Everything we have examined in this series has been moving toward this. The new birth — the spirit made alive, the old things passed away, all things become new. Righteousness — the standing before God that sin had destroyed, now fully restored in Christ. Authority — the delegated right of the new creation to operate in the name above every name. Love — the very love of God shed abroad in the heart. The Word — the unshakeable foundation. The body — the community of shared life and function.
All of it converging on a single purpose that the Apostle Paul declares in one extraordinary passage:
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” — 2 Corinthians 5:17–20 (KJV)
The flow is deliberate and inseparable. New creation → reconciliation → ministry of reconciliation → word of reconciliation → ambassador. Paul does not allow these to be separated. The new creation’s identity and the new creation’s mission are the same thing — because what God has done in the new creation is the same work He is doing in the world, and the new creation is the instrument through which that work is extended.
Presbeuo — The Greek Word That Defines the Commission
The word translated ambassadors in 2 Corinthians 5:20 is the Greek presbeuo — and its precise meaning in the first-century context is essential for understanding what Paul is declaring.
In the Roman diplomatic world, an ambassador — a presbus — was not a messenger who merely carried a letter from one government to another. An ambassador was the authorised representative of their sovereign, speaking with the full authority and voice of the one who sent them. When a Roman ambassador spoke, it was legally equivalent to the emperor speaking. The ambassador did not present their own opinions. They presented the position of their principal — and their word carried the weight of their principal’s authority.
When Paul says we are ambassadors for Christ, he is invoking precisely this level of commission. The new creation that carries the message of reconciliation is not presenting a personal religious opinion. They are standing in the place of Christ Himself — as though God did beseech you by us — with the full authority, the full pleading, and the full weight of the God who sent them. When the new creation says to a lost person be ye reconciled to God, God Himself is making that appeal through them.
This is not arrogance. It is the extraordinary dignity that God has placed upon the commission. He could have announced the message of reconciliation through angels, through supernatural signs, through any other means. He chose to commit it — “hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” — to the new creation. The new creation is the primary instrument through which the reconciliation that Christ accomplished is made known to the world.
Reconciliation Accomplished — 2 Corinthians 5:18–19
Before the new creation can carry the ministry of reconciliation, they must understand what reconciliation is — because the word of reconciliation is the specific content of the ambassadorial message, and it can only be declared accurately by one who has grasped precisely what God has done.
“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” — 2 Corinthians 5:18–19 (KJV)
Reconciliation is God’s act, not humanity’s. Paul does not say that humanity reconciled itself to God through religious effort, moral improvement, or spiritual seeking. He says that God reconciled us to himself — the initiative, the provision, and the accomplishment are all on God’s side. The estrangement between God and humanity — created by sin, maintained by the separation that sin produces, resulting in the enmity Paul describes in Romans 5:10 — was not resolved by any effort from the human side. It was resolved by God, through Christ.
Reconciliation is total in its scope. “Reconciling the world unto himself.” Not a select company of the sufficiently spiritual. The world — the full breadth of humanity, every person of every background and every history. The provision of reconciliation is not restricted in its availability. Every person who has ever lived has been reconciled to God in principle — through the finished work of the cross. What remains is for each person to personally receive and appropriate what the cross has already accomplished.
Reconciliation is forensically complete. “Not imputing their trespasses unto them.” The Greek logizomai — to count, to reckon to an account — is used negatively here: God is not counting, not reckoning, not posting to the account. The record of trespass has been dealt with. The legal ground of separation has been removed. The barrier is down — from God’s side. The world does not know this. The world continues to live as though the barrier is up, as though God is counting every trespass, as though approach is impossible or unwelcome. And this is precisely why the new creation has been given the ministry of reconciliation — to tell them.
Reconciliation Applied — The New Creation’s Role
Here is the distinction that most teaching on this passage misses — and it is the distinction that defines precisely what the new creation’s mission is:
Reconciliation was accomplished by God through Christ. The work is finished. The sin has been dealt with. The enmity has been removed. The record has been cleared. This is not in question and is not the new creation’s work to do.
Reconciliation must be applied — received, appropriated, believed — by each person individually. And this is where the new creation enters: as the messenger through whom the accomplished fact is announced, explained, and pressed home.
The new creation does not accomplish reconciliation. Christ did that. The new creation announces it — “be ye reconciled to God” — and appeals for each person to receive what Christ has already secured. The ambassadorial function is not the work of the cross. It is the publication of the cross: the declaration that the barrier is down, that the enmity is dealt with, that God is not counting your trespasses, that the door is open — come in.
This is the specific content of the word of reconciliation: God was in Christ, dealing with the sin that separated you from Him. The account has been cleared. Receive the gift. Be reconciled.
Every New Creation Is an Ambassador — Not Clergy Alone
One of the most consequential distortions of the New Testament’s teaching on mission is the professional limitation of the ambassadorial commission — the assumption that evangelism and the ministry of reconciliation belong to missionaries, pastors, and specially gifted evangelists, while ordinary believers are supporters and encouragers of professional witness.
Paul will not support this distortion. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ.” Not: now then the apostles are ambassadors. Not: now then those with the gift of evangelism are ambassadors. We — the whole company of the new creation, every born-again believer who has been reconciled to God through Christ and given the ministry of reconciliation.
The Great Commission that Jesus issued before His ascension is addressed to all who follow Him:
“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” — Matthew 28:18–20 (KJV)
Go ye. On the basis of the all-authority that is Mine — go. Not a select team. Not a professional class. Go — the whole body of Christ, in every location, in every relationship, in every sphere of daily life.
The strategy of the early church was not the deployment of a professional missionary force. It was the dispersion of a new creation community that carried the message into every corner of daily life — in the marketplace, the workshop, the household, the synagogue, the road. The new creation that understands their ambassadorial identity does not limit the ministry of reconciliation to formal religious settings. They carry it into every interaction, every relationship, every sphere in which they move — not as a programme, but as a natural expression of who they are and what they carry.
“Ye Shall Receive Power” — Acts 1:8
The commission to be witnesses is given in the same breath as the promise of power to fulfil it:
“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” — Acts 1:8 (KJV)
Witnesses — not persuaders, not arguers, not debaters. Witnesses: those who testify to what they have seen, heard, and experienced. The new creation’s primary qualification for the ambassadorial commission is not eloquence, theological education, or evangelistic technique. It is the reality of what they have personally received from Christ — and the Holy Spirit’s power to make that testimony effective in the lives of those who hear it.
The power of the Holy Spirit does not compensate for a message the new creation does not know. It empowers the message they carry — the word of reconciliation, the testimony of what Christ has done, the announcement that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. The ambassador carries both the message and the power of the One who sent them.
“How Shall They Hear?” — Romans 10:14–15
Paul’s great question about the reach of the gospel makes the new creation’s ambassadorial function the indispensable link in the chain between Christ’s accomplished reconciliation and the world’s reception of it:
“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?” — Romans 10:14–15 (KJV)
The chain runs backward from the question: calling on Christ requires believing in Him — believing requires hearing — hearing requires a preacher — preaching requires being sent. And the new creation has been sent. The commission is the sending. The Holy Spirit is the empowerment. The word of reconciliation is the message. The world — in Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, the uttermost parts — is the field.
The world in the new creation’s immediate sphere of life — their family, their workplace, their neighbourhood — is their first Jerusalem. The ambassadorial commission does not require a plane ticket. It requires the willingness to carry the message of reconciliation into the relationships and situations that are already part of daily life — and to speak, in season and out of season, the word that God has committed to them.
What Comes Next
The new creation that embraces their ambassadorial identity is living in the full breadth of what it means to be in Christ — knowing who they are, walking in their authority, loving with God’s love, grounded in the Word, functioning in the body, and carrying the message of the kingdom to the world around them. But none of this is complete in isolation from the ultimate horizon that gives all of it its final meaning:
The return of Christ.
In the next article, we examine the hope of Christ’s return — what the New Testament declares about the coming of the Lord, what it means for the new creation’s daily life, and why the hope of His return is not a passive waiting but an active, urgent motivation for everything the new creation does between now and that day.
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” — Titus 2:13 (KJV)
The blessed hope. Not uncertain — blessed. Not distant and irrelevant — the object of daily looking, daily expectation, daily orientation. The new creation lives between two moments: the moment of their new birth and the moment of Christ’s return. And the one who understands both lives differently in the time between them.
Bible Verses Cited: 2 Corinthians 5:17–21; Matthew 28:18–20; Acts 1:8; Romans 10:14–15; Romans 5:10; 1 Peter 3:15; Colossians 4:5–6; Mark 16:15; Titus 2:13 (KJV)
Series: New Creation in Christ Jesus — Article 31 of 35
Author: Joseph Olarewaju | FaithBibleStudy.org
