II Corinthians 5:20

II Corinthians 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Yesterday we talked about reconciliation. Today Paul uses another word picture: we are ambassadors. What is an ambassador and what do they do? Ambassadors live in a foreign land and represent their home country. They are not citizens of this foreign land, they are only there temporarily. And that is a great picture of us and our Christian life. We do not belong to this world; we are going home to heaven someday soon. But while we are here, we represent Jesus Christ, our Savior. We are His ambassadors.

II Corinthians 5:18,19

II Corinthians 5:18,19 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. The word reconciled is an interesting word. When two neighbors are having a disagreement, they don’t get along. One neighbor leaves his dog out all night to bark and irritate the other neighbor. Then the other neighbor builds a big fence between them. Then the other plays loud music late at night. And then the other plays loud music early in the morning. But a third neighbor gets involved. The two feuding neighbors both like this third neighbor, and they will listen to him. So this third neighbor reconciles the two feuding neighbors. He brings them back together and makes peace in the neighborhood. So, back in our verse, we were separated from God by our wicked sins. God loved us, but His holiness couldn’t stand our sins. So Jesus Christ died for our sins and reconciled us to God. He paid our sin debt so that we could be restored to fellowship with our heavenly Father. Jesus Christ reconciled us and has given us the ministry of reconciliation to others. So we share the good news of salvation with others and bring them to Christ. We reconcile them to God by showing them that Jesus is reconciling them to God. We are working with Jesus Christ in a ministry of reconciliation. “We love Him because He first loved us” I John 4:19

II Corinthians 5:17

II Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. When you believe in Jesus Christ, you are born again. You are changed from a sinner to a saint. It is as if you are changed into a completely different creature. It’s like an ugly caterpillar is changed into a beautiful butterfly. It used to crawl around eating leaves, but now it flies from flower to flower sipping nectar. And so it is with us as new Christians. We are changed. We are transformed. We become brand new creatures. And Jesus has made all of this possible. Isn’t He wonderful?!