The following was written for our denomination's Prayer Emphasis Month blog:
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded
this: that One has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all,
that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for
their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15 ESV).
I don’t know where the idea came from that our faith is
solely a personal and private thing. Perhaps that is part of the Western
independence that insists no one else can tell me what to do. But it is clear
in Scripture that Christians are to live for God, and therefore we must be
united and working together as the Body of Christ. The cross of Christ means
that we are not our own kings, but we belong to the One who died for us. We
were bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:20).
It’s interesting how often we take 2 Corinthians 5:17 out of
context, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has
passed away; behold the new has come.” Faith in Christ isn’t just for personal
transformation, but for a whole new way of relating to the world as a new
entity called the Body of Christ.
The result is that we are therefore ministers of
reconciliation. It’s not that we “ought to be,” but we are ambassadors whether we act that way or not. We don’t receive
the gift of faith just so we can be sure of our eternal destiny, although that
is one benefit. We receive it so it can be worked out in daily life through our
actions and words, and so that others might come to know Christ as Savior.
We can quickly think of public figures who claim to be
Christians but whose lives belie that claim. We may even think of many within
our own church or family. However, none of us are perfect representatives of
Christ. We try with varying degrees of effort and success to say and do what is
best. Thankfully, it is not our effort that brings results, but it is “God making
His appeal through us” (v. 20). His purposes will prevail, as the cross of
Christ has already proven.
