Do you ever feel unimportant? Do you ever feel unneeded? There are times we all feel that way. The truth is regardless of how we feel, we are important. In fact, if we are truly “born-again”, we hold an important position in the Kingdom of God. We are Ambassadors of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:18-20 (ESV) - “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 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. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
What is an Ambassador? Rick Renner in his work, “Sparkling Gems”, teaches the following information of what it means to be an Ambassador for Christ. The rest of the information in this article comes from Rick’s work on this topic, or from the study notes found in the Thomas Nelson Study Bible.
First, an ambassador has several components. An ambassador could be part of an envoy sent to represent a nation to a foreign land. An ambassador could be a diplomatic agent accredited to a foreign government. It could be a representative sent to a foreign country to represent the King or country that sent him. It could be an authorized messenger who has the power to make decisions and to represent the will of the nation or King that sent him. Finally, an ambassador could be a representative who is authorized to speak on behalf of his sender.
Now that we understand this term “ambassador”, we clearly see that we are ambassadors for King Jesus. We are on this earth to represent Him and His Kingdom. We are authorized to speak for Him, and we make decisions that will advance the Kingdom of God on this earth.
Now, there is something you should know about the political make-up of the Roman Empire that was in existence during the time that Paul revealed to us in 2 Corinthians 5 that we are Ambassadors. The Roman Empire had two provinces that made up the Empire. Ambassadors were sent to these two provinces in order to represent Rome and the Emperor.
One of the provinces was called the Senatorial Province. This province was generally friendly to Rome. They had submitted to Roman rule and were under the control of the Senate. The other province was called the Imperial Province. These were territories that Rome had taken over by force. They were not peaceful or friendly toward Rome. They were under the control of the Emperor himself.
Christians are God’s ambassadors. As ambassadors, we represent Jesus and His Kingdom to both friendly and unfriendly territory. There are those that are friendly to the Church. There are those that are not friendly to the Church. In any case, we represent the King and His Kingdom. We are to represent Him in all of our affairs. We work to bring all things under the headship, or authority of Christ.
The main mission or objective of the Kingdom Ambassador is “reconciliation”. Our main objective is to bring reconciliation to the world which can be both friendly and unfriendly to King Jesus and His Kingdom that we represent. We accomplish this mission by making peace with God.
The main mission or objective of the Kingdom Ambassador is “reconciliation”.
First, we must make sure that we are at peace with God by repenting of our sins and following Him as His disciple. Then, we help others make peace with God by preaching the Gospel to them so they too can repent and become followers of Christ. Once a person is a follower of Christ, they become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), with a new mind that allows them to break free from the world’s system and ways of doing things and live according to God’s system and ways. (Romans 12:2) This change happens little by little, yet it increases with one life change at a time until homes, churches, and communities are changed for the glory of God.
Do you ever feel unimportant? Do you ever feel unneeded? There are times we all feel that way. The truth is regardless of how we feel, we are important. In fact, if we are truly “born-again”, we hold an important position in the Kingdom of God. We are Ambassadors of Christ.
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