AgapeFocus APPLYING GOD'S SOLUTIONS TO HUMAN PROBLEMS

2 Corinthians 5:20-21: Ambassadors For Christ: So, You are an ambassador? An ambassador indeed, simply because of what God Almighty, through Jesus Christ has done. For God has made Jesus to be sin for you and me. He never knew sin, never committed any sin. He was even bold enough to face his accusers and ask them; Which one of them could really convince him that he had committed any sin?No one was able, yet he was falsely arrested, accused, tried, beaten, mocked and crucified. Within the space of less than 24 hours all these treatments were given to him. He suffered injustice and the mockery of an illegal trial, which condemned him to die as though he were the worst offender. He died alongside condemned, hardened criminals. He was sensitive enough to hear the inward heart-cry of one of the thieves dying beside him! Because that theif repented at the last passing moments of his life Jesus forgave him. Though the thief was not pardoned by the laws of the land, he obtained the full pardon of heaven, through Jesus Christ. Jesus had on his mind and spirit the souls of everyone born and ever yet to be born into this world in all lands and throughout  all generations! Jesus thought about you and me in particular. Jesus Who knew no sin, was made sin. That meant He tasted death for every human being. The Bible declares that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord(Romans 6:23). Jesus paid the price that sin demanded with his life blood shed on the cross. The life of a person is contained in his blood. When blood flows through our hearts and blood vessels that is an indication of life still existing. When blood is shed, the life goes with it and the person dies. Jesus therefore gave his life as a ransom paid to rescue every human individual from spiritual and eternal death. The Bible declares: But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all(Isaiah 53:5-6). Jesus died for our sins on the cross, he was buried in a donated tomb, not borrowed. He rose up from the grave on the third day, just as the Holy Scriptures foretold. God does not condemn any person for his /her sins. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be saved(John 3:17). The good news is this: That God offers full pardon to all, because of what Christ did on the cross and rose again. God is no more angry at you, because He had visited His full anger through judgment upon Jesus Christ, His Son, who surrendered to become our substitute; our sin-bearer and our ransom. As a result of the pleasing sacrifice made  by Jesus during which he fulfilled the standard of the law of God by his death on the cross, we are declared not guilty by God, basically. The taste of the pudding is in the eating. Every person ought to claim the priviledged benefit of the sacrificial, substitutionary death of Jesus. God gave his approval by raising Jesus from the grave on the third day.  The word of God declares that if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess him as Lord with your mouth, you shall be saved.  For with the heart a person believes, fully trusting in and relying on Christ and so is justified and made acceptable to GOD. With the mouth, the person confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord and he is saved. Through Jesus Christ, peace was made with Almighty God by his blood which he volunteered to be shed on the cross. The whole of the human race has  eversince been reconciled to God. Everybody ought to hear and know this good news personally. The blood of Jesus so shed, has present and everlasting power to wash each trusting person from sin. Each trusting or believing person is given power to live to please God. His or her past has been forgiven, he or she has been given power to become a child of God. A new life has begun. The power of God is given not on merit or because a person has done particularly well. It is by virtue of the mercy of God. It is called grace. By the influence of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul wrote: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them(Ephesisns 2:8-10).  Each believing Christian is a workmanship of God; that is, the handiwork of God. Each one as such is created in Christ Jesus. It is a brand new creation. We were former antagonists of God because we shifted our allegiance from Him to Satan. Through Christ, however, we became transformed. Henceforth, our lives are being enabled to please God. It is written:Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;behold, all things are become new(2 Corinthians 5:17).  Having become beneficiaries of the peace made with God and become reconclied to him, every believing Christian is sent to take and share this good news with any person who would listen. Every Christian is a representative of Christ equiped with the word and message of reconciliation. TELL, URGE, INVITE people everywhere to come to experience the same reconciliation we have experienced. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). An ambassador goes out with delegated authority. He / she goes out with words of commission- THE MARCHING ORDERS. He has been thoroughly briefed-his FEET SHOD WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE.He also has Divine cover and protection.GOD is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble.Therefore we shall not fear, because GOD is with us. We go taking the whole armour of God with us. This is not carnal or physical armour, but the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said: And Lo, I am with you alway, unto the ends of the world (Matthew 28:20)! The power and might of the Kingdom of Heaven is behind us and gone ahead of us.       Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ stead, be ye reconciled to God(2 Corinthians 5:20). Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!