I think of an ambassador as someone dignified – the best of the best of a culture – sent to represent that culture to a strange and foreign land. Probably the quickest way to guarantee NOT being appointed as an ambassador is to have a shady, messy past. But God seems to work very differently.
So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” - 2 Corinthians 5:20 (NLT)
Paul is writing to people who have been reconciled to God, who have a messy past, who were rebels. And he’s labeling them as “Christ’s ambassadors.” Can’t God find some nicer specimens than the likes of us who have sinned and blown it? Well, no, actually since there is “none righteous, no not one.” But there’s a bigger back story to His appointment of imperfect ambassadors than even that.
Who better to tell the world about redemption, reconciliation, recovery, and the freedom of God’s forgiveness than those who have been the recipients of it themselves? We are ambassadors because of God’s gracious work in our lives, not because of our own qualifications. So, two things…
- Stop believing that it’s better to be the flawless, self-righteous and pious ambassador that you’re not.
- Start allowing your own recovery story to be the real, raw public image you share as God’s representative in a strange and foreign land. He picked you for this. You didn’t deserve it, but He assigned you the task purely by His grace. So revel in it and go represent Him humbly today!
