconciliation? Think about it for just a moment. Job made mention of the need of a daysman, a referee, who was needed to reconcile man to God, back in Job 9.33. And in the books of Deuteronomy and Ruth, there is mention of a kinsman-redeemer.
“Who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.”
Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. The Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary’s old-rugged cross made possible the reconciliation of Paul and Timothy to God.
Of course, salvation must come first, as it does in this verse, with service to God necessarily following. After stating that they had been reconciled to God by Jesus Christ, Paul goes on to state that He “hath given to us this ministry of reconciliation.”
See the word “given” in verse 18? Paul is indicating that his ministry and Timothy’s and the Corinthians’ if they would only see it, was a gift given by God. It wasn’t something they wanted, necessarily, or strived for. The reason Paul had the ministry he had, and the reason Timothy had the ministry he had, and the reason the Corinthians had the ministries they had, and the reason we have the ministries we have, was because God had sovereignly given it to him, and Timothy, and the Corinthians, and to us. And for what purpose was that gift of ministry given to Paul and Timothy? And to the Corinthians? And to us? We can see the sense of it by Paul’s description of it. What God gave to him was a ministry of reconciliation, bringing men to God.
So, related to God and His children, remember two things: They were reconciled to God because of Christ. God did that. After they were saved, God gave them their ministries. God did that. Everything having to do with what Paul had become, from salvation to service, was the result not of him but God.
Now, take note of God and mankind. Whereas verse 18 referred to what happened in the past, verse 19 focuses on what is happening in the present as Paul writes and also as we read:
“To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
Just as he did in the previous verse, Paul addresses the issue of salvation. But here, it’s the salvation of mankind. There are three important words that are the keys to Paul’s thoughts in the first half of this verse.
First, Paul refers to the incarnation, Christ becoming a man. What else could the phrase “God was in Christ” refer to? How else could a plan capable of saving sinners work if not for the God of all creation becoming a man that He might redeem men? Second, Paul refers to reconciliation. This is the same procedure by which he and Timothy had come to be right with God. There is no difference in God’s plan of salvation for servants of God or saints of God. It’s all the same. There is only one way of being saved. All sinners, whether highborn or low, are born with the need to be reconciled to God.
Then, Paul refers to imputation. For God to reconcile lost men to Himself by Jesus Christ, He must devise a method whereby their sins can be imputed, not to them, but Another. There must be a way for the charges against them to be leveled against Another instead of them.
How was it that God could accomplish all of this? First, Jesus became a man. Then, He took upon Himself the sins of all mankind. Then, He paid for the sins of mankind by His death on the cross. It was because God could impute our sins to His Son that He could justly forgive our sins, thereby reconciling us to Himself.
“and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
For lost people to be reconciled, they must hear the message of reconciliation. They must. We must hear the Word of reconciliation. To that end, God “committed” unto Paul and Timothy, literally, “having put for Himself” into Paul and Timothy the “word of reconciliation.” This is our call to the ministry, as well as theirs. For God to do His business of reconciling the world to Himself, He calls those who have trusted Christ by “putting into them for Himself” the Word of reconciliation.
I want you to recognize something before we go on to the next point: It is God Who reconciles people to Himself, and it is God Who then calls those individuals into His reconciliation ministry, for the purpose of using each of us to spread the Word of reconciliation. But the basis for it all is God. It is God Who does this. It is God Who does that. It is God Who does the other thing. It is all of God.
If God called you into His ministry, you will serve in His ministry. There is so much of God in the front and the back and in the middle of the ministry that you will serve Him in this regard if God called you. You will. Suppose you do not serve Him in this regard. In that case, I am convinced there is a serious question of your relationship with Christ because the Word of reconciliation has been given to everyone who is reconciled. No exceptions.
NOT ONLY DID GOD DECREE THE BASIS OF OUR MINISTRY, VERSES 18 AND 19, HE ALSO DETERMINED THE BEHAVIOR OF OUR MINISTRY.
20 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.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
In verse 20, we see Paul’s description of us as the representatives of God:
“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.”
Notice the two distinct ways in which Paul describes believers to his readers. As an ambassador of Christ, Paul pleads in Christ’s stead for lost people to be reconciled to God, just as we ought to. Ten days from Christmas. Just as we ought to do. This means we believers are the most esteemed envoys of the King of kings, representing Him in a far and distant land. And in this far and distant land, we are to represent both God’s power and dignity. That is awesome. Jesus Christ using Christians as Gospel ministers to represent Him and to, on His behalf and at His behest, call men and women to salvation. On the other hand, Paul describes believers in Christ as mouthpieces for God. Through the instrumentality of men who have feet of clay and who themselves have trusted Christ to the saving of their souls, God beseeches the lost to be reconciled to Him. All you have to do is tell folks what happened to you.
And what is the declaration of the ambassador who represents both God and King Jesus? Verse 21:
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
We cry to the lost that God has made Jesus Christ His Son to be sin for us even though He knew no sin by personal experience, being Himself the sinless Son of God. And God has done this so that we who are unrighteous by nature might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Being in Christ by faith, those who have had their sins imputed to Him, what we do in turn, receive from Him His imputed righteousness. God is taking everything from us which is bad and giving to Him, taking from Him everything which is good and giving to us. That’s astonishing. That’s what we declare to the lost as ambassadors of Christ. I do nothing of myself. I do not one single thing. I merely declare to you what my God has done to me, and for me, and what He is doing among men and women, and what He will do with you as you trust in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
My, my, what we have in these four verses. There’s enough theology related to the Bible’s teachings on salvation to save the entire world. One could spend weeks teaching pastoral theology to seminarians from these four verses of the Bible. Allow me to sum up the whole passage with three brief thrusts.
First, let us remember that throughout this passage, Paul’s main emphasis was the involvement of God. You are not in this by yourself. The involvement of God in Paul’s ministry and ours, the participation of God in the reconciling of lost men to Himself. The involvement of God in everything has to do with the salvation of the lost. It was all of God with Paul, which is true with our ministries.
Second, there is the call of God being dealt with here. Consider the kinds of redeemed individuals in God’s plan and economy mentioned in this passage. There are the saints of God who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Then there are saints of God who have also been redeemed by the blood of Christ but who have been appointed envoys of the King, to whom has been committed the Word of reconciliation. But notice that they are one and the same. Those of us who have been redeemed are the same people who have been committed to the Word of reconciliation. When the Christians were scattered from Jerusalem, they went everywhere preaching the Gospel.
Third, there is the plan of salvation. Specifically, God sent His Son to bear the sins of others on Calvary’s cross. And when the individual sinner hears the Word of reconciliation, the Gospel message of how Jesus died for your sins, and when you respond in faith believing by trusting Christ, God reconciles you to Himself. That sounds too simple. It is too simple.
Understand that this ministry and this message is all of God. Christians need to realize that each of us has been called of God, we have the Word of reconciliation committed to us, and it is God’s will for us to serve Him as ambassadors of Christ.
If you are lost and preparing to celebrate Christmas, recognize your need for reconciliation with God. Respond to God’s love in sending His only begotten Son to die for your sins and mine. Receive Jesus as your Savior. Christmas without Christ is utterly meaningless. Worse than meaningless, the One Whose birth is celebrated will pour out His wrath on you when He returns.
If you are a believer in Christ preparing to celebrate Christmas, how can you not infuse this entire Christmas season with Christ? His birth? His life? His death? His resurrection? His salvation? In this way, you will help others to enjoy the merriest of Christmases.
(Long story related to Dr. I. D. E. Thomas.)
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[1] David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways In America, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), page 163.
[2] Noah Webster, Noah Webster’s First Edition Of An American Dictionary Of The English Language, (Anaheim, CA: Foundation For American Christian Education, 1967)
Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.
Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church