Be at peace with God
by Rev Jacky Quarmby 8 April 2022
Reading: 2 Corinthians 5: 16 – 21
“In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
So we are ambassadors for Christ.”
An ambassador is someone sent to a foreign land, carrying a message from their government or community. The ambassador represents the sending nation and therefore both their actions and words speak for that nation.
Paul says that we are ambassadors for Christ. While we live in this world, we are no longer of this world. Our citizenship is now in heaven. We are like strangers or aliens in the land, but we are here as ambassadors to carry a message from Christ, both by what we say and by how we live our lives.
What is the message of reconciliation? It is that a Holy God loved the people that he had created so much, that He was willing to take the initiative Himself and break down the barrier of sin that humanity had built up between themselves and God. It is that God sent his only son Jesus to die on the cross so that our sins would no longer count against us, but we could be reconciled to God. It is that forgiveness and new life in the power of God’s Holy Spirit is available for all who accept what Jesus has done for them and turn back to God. As John Wesley once said, “All need to be saved. All may be saved. All may know themselves saved. All may be saved to the uttermost.”
Next week, on Good Friday, we will have an opportunity to act as ambassadors for Christ and to bear witness to Christ’s amazing act of sacrificial love on the cross, as we sing and pray and share hot cross buns with our neighbours. I hope that you will be able to join us.
Charles Wesley expressed his yearning that all should come to recognize God’s saving love in his hymn, “Jesus – the name high over all”. May the words below express our longings too, as we seek to be ambassadors for Christ.
O that the world might taste and see
The riches of his grace!
The arms of love that compass me
Would all the earth embrace.
His only righteousness I show
His saving grace proclaim;
‘tis all my business here below
To cry: “Behold the lamb!”
Song: How deep the Father’s love for us
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Merciful and Forgiving Lord,
You bought me with a price, and I know that You love me.
You have called me to love my neighbour as myself
And to share my greatest treasure with those around me. That treasure is You.
Bring to my mind ways I can love and bless my neighbours,
and grant that I might have the privilege of testifying to Your goodness
to those in my community today.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.