Ambassadors for Christ – Irresistibly Free
This past weekend, Lead Pastor Ben Snyder closed out our current series Irresistibly Free with the message entitled “Free to Live.” I’d like to spend some time analyzing 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 to get a better understanding of what it means to live irresistibly free. The apostle Paul wrote 2 Corinthians in about 55 AD to encourage believers to follow the way of Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:20
So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”
In verse 20, Paul spoke to the church in Corinth with the directive to be ambassadors of Christ. He implored the Christians in Corinth to be reconciled to God.
What does it mean to be an ambassador? According to the Oxford dictionary, the definition of an ambassador is “a person who acts as a representative or promoter of a specified activity.” An ambassador for Christ is someone who has given their life to Christ, been set free from sin, and is living free from the evil ways of this world. They are commissioned to work as citizens of God’s kingdom, representing truth and light in deceit and darkness so others will see God’s grace in them.
Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
2 Corinthians 5:21
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
This verse is basically the summation of apostle Paul’s ministry. He preached the death, resurrection, and lordship of Christ so that, with faith in him, we may have eternal life. This could also be called the great exchange. The Good News of the gospel is that Jesus Christ not only died for our sins, but his goodness was given to us through grace, thus the great exchange.
Christ was sinless, and because of this, he was the only one that could be offered as a sacrifice for our sins. In the Old Testament, it was commonplace to make sacrifices to a deity for atonement of sin. However, now we do not need to offer sacrifices to atone for our sins because God offered his only son as the ultimate sacrifice for us.
How did God make reconciliation possible?
John 3:16 NIV
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Living as ambassadors for Christ allows us to live irresistibly free!
Questions:
Have you been reconciled to God? If not, what is stopping you? If so, are you an ambassador for Christ? Do you live a life connected to Christ so others can see him in your deeds?
Are you living irresistibly free?
Next Steps:
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Prayer:
Dear Father in heaven, thank you for sending your Son to free us from the sins of the world. Grant us discernment so that we can stay strong in times when we feel under attack. Open our minds so we may see the atonement that Christ endured for us on the cross. Help us to know that through Christ’s sacrifice, we are spiritually free and can experience your love for us. It’s in his beautiful name that I pray, amen.
This post was written by Jennifer Macke. Jenn has a son, daughter, granddaughter, and grandson, and she thanks God every day for them. She is enjoying retirement and feels blessed to be writing for LivingItOut. She was raised in an Evangelical Church, but her spiritual life awakened when she started attending CedarCreek.
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