Wise are the followers of Jesus who know they are not called into isolation but into the Great Commission. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (vs. 21). The straight truth about the Christian Faith is that her people are a sent people. We simply can’t sit on the sideline and observe. We are called right smack dab into the messy matters concerning life in a broken world. And we go there not as perfect people but as people who have our own issues, but who are living in the outpoured grace of the Living Christ.
In speaking of his own life, as well as the life of those who served with him, the apostle Paul said, “We are ambassadors of Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). He believed this because Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” He is sending us all. Luke quoted Jesus as saying, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
A part of what Jesus calls us to do in the world is to offer forgiveness to those who know they need it. “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained” (John 20:23). Apparently, followers of Jesus have a very serious responsibility to others. We are the people of Jesus who enable true believers to know they are forgiven. We are God’s spokespersons in a way. Only God can forgive sins, and yet His followers are somehow a part of the way God communicates forgiveness. When the Church embraces someone, who has turned to God, and receives them into the fellowship, the embrace of the community of faith is healing and restoring and renewing. God has entrusted to His people the glorious wonders of love, acceptance, forgiveness, cordiality and hospitality.
No other story will bear repeating
As often as this is told;
God’s glad good news
Of His love to sinners
Are tidings which never grow old.
Tell it again and again,
Tell it again and again,
The Gospel story, of grace and glory,
Bears telling again and again.
Ada R. Habershon, 1907.
By the power of the Holy Spirit in us, may we be faithful to our call to be ambassadors of Christ in our times.
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