We Are Ambassadors for Christ

2 Corinthians 5:11-21

We are those who know the fear of the Lord

People of the heart

Paul’s ministry is of the heart, not for outward appearances

What we are is known to God, and I hope is known to your conscience

He knows that his life is laid bare before God

God knows the genuineness of his life and ministry

He hopes that the Corinthians will also recognize his genuineness

We are not commending ourselves again

We are giving you something to boast about so that you may have an answer for those who boast about outward appearances

Paul emphasizes that their boast is NOT about what is in the heart

Out of our minds and in our minds

If we are out of our mind, it is for God

If they call us crazy, know that we are

If we are in our right mind, it is for you

When we speak the truth of God to you, it is for your sake

He is not motivated by self-aggrandizement

Are you primarily motivated by outward appearances?

Do you care more about what people think of your life than what God thinks?

Do you live in the fear of God, remembering that He knows your heart completely?

The love of Christ controls our lives

Paul’s heart and mind have been captured and compelled by a singular reality: the love of Christ

Is this love his love for Christ, Christ’s love for him, or Christ’s love for sinners?

1 John 4:19-21- We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

One has died for all

Who is “all”?

It cannot be all people in the world

That would lead to universalism, which is heresy

The text itself makes clear that this is not all people

“All” is all believers

It is all believers who have died, and, through that death, now live

Therefore all have died

When one turns and receives Christ by faith, their old self dies with Christ, so as to sever the power of sin and give a life with a new heart

Romans 6:4- We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

The love of Christ reorients our lives

He died so that all who live might no longer live for themselves but for Christ

Christ is the one who died for their sake and who was raised from the dead

The grace of the Gospel is not only grace to forgive sins, but it is also grace that transforms and empowers us

The mark of a genuine believer is a new life orientation away from living for themselves toward living for Jesus

We are those who persuade others

We are new creations in Christ

From now on we regard no one according to the flesh

We used to regard Christ according to the flesh

We regard him thus no longer

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation

The old has passed away

The new has come

We have been reconciled to God

God reconciled us to Himself through Christ

Sinful man is not born at peace with God, but as enemies of God

Romans 5:6-11- For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

He no longer counts our sins against us

We are ambassadors for Christ

We have been given a ministry of reconciliation

Those whom He has reconciled to Himself have been entrusted with the work of reconciling others to Himself

O how great and glorious is the grace of God in Christ!

We make our appeal to the darkened, hardened, dead, rebellious, unbelieving sinner of the world, of which we used to be

And we trust God alone to shatter their dead rebellion and grant them faith and life in Him

We have been given a message of reconciliation

Paul ends this pert of the section with the appeal that we carry with us

“Be reconciled to God, for God made Christ bore the full weight of the sin of all who will believe in order that they might receive the full weight of His perfect righteousness

Those who have the ministry and message are ambassadors

So now we carry the Good News to the world so that they might experience this same grace through faith in Christ

One immediate application

Fathers, be ambassadors for Christ in your families