On being Christ’s ambassadors
By Rick Vance
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ…”
––2 Corinthian 5:17-18
I hope your Lenten journey to draw closer to Christ has been fruitful.
Today as I was praying, Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth came to mind. The scripture tell us that in Christ, we are a new creation.
However, today, the question “So what?” came to my mind.
As I went back to the letter, I found Paul continues by saying:
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
––2 Cor. 5:18-20
WOW! God reconciled us to Himself, not just for personal satisfaction, but that we might be Christ’s representatives with a message of reconciliation. Simply put, Easter is not only a message that Christ rose that we might have life. It is, rather, a message that we will have life through the risen Christ and because of that, we now have an imperative to call others to “on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5:20)
As United Methodist Men, we have an amazing opportunity to be Christ’s ambassadors not just within the walls of our local churches, but in all of the places we find ourselves, calling men into an on-growing “reconciled” relationship with Christ.
By doing this, we are not only hearers of the Easter miracle, we are co-labors in living it out in the world each day.
My prayers and wishes are for you and your family to have an amazing, holy and blessed ONGOING Easter season.
Your brother on the Journey,
Rick Vance, director men’s ministry
General Commission on UM Men