What Christ had done should bring
about correct responses from us. His obedience on the cross should make us want
to live for Him. Christians should desire to live for Christ. So from verse 16
to verse 21 Paul showed us we could live for Him by serving others. What does
serving others entail?
Firstly, there’s a need to have a right value of others.
People should be seen from the perspective of what Christ had done for them,
not merely from their outward appearances. Paul knew that at one time of his
life, referring to his pre-conversion days, he saw Christ from only his own human
perspective. Hence he was not able to recognize Who Christ really was. As a result
Paul was not able to serve Him as he ought to. In the same way we can never serve
Christ and others well if we do not have a proper perspective of Christ Jesus
our Lord.
Secondly, Paul shows us that it is needful to also have a
proper evaluation of ourselves if we are to be effective servants of Christ. Verse
17 tells us that we need to know our new status in Christ. We are new creations
in Christ. Our old life, our past, whether good or bad, had passed away. We no
longer operate from our old perspective. Christ had given us a new beginning to
life. With the new status, we should operate with a new mindset and not the old
one. In Christ, our old motives, our self-centered life, our old way of valuing
people, old way of valuing Christ, and our life of being separated from God, were
all dealt with and done away
Thirdly, in verses 18-19, Paul wants us to know that as Christ’s
New Creation, believers have a responsibility. As with all privileges, this one
also comes with a responsibility. We are privileged to be reconciled to God through
what Christ had done on the cross. God is the one who had reconciled us to Himself
through Christ. He had put our sins and guilt on Christ at the cross and forgave
us and drew us to Himself. Now He entrusts us with a responsibility, i.e. to be
involved in the ministry of reconciliation, of directing people to Christ. We
are to tell people that in Christ God forgives them, and do not hold their sins
against them. Now as God’s representative, we are required and expected to share
this word of reconciliation with others.
Fourthly, in verse 20, Paul tells us that we are now God’s
representatives in the World today. An ambassador is one who is sent to relay
the message of the emperor. An ambassador is one who would act in place of the
emperor. And he does not act independent of the emperor or speak about himself.
His sole purpose is to relay what the emperor wants. He is a carrier of the
emperor’s message. It is God, the supreme emperor, who has made us His
ambassadors in the world. We must now act in His place, to relay His message
and desire to the world. God expects every Christian to do this task and not
just the pastors and fulltime workers. God is now making His appeal to the
people through all of us, His believers.
Just in case there are people who may feel that they are not
qualified to be God’s ambassadors, Paul in verse 21 dealt with that. In this
fifth and final point, Paul showed that Christ had given every Christian a new
righteousness. In Christ, God had dealt with our sins, acquitted us of all of them.
The word “righteousness” is a legal term, meaning that we are just and right as
far as God is concerned. And we are not only acquitted but cleansed, and now to
be the instrument to reflect that righteous state God had offered in Christ.
The issue that confronts us in these verses is this: how should
we function as God’s ambassadors today? How we value people, self, the Gospel message,
our roles in this message and God’s expectation of us, are critical elements that
will make us effective representatives of Christ. What now should we do? The
call is ours to make and He is waiting!
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