A Christian is a person who desires others to become Christians, and is willing, because of the love God has given him, to become a means by which God brings others to faith, repentance, and eternal life, through sharing the redemptive message of Jesus Christ, which the bible calls the gospel.
Hello and Welcome back to our series, “Bringing Clarity to the Term Christian”. We are gradually approaching the end of this rather lengthy blog series, which I hope, if you have been reading through it, has been enlightening and, of course, “clear”. Writing this blog has been very helpful for me as it has given me and an opportunity to reflect on the power and importance of God’s Word, and the awesomeness of His entire work of redemption.
In our last blog, we talked about the Christian being aware of his own sin and his need for repentance and to be led by the Holy Spirit. We discussed the importance of sanctification and how God, through his grace has given us the means to progress in holiness and to become like him.
In this blog, I want to move the conversation from the Christian and his Savior to the Christian and his peers. With this in mind, let’s look at Statement 12 of our series.
Statement 12:
A Christian is a person who desires others to become Christians, and is willing, because of the love God has given him, to become a means by which God brings others to faith, repentance, and eternal life, through sharing the redemptive message of Jesus Christ, which the bible calls the gospel.
One of the most important things we must understand, that can often get lost in an individual’s personal Christian experience is that God is in the process of saving many people. I know that for a Christian, this may sound obvious but it needs to be stated for two reasons. First of all, it is often the case, even in the aftermath of one’s own salvation experience, to be focused greatly on our own new-found relationship with God, and our need and desire to know Him better. This behavior as a new Christian is actually a proper and healthy response to salvation. However, we must also recognize that the Spirit of God is at work in others besides us. Even though the Christian feels a deep sense of love, gratitude and appreciation for the salvation that Christ brought to him, there are other men and women He has also determined to provide the same salvation to.
Secondly, within God’s plan to save others, He has designed a means to carry out this plan “through” other Christians. I am continually amazed at God’s redemptive story that he is actualizing in time and how he has given us the unmerited opportunity to both benefit from and participate in His story.
In the second letter to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul lays out this incredibly beautiful and profound process of human engagement in calling those whom He has chosen to Himself.
First of all Paul says:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
2 Corinthians 5:17 New American Standard Version (NASB)
What an encouraging word for any believer to hear! The passage begins with Paul acknowledging the beauty of individual salvation. He says that those who are in Christ are “new creations”. It is as if God has created a whole new person. And, indeed, he has. The old life of sin has “passed away”, Paul says. For the Christian, his sin has been totally forgiven and removed. Jesus Christ has paid the sin debt and the Christian is set free from the penalty of God’s wrath and eternal punishment. Through Christ, the “old man of sin” is now gone,
Then Paul says this…
“behold (or look), new things have come”.
The Holy Spirit of God has infused the Christian with spiritual life and he stands a brand-new person in Jesus Christ. For those of us who have been given true saving faith, we understand what Paul means here. The relief felt from being free from the bondage of sin and the love God places in your heart for Him and others are revelatory of new spiritual life.
Having given us this wonderful statement of the Christians new state, Paul then makes a transition where he shifts the focus from the Christian’s benefit of salvation to his participation in the salvation of others.
Paul says:
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:18 New American Standard Version (NASB)
Paul tells us in this passage that this activity of salvation, marked by the doing away of the old sinful man and the creation of the spiritually new man in Christ was all about God getting us right with God again, or “reconciling”. But right after the Christian gets right with God, he is then given a work to do…a “ministry”. This ministry is called the “ministry of reconciliation”. The ministry of reconciliation is simply the loving work of bringing others to the place where they too can be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.
Paul defines this act of reconciliation in the following passage:
…. namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them….
2 Corinthians 5:19a New American Standard Version (NASB)
In these few words, Paul summarizes God’s work of redemption for those of us who are now Christians. God the Father, sent God the Son, to become a man, in order to give us His righteousness, and to take on our sin, in order that God the Father, would not count our sins against us, thus providing peace between us and the Triune God. This is how God administered reconciliation.
Now even though this activity of reconciliation is all of God, He has designed a unique way of providing it to his people. God uses those whom he has already reconciled to Himself to bring others whom he has chosen for salvation, the message of reconciliation.
Paul says that God has committed to the Christian the “word” of reconciliation. This “word” that Paul speaks of is the means by which others are reconciled to God when they hear it and believe it. This word of reconciliation is the gospel message itself.
When going over this passage by Paul, I cannot help but think about how gracious and wise God was in His method of reconciliation. God could have easily just spoken to each of us individually, in social isolation, and given us His message of redemption directly. However, He decided to use believers, full of love for Him and a longing for others to know Him, to tell of His redeeming work in and for them.
In verse 21 Paul says:
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21 New American Standard Version (NASB)
What an awesome way to create a spiritual family, the ecclesia or (called out ones). This is how God identifies his people…his church.
For Christians, salvation should be a deeply personal experience followed by a sincere desire for others to share in the same gift of salvation that they have received. When we as Christians think of how God in his mercy has granted us freedom from His wrath and eternal punishment, and knowing that there are those who without God’s mercy will face His divine judgment, out of love for our fellow men, we are compelled to share the means of deliverance from God’s wrath that we have so graciously benefitted from.
For those of us who have trusted Jesus Christ for our salvation, may we always seek to be the conduit God uses to brings others to Himself.
Thanks again for joining us on this blog and we hope to see you return as we draw closer to concluding our series on “Bringing Clarity to the term Christian”.
God Bless.
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