Bible Verse of the Day Tuesday June 6th, 2023

2 Corinthians 5:19-20  that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

An ambassador does not converse to please his addresses, but the Kingdom whom they represent. An ambassador does not speak under his or her own mandate or opinions. The demands of the ambassador mean little to themselves, they simply say what they have been commissioned to say. However, an ambassador is much more than a messenger; they are also representatives, and the honor and reputation of their home country, in this case the Kingdom of God, are in their hands.

Jesus paid our sin debt on Calvaries Hill; the Father has arranged the ransom through the Son. God's judgment was diverted, not because of anything we did to pay the price required for our sins, but by the sacrifice of His Son: our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. Since God has gone to such judicious lengths to reconcile saved believers to Himself and adopt us into His royal family; how can we refuse? God can look at us in friendship because He has accounted our sins to Jesus instead of us paying the sin debt we owed.

 

The message of reconciliation we have from God is not a penance to be paid by any good works or deeds on our part; Jesus paid our liability. So likewise, God does not ascribe any penalty we own due to our sins; Jesus canceled any debt we hold on our own on the Cross of Calvary. Moreover, God has bestowed on all believers in Christ a new clean record that stands before God on our behalf. In the heartbeat, we surrender our lives, hearts, minds, bodies, and souls to Christ; we become representatives of the Gospel of Jesus to this lost, dark, and dying world. With this privilege of our new citizenship, we become reflectors of the light of Christ to the world.

God expects us to walk in a worthy manner of who we are, as a citizen of heaven instead of the world (Colossians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:12). God expects that we might represent Christ Jesus truthfully. Representing Christ is not a matter of giftedness or ability; it is living our lives in a manner that would please God, living a Christian life according to the precepts of God's Word. An ambassador, which we are to God's Kingdom, represents the nation that they call home. As ambassadors for God, we are much more than messages; we are true representatives of the God of all heaven and earth.

Charles Spurgeon once wrote: “We are not commanded to do the work of reconciliation between man and God. He has done the work; it is merely ours to embrace and receive. “It is not so much reconciled yourselves as ‘be reconciled.’ Yield yourselves to him who round you now the bands of a man would cast, drawing you with cords of love because he was given for you… Submit yourselves. Yield to the grasp of those hands which were nailed to the cross for you.”