What does it mean to be an ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20)?

Being reconciled, the Apostle can say that a ministry of reconciliation is given to us, with which we can go to the world. When Christ was here, God was in Christ proclaiming the love and grace of God. But Christ has been rejected and gone from the world. But, even so, during the time of His absence, the grace of God sends His servants as ambassadors for Christ beseeching the poor world, in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God. It will be noticed that the "you," twice repeated in italics, and the "ye" should be omitted. The insertion of these pronouns limits the truth to believers; whereas the appeal is to the world.

The believer is reconciled, and knows that this has been effected by the death of Christ, in which He was made, what we were before God, on the cross, that we might become what He is before God in the glory, and thus made perfectly suited to God. In view of the coming judgment, the Apostle "persuades" men; in view of the grace of God, that proclaims the work of reconciliation, he "beseeches" men. If men refuse the grace that reconciles, there is nothing left for them but the terror of judgment.

But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; and over human iniquity at its worst God triumphs in Christ, yea in His cross. Hence, when the Son of man was cast out of the world, when it is no longer God in Christ reconciling the world and rising above every offence, He put the word of the reconciliation in chosen vessels; and as we have had the character of God's action in Christ in the days of His flesh, so here follows their character as sent out to testify of Him. "For Christ then we are ambassadors, God as it were beseeching by us, we entreat for Christ, Be reconciled to God: him that knew not sin he made sin for us, that we might become God's righteousness in him." (Vers. 20, 21.) The dignity is indeed great. They represent, not Levites, nor priests, nor yet the high priest, but Christ dead and risen, and this in the aspect of divine grace, God as it were (it was not meet to speak absolutely) beseeching by us: we entreat on behalf, or instead, of Christ, Be reconciled to God. Such is the gospel call to the world in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. The grace of God and of Christ is stamped on every word; and human assumption as wholly excluded from its nature, as human worth or means from that new creation where all things are of God, flowing through Christ risen from the dead.

Calvin expounded verse 20 as the apostle addressing himself to believers. He declares that he brings to them this embassy every day. Christ therefore did not suffer that He might expiate our sins once only, nor was the gospel ordained merely with a view to the pardon of those sins which we committed previously to baptism, but that, as we daily sin, so we might also by a daily remission be received by God into His favour. For this is a perpetual embassy, which must be assiduously sounded forth in the church till the end of the world; and the gospel cannot be preached unless remission of sins is promised. This is as great an error, if not so pernicious, as the broad-church rationalism which teaches that the world is reconciled to God. The contrary of this last appears from this very verse. The apostle exemplifies the gospel call he was commissioned to declare in the words, Be reconciled to God. This exhortation does imply that they were not yet reconciled; and no boldness of assertion, no tortuous reasoning, can elude the plain expression of scripture. Not less plainly does the apostle contradict the first error in verse 18, which states that God reconciled us to Himself by Christ — a fact accomplished for the believer, as other scriptures treating of the subject confirm. It is false that the apostle is here addressing himself to believers; he is giving a specimen of the true call to the unconverted. Neither here nor anywhere else does he testify that he brings to the saints such an embassy as this every day.

What a message then is that given to His servants! It is totally in contrast to that of asking something from man, but the declaring of the kindness of God in making full provision for man's reconciliation by pure grace. The apostles were in a special way "ambassadors for Christ," sent with the message of such love, the instruments through whom God Himself entreated mankind to be reconciled to Him. It would be more normal to expect that man would be earnestly entreating God to deal in mercy with him. But God rather urges man to accept now the mercy that He has so graciously proffered to all. So His love is seen, not only in the wonderful sacrifice of His own Son to bear our sins, but also in His patient grace and entreaty with men to receive His love.

Verse 20. "We therefore as ambassadors for Christ," etc. God was in Christ, Christ is in God, and with Him is the hidden life of all His saints (Col. 3:3). As messengers and ministers of God, therefore, the inspired apostles, and in a secondary sense all genuine evangelists, are ambassadors also of God's world-rejected Son. God speaks, but speaks for Christ, and in His name. As in the days of His flesh the Son's delight was by His words and deeds to glorify the Father, so now God's witness by His Spirit is entirely of Jesus. His voice speaks through the lips of ambassadors, who like their Master urge no outward claim upon the world's regard, and whose dignity consists solely in the message which they bear (1 Cor. 3:5). Moreover, it is Christ also who is personally received, or a second time rejected in the word of His own grace. All therefore who now desire peace with their Creator must take their answer from the lips of the exalted Son of man. They, again, who now desire to see Jesus, must for the present rest contented with the testimony of the gospel. His Name is now given under heaven for salvation; we are justified by faith, and not by sight. As to the form and power of this ambassage, it is men who appear, it is God who really entreats. As in the days of Christ's humiliation, they who saw Him saw the Father also, and all who heard Him listened to the words of God; so now, the ear that hearkens to the gospel is addressed through human lips indeed, but by the Spirit of the living God. None but the Holy Ghost can truly testify of Jesus. Paul and his fellows are ministers, and do their service in communion with the grace which they declare; but the ministry is of the Spirit — "as though God did beseech you by us." Truly He is for peace who thus makes suit to His rebellious creatures, and entreats them in the name of Him, who by dying for the guilty has removed all cause of strife, to be at peace with Him.

When Christ was here, God was in Him with reconciliation in view for the whole world. He came to bring men to God, not to arraign them before God, bringing them to book as regards their sins. This we see strikingly exemplified in John 8:11. But God's overtures to men in Christ, with reconciliation in view, were rejected and He was put to death. It is one of the chief wonders of the Gospel that notwithstanding this His death became the basis of the reconciliation that is being announced today.

We believers are now reconciled to God; and as reconciled ourselves we have a part in the ministry of reconciliation. When the Apostle wrote, "We are ambassadors for Christ," he probably was thinking of himself and his fellow-labourers and the other apostles, for they were in a special sense put in trust with the Gospel; yet his words have an application to every believer. The church of God is like a divine embassy in the hostile world, and each of us has to remember that we are a part of that embassy, and that our attitude towards men has to be in keeping with the word of reconciliation that we carry. At the end of verse 20 we get as in a nutshell what the word of reconciliation is. The words, "you," "you," and "ye," are not in the original. "God as it were beseeching by us, we entreat for Christ, Be reconciled to God" (N. Tr.).

Notice the omission of the "you" in verse 20 of our chapter. "Did beseech by us": there is the verb only without the pronoun: he is saying how he preaches to the world, begging them to be reconciled. What he says is, "when I preach the gospel, this is what I do": of course it means to the world. If he is an ambassador, he is an ambassador to somebody. It would be confined to the apostles to go as absolute ambassadors. There are not now ambassadors in quite the same way, but in some degree.

But the Spirit, Who is to guide the evangelist and be the power of his ministry is not only the "Spirit of love" but first of all the "Spirit of truth." "The ambassador for Christ" therefore, whilst endeavouring by a gracious, patient and loving demeanour to win souls for Christ, should never, like the diplomatist of this world, stoop to the low policy of flattery, painting over and propping up the old Adam, trimming the empty lamp of the respectable religionist, making pillows for every armpit, and speaking "peace" where there is no peace, for the sake of the "cause," and of a good attendance in chapel or church, or missionary rooms. Unlike this world's ambassadors, who, whilst ever conscious of the majesty of their sovereign and of the dignity of their office, always are mindful of the reverence due to the sovereign and government, to whom they have been sent, the ambassador for Christ, being fully alive to the glory, majesty and power of his heavenly Master and of the dignity of his office and of the all-importance of his mission, never should flinch from faithfully delivering his message, all-absorbing in its eternal importance, and eclipsing in its divinely glorious character all the vain glories of this world and its potentates. Be it in the presence of the great ones of the earth, or faced by the fury of an impious mob, he delivers his fearless testimony of divine truth to their consciences, whilst with God's "small voice" of grace, he knows how to appeal to their hearts with this message of grace, peace, and life. Unlike the ambassador of this world, who is bound and eager to represent in his grand appearance the power and dignity of his sovereign or government, and to reflect their glory in the style of his living and the splendour of his retinue, Christ's ambassador is prepared and ready to appear as the "off-scouring of all things and the filth of the world," where his Master, the "Lord of glory," was "crucified."

But He is not only "Light," but also "Love." His ambassadors, whilst reflecting by walk and word the light of Him that sent them, and carrying the light of the gospel of glory into this sin-benighted world, should be the expression of His love no less than of His light. They are inseparable (1 John 2:9-11). Knowing the "terror of the Lord," His apostle "persuaded men"; but the "love of Christ constraining" him, he "besought" sinners and enemies, to be "reconciled to God." Even the ambassadors of this world do everything, by a courteous, kind, and obliging demeanour, to gain the confidence and goodwill of those around them and thus widen their circle of influence. How much more should Christ's ambassadors, by their mien, word and action, he the (however imperfect) expression of the love of Him Who sent them, and Who gave Himself for the salvation of those to whom they are sent! His voice should be like the voice of the charmer, not only "charming never so wisely," which rarely produces real and lasting effect for blessing, and often the very opposite, but attracting and winning souls in their own interest by the enchanting voice and appeal of Christ's love in the evangelist's heart, uttered and ministered by the Spirit, not only of "power," but of love, and of a "sound mind."

This being so, then God's servants are expected to appeal earnestly to all men. "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20). "We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ" (Col. 1:28).

Thus has He reconciled us to Himself, through Christ. He has brought us out of all the estrangement natural to us. There is no distance; there is nearness. There is no separation of our things from His. They are, so to speak, identical; and thus not the apostle alone could say, nor any class among Christians merely, that "He hath given us the ministry of reconciliation." By the very fact that He has brought us to Himself and made Himself known to us, He has given its the power also of making known to others that with which our own souls are filled and of bringing others to Him. We have received the reconciliation; and what we have received, we have received not for ourselves alone, but to minister with it. It is the work which Christ Himself began upon earth when God in Him assumed the attitude of perfect grace, not imputing men's trespasses to them, reconciling, therefore, the world to Himself. It is not a question of how far this might be effectual, of how far men, in fact, responded to it. It was His attitude. It was on God's part complete, and now, with that work accomplished which he speaks of directly as the basis of it all, and which always must have been the basis of it, a work foreseen by God before it was accomplished, but which is now accomplished, He is still reconciling men, but through others, who stand instead of Christ here, His authenticated ambassadors, by whom God beseeches men still. "We pray," says the apostle, "in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." That is, Christ is not here Himself to do this, but He has multiplied the hands which are to minister it. He has on every side the witnesses that are to speak for Him. The apostle and those with him, sent in the first place direct from Christ, fulfilled this character, of course, in the most complete and authoritative way, but we must not on that account overlook our own part in it, — a part which every Christian has. It is not, indeed, a mere question of something entrusted to us, but of hearts that know God's grace and know men's need of it, which must necessarily, therefore, speak of what they know. As we have already seen, he who believes speaks. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."