You Are God’s Ambassador To The United Nations

As a genuine lover of God, you are a living witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Whether you are comfortable with that reality or not, you are a thriving 24/7 witness for Jesus Christ.

In a deeper sense, then, every Christian is a witness to the gospel regardless of his or her own level of faithfulness to the King.  And so the real issue is not, Get up and get going Christian, but how effective are you at being a witness for Jesus Christ now that you are saved and commissioned.

This is quite true and more life changing than you might imagine.

A diplomat is someone who represents a single, self-regulating government, conducting relations with the governments of foreign nations.  The diplomat’s function, essentially, is to do whatever they can in order to make foreign nations feel comfortable about doing business with the diplomat’s own government.

They are wine-and-dine types who try to get others around them to feel relaxed and at ease.

On describing the job duties of a diplomat, one author sarcastically commented that a diplomat is, “A person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.” (1)

Although comical, that certainly does not describe the church’s function here in this world.  Not hardly.  Christians are not spiritual diplomats trying to “relate” to the tares and other sinners of this world.  We are not trying to relate to sinners and our chief business is not getting sinners to relate to us either.

We are ambassadors for Jesus Christ—not wine-and-dine diplomats.

An ambassador is the highest-ranking representative appointed by one government to represent its own interests, ideals and opinions to other foreign governments.  That is quite different from being a schmoozing diplomat.

Someone who is an Ambassador-At-Large may represent their government to any foreign government around the globe.  An Ambassador Extraordinary, on the other hand, is someone who has been appointed to a specific mission to one government in particular.  That is what genuine Christians really are.

We are ambassadors on an extraordinary mission to the people of whichever nation we find ourselves in at the moment.

As a believer, your role in this fallen world is to passionately represent the God who saved you by making Him well known to people outside His kingdom.  As the apostle Peter wrote, “But you are a CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY” (1 Peter 2:9-10; italics mine).

How have you been doing with your ministry of representing God as an Ambassador Extraordinary?  It is a 24/7 job, in case you were wondering.  You are to be busy with the work in season and out of season.

J.I. Packer wrote, “Every Christian, therefore, has a God-given obligation to make known the gospel of Christ.  And every Christian who declares the gospel message to any fellow man does so as Christ’s ambassador and representative, according to the terms of his God-given commission.”

Some ambassadors have been assigned a mission that is rather dangerous and potentially lethal, aimed at a foreign nation hostile to our own government.  Others have been assigned to a people group that, while they may enjoy their company, they are not willing to defect and become co-citizens with us.

Yet every ambassador spends the majority of their time outside the country of their own citizenship.

Christian ambassadors have a full-time job called Great Commission Discipleship.  It is a job we are always a part of, yet many of us are not very effective while doing it.  Why is that?

Some of us are more asleep on the job than we are at being active in our ambassadorial duties.  That is a serious problem because foreign governments (like most non-Christians today) are not interested in receiving thousands of ambassadors from other countries.  As far as they are concerned, one or two is more than enough.

True Christians long to be with their Abba King.  We are drawn nearer to Him each day while being more conformed to the image of His Son.  Yet until our work on this planet is done, our vapor is extinguished, or the last trumpet sounds, we must be diligent about the business of representing our God’s morals, ideals, directions, laws, covenants, judgments, commandments, and promises to a people who reject both Him and the message we bring.

Christian disciples proclaim the gospel with authoritative power because “we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20).

We’re to mimic the apostle Paul’s desire “that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak” (Ephesians 6:18-20; italics mine).

An ambassador who refuses to represent the government they have been commissioned by and, instead, conforms themselves to the will of a foreign dictator, would at best be considered reckless.  It is more likely, however, that such an ambassador would be immediately recalled and subsequently imprisoned for being a spy—if not shot by a firing squad!

Ambassadors receive their marching orders from the government of their citizenship.  And for Christians, the God of the universe governs us.  The message He has commissioned us with is called the gospel, and it is a ministry that demands the reconciliation of every creature.

As an ambassador for Christ, your message to the nations of this world is that our King is coming to war against them and that He’ll utterly destroy them unless they surrender unconditionally.

Ambassadors “Go” to their assigned country—not to make friends but to speak the truth in love.  Passionate love.

So, how have you been doing with your assigned ministry lately?