Ambassadors for Christ

Back to Basics

By Pastor Roger Eng, August 14, 2022

2 Corinthians 5:20 (NASB), “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.”

am·​bas·​sa·​dor

”a diplomatic official of the highest rank, sent by one sovereign or state to another as its resident representative.” – Dictionary.com

Biblically, “messenger” or “senior.”

  1. Who are Christ’s ambassadors?

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation…” (2 Cor. 5:17-18)

  • Christ's ambassador is one who is in Christ, who has been made new, and who has been reconciled to God through Christ.

  • 2020 Barna Survey: 47% of Christian millennials think it's wrong for them to share their faith. This means that 47% of Christian millennials have not been taught this basic truth, that Christians are called to be Christ’s ambassadors.

  1. What do Christ’s ambassadors do?

“Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Cor. 5:18-19)

  • An ambassador for Christ has one chief assignment: they are ministers of reconciliation.

  • Reconciliation – “a change of relation from enmity to peace.”

Conclusion: How is all this possible?

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

  • How is reconciliation possible? By a double substitution.
  • God punished our sin through Jesus dying on the cross, and God declared us righteous through Jesus' perfect life.