Ambassadors for Christ

Treasures

In 2 Corinthians 5:20 Paul teaches that “we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” In other words, we are representatives of Christ. As citizens of heaven, we represent the kingdom of God. We are on temporary assignment on earth to represent our country and our King. We represent the Prince of Peace, and we have the calling and privilege of imparting His message to the world, as the second half of the verse goes on to say: “We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.”

So many people in our world are lost, lonely, downtrodden, weak, and weary. There are those who are trampled on and oppressed: the poor, the persecuted, the hungry, victims of war, crime, and exploitation. There are those who lack political or social capital and have little in the way of worldly goods or lack basic necessities.

There are others who do have material goods and yet are prisoners of their own desires, and are weary and heavy laden with stress, fears, and phobias. There are those who wear a smile, yet ache inside; those who are engulfed in a sea of emptiness; those who suffer from pain, guilt, bitterness, and condemnation; those who feel remorse over the past or fear the future. There are so many people who live in despair in the world.

Event after event leaves people questioning. “Why all the pain and strife in the world? Why the war and the death of innocents? Why troubles and sorrows?” People desperately need to know the truth and see the light. As Christ’s representatives on earth, we are called to share the gospel message so that people have the opportunity to “know the truth that will set them free” (John 8:32), and to shine His light and love to those around us.

Jesus said: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. … In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14–16)

Through His children, God is trying to show the world what He is like. “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” (John 3:16). Jesus said that the second of the two greatest commandments was to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39), and He told His disciples that “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).

Jesus’ last message to His disciples after His resurrection and before His ascension to heaven expressed what is known as the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20). The first Christians were obedient to this calling and changed the world and the course of history forever with God’s love and truth.

The way they lived convinced others that their faith was real. Even their Roman persecutors marveled at the love the Christians had for each other and for all people, and how they served and gave selflessly to people in need. And within two hundred years, one out of five people in the Western world were professing Christians.

Today, over two thousand years later, the heart of humankind is still the same. Many people search for love, truth, and answers to the big questions of life but seldom find them. We who have come to know God and His love have what others need desperately. In the Bible, we find the answers to life’s biggest questions, such as: Why am I here? What is the purpose for my life? Is there a God? Why is there suffering in the world? What is the meaning of life? As Christians, we have been commissioned to share these truths with others.

Greater works

Jesus told His first followers, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these will he do” (John 14:12). This prophetic message was fulfilled as those He was speaking to at the time carried the gospel much further than Jesus had been able to during His brief public ministry, and those they reached carried it even further.

But some Christians today look at the miracles Jesus performed and think, “What are You talking about, Lord? We couldn’t possibly do greater things than You did during Your earthly ministry! You raised the dead, healed the sick, fed the multitudes. How could we do greater things than these?”

For a start, we could feed a bigger multitude than Jesus ever fed. Jesus multiplied five loaves of bread and two small fish to feed 5,000 people for one day (John 6:5–13), but many dedicated Christians have fed more people than that over a lifetime. We can help to provide food for those who lack their daily sustenance, and Christ-followers have been active in feeding the needy of the world throughout history.

Jesus raised the dead. As His followers, we can play a central role in raising people to new spiritual life to live forever with God. The people the Lord raised from the dead eventually died again physically, but when we lead people to believe in Jesus and receive His gift of salvation, they enter into the kingdom of God forever.

In today’s world, Christians have the means to continue to do “greater things” for God. The means for sharing the Good News are far greater with the printed word, the internet, television, radio, and the postal system. We have the greatest opportunities and means at our disposal for spreading the gospel in history.

We are a privileged generation, as we are the first to witness the gospel being preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations (Matthew 24:14). The gospel is being preached to people everywhere in the world, but there are still millions, if not billions, of individuals who have never heard a clear presentation of the gospel. Even if they have heard of Christianity and the name of Jesus, they don’t comprehend who Jesus really was—the Son of God—and what He taught and why it matters.

The Bible says that “faith comes by hearing the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). As ambassadors and witnesses for Christ, we have an important role to play for people to hear the Word of God, for “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:14). We each have the opportunity to share the Good News of salvation in Jesus with those whom our lives touch each day.

The only way people can come to a saving faith in Jesus is by believing in God’s Word. As a witness, you become a living example of the Word of God whenever you impart God’s love and Word to others and the message of salvation. If you have God’s Spirit dwelling in you, you will manifest the love of Jesus as you are being transformed into His likeness (2 Corinthians 3:17–18).

There are so many people who have never heard how they can be saved or never had a chance to understand what Jesus did on the cross, because they have never heard the message or seen a living example of the gospel. As American evangelist Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) once said, “The only Bible the world reads is the one bound in shoe leather.” Edward D. Kimball led Moody to the Lord in the back of the shoe shop where Moody worked. Moody would have never become a great preacher of the gospel if this otherwise unheard-of Sunday school teacher hadn’t reached out to him.

Every time you share your faith with someone, you are giving them the opportunity to become a child of God and to enter into a relationship with God and receive the gift of eternal salvation. Jesus is the only way to salvation. “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). There are so many people who have never heard or had a chance to understand what Jesus did by His death on the cross.

Every Christian is called to be the Bible bound in shoe leather—because many people may never read the Bible or other Christian literature until they see the living example first. We are called to be the love of Christ to the world and to let others see Jesus in us and through our lives. What greater work can we do than to show Jesus to others and tell them about Him through our witness and help them to find Jesus and enter into a relationship with the God “who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3–4).

Let us never forget that the prime requisite for any Christ-follower should be the love that motivated the apostle Paul, the disciples of Jesus, and every great man or woman of God. As Paul expressed it: “The love of Christ compels us.” And the passage goes on to give us the reason for that motivation: “He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14–15).

In the book of 1 John, we read that “God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him” (1 John 4:9). And Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, even so am I sending you” (John 20:21). Jesus came in love to reconcile the world to His Father, and He calls us to express His love in every facet of life and wherever we find ourselves and to whomever we encounter—to be a living example of God’s love to others. May we be faithful to our calling and privilege to be His ambassadors and represent the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16).

Published on Anchor May 2025. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.

Posted in: audio, discipleship, following god, mission, other author, treasures, witnessing

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