Saved and Sent

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat 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.

First of all, Paul reminds us that reconciliation is God’s work. We are reconciled by what God has done. Then Paul prompts us to do for others what God has done for us. Then he bestows on us a new title. We are ambassadors for Christ. We are ambassadors of reconciliation. We are messengers of mercy. All of this because of how we have been reconciled to God by Christ.

There are several times in the gospels when Jesus works a miracle and then tells the recipient of that miracle not to tell anyone. This is not one of those times. As ambassadors, we speak for the one who sent us. We deliver God’s message, and God’s message is quite simple, “You and I have been reconciled to God!” God did this for us. God did this through Christ.

God has made us a new creation. It as if sin had not entered into our lives because Christ took upon himself all of our sins and allowed them to be crucified so that we could start over, fresh and cleansed by God’s grace.