Ambassadors for Christ | 2 Corinthians 5:9-6:2
Brian Hedges | August 21, 2022
Let me invite you to turn in Scripture this morning to the book of 2 Corinthians, in the New Testament; if you’re using one of the Bibles in the chairs in front of you it’s page 966.
While you’re turning there, let me read you a portion of a letter from a young skeptic, an unbeliever.
"You asked me my religious views. You know I think I believe in no religion. There is absolutely no proof for any of them, and from a philosophical standpoint Christianity is not even the best. All religions—that is, all mythologies, to give them their proper name—are merely man’s own inventions, Christ as much as Loki. Superstition, of course, in every age has held the common people, but in every age the educated and thinking ones have stood outside it. I am not laying down as a certainty that there is nothing outside the material world; considering the discoveries that are always being made, this would be foolish. Whenever any new light can be got as to such matters, I will be glad to welcome it. In the meantime, I am not going back to the bondage of believing in any old and already decaying superstition."
That letter is probably a fair representation of what dozens of people that you rub shoulders with—at work or on the university campus or in your neighborhood or even in your family—what they believe. Sharing the gospel with friends who believe this is not easy, but it is a central part of what we are called to do as followers of Jesus.
We’ve been talking for five weeks now about evangelism, or living on mission. We’ve been talking about this central task of sharing the gospel with others, and we’ve been looking at a number of different metaphors in the New Testament for our witness as believers in Jesus Christ, our evangelistic task. We’ve talked about what it means to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, or fishers of men. Last week we talked about sowing and reaping and emphasized the process that is involved for sharing the gospel with others and seeing people come to faith in Jesus Christ. Today there’s one more metaphor I want us to look at as we close this series, and it’s the metaphor “ambassador.”
Paul in 2 Corinthians says we are ambassadors for Christ. Here the word picture is not an agricultural word picture taken from the world of nature; it’s rather a political image, a political metaphor. An ambassador is someone who represents another country or another kingdom or represents a king. Paul says we are ambassadors; we represent Christ.
I want us to read this passage. It’s a slightly longer passage than we’ve been reading the last several weeks, but we need this full passage to get the context, and though I won’t explain every verse we’re going to look at several different parts of the passage. It’s 2 Corinthians 5:9-6:2. Paul says,
"So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says,
'In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.'
Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation."
This is God’s word.
I want you to see three things this morning: first, the kingdom we represent; secondly, the message we are to deliver; and thirdly, the urgency of this task.
1. The Kingdom We Represent
I just want us to think for a minute about this metaphor “ambassador.” What is it that an ambassador does? Who is an ambassador?
I think we know this. An ambassador is someone who represents another nation or another kingdom. We might think of two interlocking concepts that really go together here. Let me give you two words: the words are belonging and representation. We need to understand both of these and how they relate to our role as ambassadors.
So, belonging. We belong to another kingdom. We are citizens of heaven first and citizens of anywhere else in the world second. To be an ambassador means that we represent another kingdom than the one we are currently in. We belong to the kingdom of Christ, not to the kingdoms of this world.
Now, there’s a sense in which we have a dual citizenship, isn’t there? Even the apostle Paul, who says he is an ambassador for Christ, at times would claim the rights of his Roman citizenship. But supreme in his mind was the fact that he belonged to Christ and to his kingdom, and that shaped his understanding of who he was.
To use another metaphor that Peter uses in his letter, we are exiles. We are strangers in a strange land. This world is not really our home. That has to really hit us for us to understand our vocation as ambassadors of Christ.
Here’s one of the implications of that. It means that we actually have more in common with an Iranian Christian than we do with an American non-Christian. Do you believe that? You have more in common, if you belong to the kingdom of Christ, with a fellow believer who lives in a completely different culture, in a completely different secular society, belongs to a different country, has different citizenship, whose beliefs in many ways may be wildly different than yours, but you have more in common with him or her than you do with your next-door neighbor who is an American citizen but is not a citizen of heaven.
If that is not true of us, if we don’t feel that we have more in common with Christian who does not live in the same country than we do with an American citizen who’s not a Christian—if that’s not true of us, then we probably are more inculturated in secular American society than we realize.
But the reality is that if we belong to Christ we belong to his kingdom first and foremost, and that trumps every other concern.
Belonging, but then also representation. It’s not just that we belong to another kingdom, it’s that we represent the king. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you represent him. That means that you and I are to speak on his behalf.
An ambassador’s job is to deliver the message entrusted to him or to her. An ambassador’s job is to represent the kingdom of which he is a part, not to speak his own opinions but to faithfully deliver the message that has been given.
The same is true for us. We are to deliver the message given to us by Christ. It’s not something that we invent, add to, subtract from, detract from, or distort. Our job is to deliver the message of the gospel faithfully into the context in which we are called. If we understand this, it will radically shape our priorities in communication.
Let me give you an example from a fairly new little book on evangelism called Evangelism As Exiles, by a guy named Elliot Clark. Now, Elliot Clark was a missionary in Central Asia, and in this book he discusses his priorities in communication with Muslims. He talks about how he would meet week after week, one evening a week, at a local university with engineering professors. They were all Muslims; he was the only Christians. They would meet to talk about different topics. They would discuss this over a cup of tea and they’ve had very vigorous debate, but respectful dialogue, about different topics. They would each bring their different perspective to those topics, representing their faith as they understood it.
But one particular subject kept creeping up in these conversations, and it was the 9/11 attacks in New York City and elsewhere. These professors were convinced that George Bush, aided by Jews infiltrating the American government, had planned and executed the destruction of the Twin Towers, and that all of this was a cunning ruse to demonize Muslims at home and advance a Western imperialist agenda abroad. They had the YouTube videos to prove it.
You know what Elliot Clark did? In spite of every impulse he had as an American citizen, he said nothing. He didn’t try to correct it, he didn’t contradict it. He chose silence in those moments. You know why? Because that’s the priority of the gospel, to prioritize Christ and his kingdom. He didn’t want anything to get in the way of that.
Now, he had his opinions. He had his beliefs, as I’m sure all of us do, but he didn’t want to use his communication opportunity to defend America, he wanted to use it to preach Christ.
He draws this conclusion that I think is very important. He says,
"When we seek to do evangelism as exiles, we already have a really hard sell. We’re trying to convince people that a Jewish carpenter was God’s Son, came from heaven to die for our sins, he was buried and three days later he rose from the dead and now reigns over all. Not only that, we’re also calling them to join us as social outcasts. Must we also try to persuade them about matters of history or geopolitics? Do we really want to argue for our opinion on the environment or economics, or could those hobbyhorse topics end up as barriers to Christ’s gospel?"
As ambassadors for Christ we belong to another kingdom and we represent the king, and that means we are to deliver his message.
2. The Message We Are to Deliver
What is that message? Point number two—what is that message, the message that we are to deliver? We could sum it up by saying it’s a message of peace and reconciliation, and I think for us to understand just how startling this word picture was to the original audience we have to understand a little bit of the background.
William Barclay talks about this in his commentary on the Corinthian letters, and he tells us that the Roman provinces were divided into two types: there were senatorial provinces and imperial provinces. The senatorial provinces were under direct control of the senate; they were peaceful; no troops were stationed there.
But the imperial provinces were under the direct control of the emperor, Caesar, and these were the more turbulent provinces, where a garrison of Roman soldiers would be stationed and a man would be stationed to represent the emperor and to administer this province on behalf of the emperor. That man was called the legatus presbytus (if I’m pronouncing the Latin right), or an ambassador. His job was to represent to this province the terms of peace with Rome. “This is how you can be at peace with the emperor.”
Now, we probably would have all kinds of problems with Roman imperialism, but that’s the metaphor that Paul is using, and when Paul says to the Corinthians, “I am an ambassador for Christ, entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation; now be reconciled to God,” what he is saying to them is, “These are the terms of peace with God. This is how you can be reconciled with God.” So God has entrusted us with this message.
I think we could summarize it in terms of a problem, a solution, and then a result. That would pretty fairly give us an understanding of this passage. This may give you something useful in conversation with others. As you’re sharing the gospel with others you can talk about the problem that we all face, you can talk about the solution that we receive through the gospel, and then you can talk about the results of receiving this solution.
(1) Here’s the problem. The problem is separation because of rebellion against God. There’s a sin issue, right? Human beings are separated from the Creator. Why? Because of our rebellion against God.
I think that’s implicit here in the passage in the need for reconciliation, because if two parties are not reconciled it means that there’s been a breakdown in the relationship. It means that there’s a separation. Scripture all over the place makes clear that the reason for that separation, that breakdown in the relationship, is our sin; it’s human sin.
Now, there are lots of ways to talk about human sin. We could talk about idolatry, where we put other things in the place of God. We could talk about slavery and addiction and how we come into bondage of other things. We could talk about transgression and rebellion against the divine law that God has given. We could talk about brokenness and the effects of sin in our lives. But at the end of the day, this is part of the message: that we’re separated from God and we need to be restored. We’re separated because of our sins. This is the problem, and it’s only if we really understand the problem that we can understand the solution.
(2) What is the solution? The solution is reconciliation through substitution at the cross. You see this especially in verse 19, where Paul says that in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. How does he do that? How is it that God reconciles us to himself? He does it through the cross. You see it in verse 21. This is one of the most concise verses in all of the New Testament explaining to us what happened at the cross. Paul says, “For our sake he [that is, God] made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
What is that? That’s substitution. That’s the exchange. Here’s Jesus, who’s the only perfect, righteous human being who ever lived, him who knew no sin, and Paul says that God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.
What does that mean? Does it mean that Jesus became a sinner? Does it mean that Jesus became a sinner on the cross? No, it means that God treated Jesus as if he had become a sinner. He made him to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
We might put it this way—I can state it personally—it means that when Jesus died on the cross God looked at Jesus and he saw all the sins of Brian Hedges. He saw my pride, my lust, my anger, words misspoken, the ways I’ve hurt and disappointed other people. He saw the envy, he saw all of the petty little things that go on in this deceitful heart. He saw all of the sins before I became a Christian, he saw all the sins since I became a Christian. He saw all of those sins and he placed them on Jesus, and he treated Jesus as if Jesus had lived my life, so that he could now treat me as if I had lived the life of Jesus.
That’s how reconciliation happens. It’s reconciliation through substitution. We sing it in that hymn:
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned he stood,
Sealed my pardon with his blood:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
(3) What is the result of that? The result of that is not only forgiveness, but it is transformation through union with Christ. You see that earlier in the passage, in verses 16-17, where Paul says, “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.” Then especially verse 17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
A new life! New creation! Transformation! How? Through being in Christ, united with Christ. It’s not merely that we are preaching a “get out of jail free” ticket, right? It’s not just fire insurance. It’s not just freedom from condemnation. It includes that, gloriously so, but it’s also that we are saying, “Here’s the way not only to be restored into a right legal relationship with God but to have your humanity restored. Here’s the way for your life to be changed. Here’s the way that you are transformed. This is how you become a part of the new creation. This is how the old you passes away and a new you comes into being.”
Brothers and sisters, this is the message. It’s the message, first of all, that we all have to receive, and this is then the message that we are to share with others.
Sometimes we hear people say—maybe you’ve heard this statement—“Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.” Anybody ever hear that statement? That is bad theology, okay? That is a bad statement. I’ll tell you why: because you cannot preach the gospel without words. You can’t. The gospel is news, and there are words that must be used. It’s a message, and the message has to be proclaimed.
Now, I know what people mean by that. They mean that we should always be salt and light, we should always be living good lives, we should always be trying to be good witnesses of Christ by the way we live; and certainly that is true. But listen, there comes a place where we have to use words. We have to deliver the message of reconciliation. We have to talk to people about sin and forgiveness and transformation and how that comes about. We have to share the problem and the solution. We have to use words.
You might say, “I’m not very good with words,” and that’s okay. God can use simple words, he can use broken English, he can use our stuttering and our stammering as we try to share something as simple as John 3:16, which probably 90 per cent of you already have memorized. He can use us as we share our testimonies, however imperfectly; as we hand someone a gospel tract or one of those Redeemer invite cards with a QR code so that they can tune in to a service; or we give someone a Bible or a portion of the Bible. He can use that. He can use a Facebook post where you’re pointing people to Jesus. He can use a personal letter that you write to a dear friend sharing your testimony and telling them how to find reconciliation and peace with God. He can use any of those things, and he does.
As we saw last week, there is a sowing and reaping process, and we can be confident that God is always at work, but at the end of the day, we have a job to do, and that is to share the message. We have a message to deliver.
3. The Urgency of This Task
There’s a kingdom that we represent, there’s a message we are to deliver, and then the third thing I want you to see is the urgency of this task.
Now, let me set this up in this way. In this series, one of the things I’ve tried to do is dispel some of the misconceptions about evangelism. I’ve tried to do some course-correction in some of the models that we have learned of evangelism, where high pressure sales techniques are used and there’s a pressure in the conversation, even if it’s the first conversation, even if it’s not a natural thing to do in the conversation, to try to close the sale and get someone to sign on the dotted line or make a decision for Christ or whatever.
I do think we need to be cautious about that and avoid anything that looks like manipulation. We need to trust that a sovereign God is at work and it’s not ultimately up to us to save people.
Nevertheless, here’s the counterbalancing point: there is an urgency to what we’re called to do, and Paul felt that urgency. I want you to see three reasons for urgency in this passage, and may God cause these to rest with some weight on our hearts so that we will also feel this urgency as we think about sharing the gospel with others.
(1) The reality of judgment. There is coming a day of judgment. Paul was keenly aware of this; he talks about it in many places in his letters, including here, chapter 5:9-11. He says, “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.”
What does he mean? “Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” What is the fear of the Lord? He’s not talking about servile terror, he’s not talking about craven fear, but he’s talking about that reverential awe that marks the lives of those who know what it means to live before the face of God.
In the Old Testament that phrase, “the fear of the Lord,” is something like shorthand for wholehearted worship and devotion to God. To fear the Lord was to worship him, to be devoted to him, to obey him.
As new covenant believers, this reverence and this fear of the Lord should characterize us as well. Do you remember what Paul says in Philippians 2:12-13? He says, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
There are many, many other passages in the New Testament that say the same thing. 2 Corinthians 7:1 says that we are to pursue holiness in the fear of God.
Here, it’s a motivation for faithful evangelism. “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.”
We don’t feel this enough. I don’t feel it enough. I read these heroes of mine—Charles Spurgeon. Did you know that Spurgeon was sometimes so overcome with emotion that he had to be carried to his pulpit. Martin Luther said he never preached without his knees knocking. I mean, these men had come into such a profound encounter with God, they were so overwhelmed with the greatness of God and the greatness of the task, it drove them. No wonder there was so much fruit from their ministries. We need more of this. Pray for your pastor, that I’ll have more of this. Pray for yourself, that you will have this; that, knowing the fear of the Lord, you will seek to persuade.
That’s the first motive: the reality of judgment, the fear of the Lord.
(2) Here’s the second: the compulsion of love.
Look at chapter 5:14. “For the love of Christ controls us.” It’s a very strong word. That word means to seize or compel or constrain or urge or even force someone into action. It’s the word that Jesus used in Luke 12:50 when he said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished.” Jesus was compelled to go to the cross. Why? Out of love.
Paul says, “The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
The love of Christ compels us, constrains us; the compulsion of love.
I think what Paul means—there are different ways to read it—is that when we realize how much Christ loved us, that he loved us enough to die for us, that should compel us. When we, in return, love him, that love for him should compel us. Then perhaps also that the love of Christ for others and our love for others should also compel us. If we love people, we should feel the urgency of the task of sharing the gospel with them.
So, the reality of judgment, the compulsion of love, and then number three...
(3) The shortness of time.
Look at chapter 6:1-2. Paul says, “Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, ‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
He feels this, the urgency of responding to this message and sharing this message, because of the shortness of time. Now’s the day. None of us are guaranteed tomorrow. None of us are guaranteed another opportunity, and that should rest with some weight on our hearts and our lives, and it should cause us to appeal to others.
Did you notice the strong verbs Paul uses in this passage? “Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others," “we implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God,” and, “we appeal.” Persuade, implore, appeal. Those are strong words that reflect the way in which Paul shared this message—the urgency of the task.
Let me conclude in this way. I want to address two groups of people very quickly. First of all, I want to speak to you for just a moment as an ambassador of Christ to sinners in need of reconciliation. Let me ask you, are you reconciled to God? Have you seen your sin and your need for salvation? Do you know that in yourself that relationship with God is broken and that you need to be restored? Have you accepted the terms of the King who offers peace to you through the sin-bearing, substitutionary death of his Son, Jesus Christ? Have you this morning placed all of your trust not in your works, not in your morality, not in your law-keeping, not in your church attendance, your church membership, your baptism, or anything else that you’ve done? Have you placed your trust in what Christ has done for you? Have you received the gospel? If you have not, today is the day of salvation. Don’t delay.
Teenagers, don’t delay. Don’t wait for a later time. If you’re an unbeliever this morning and you’re here with a believing spouse or family member, don’t wait. Respond today. If you’re an older person, don’t wait to respond to the message of Christ. Today is the day of salvation.
Secondly, I want to speak to you as an ambassador to fellow ambassadors. If you’re a Christian this morning, then you also are an ambassador of Christ. You represent him. You have a priority in your relationships with others and in your communication with others, and that is the priority to share the message that we’ve been given.
John Stott has said, “Until we have received the reconciliation we cannot proclaim it. Once we have received it, we must.” It’s part of our discipleship. It’s part of our obedience, it’s part of our job.
It may cost us to share the message with others. It can be very intimidating to do so; I know that. We all have to get outside of our comfort zones. We all need to be equipped, but we have a message to share.
You remember that letter from the young skeptic that we began with, the one who said that Christianity was a mythology, a superstition, and he wasn’t going to believe any old, decaying superstition? Do you remember that? Do you know who that was? That was C.S. Lewis before he became a Christian. You know what happened? Two fellow professors at Oxford named Hugo Dyson and J.R.R. Tolkien shared the gospel with him. Lewis believed, and he became a Christian.
He became an ambassador for Christ and was then willing to make great sacrifices in order to share that message with others, including pressing home the urgency of that message. I want to end with these words from Lewis. He says,
"It will be too late then [that is, when Christ returns or at judgment] to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing. It will be the time when we discover which side we have really chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance; it will not last forever. We must take it or leave it."
Today is the day of salvation: be reconciled to God. Let’s pray.
Father, would you forgive us for neglected and wasted opportunities, and would you work in our hearts this morning what is pleasing in your sight: an appropriate and genuine fear of the Lord; a reckoning with the reality of our accountability; a deep, compelling love for you and for others; and an understanding of how brief our time is? Would you equip us with this message so that it is crystal clear in our minds? Would you give us all the tools we need to be able to share it with others? Would you give us opportunities?
Especially, Father, I pray that you would so fill us with your Spirit that we would have courage to share the message when we can. Lord, we all need this. We all fail at this. But when we think about the reality of those know who do not know Christ—some of us made a list this week of 15, 10, 20, or 25 people—we pray that you would work to bring them to salvation, and that you would use us in that process. We know that you can; we need your help, so we lean into you at this moment. Help us, Lord, in every way that we need, and do a deep work in our hearts this morning.
As we come to the table today, may it remind us that Christ died for us and rose again so that we would live no longer to ourselves but to him. May this time at the table be a moment of reaffirming our trust in Christ and recommitting ourselves to love him and follow him. Lord, search us, show us what we need to see. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Brian G. Hedges
