Just listened to a sermon where the preacher said something like:
‘Jonah failed – we are not called to go and tell people to repent, but to display Jesus (His forgiveness / grace / love) to world’
First off, I full want to take on board his point: that we have received grace so should desire it for and show it to others. As a christian, I have no right to withhold forgiveness, to harbour hatred or ill feeling towards anyone – even those who hate or attack.
Attacks and hatred should be water off a ducks back to anyone who has realised their heinous sin towards a holy God and received complete and free forgiveness (grace). Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, the smell, the feeling, the reaction, the result to a sinful, sin-filled being. How could the forgiven withhold that from anyone?
Jesus addresses this in a parable showing that the one who is forgiven yet doesn’t forgive others is actually evil. We have a debt before God that is literally impossible to pay. What others do to us, no matter how bad, is *nothing* in comparison. He uses the comparison of us owing God millions, while people owe us mere thousands, we owe God hundreds of tons of silver, while people owe us a mere days wage. 1 Matthew 18:21-35 (NLT) Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
“But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
“His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
“When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
“That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
I loved how he used the song “Reckless Love” to get us to engage with God’s grace towards us but then, think of that Reckless love chasing down and melting *other people* – those we may disagree with or have been hurt by. Beneficial and powerful!
But, does God really call us away from the message of repentance? Are we being changed into God’s image to be mere ‘Ned Flanders’ okely dokely, agreeable push overs?
To me, being an Ambassador of Christ, is far more than ‘just’ being forgiving, though it definitely includes that (and maybe starts there!). Listen to Paul’s urgency and drive:
Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too.
2 Corinthians 5:11 (NLT)
His very purpose was no longer bound by this world, by finances, success or security, but by his ‘fearful responsibility to the Lord’. Literally, the fear or terror of the Lord motivated Paul to work at persuading people.
A Christian has literally been given a new life that includes this responsibility:
Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NLT)
Our responsibility is now not to live for ourselves, but to live for Christ. He is not an add-on, but our very purpose, our Master, our King. We are His servants (See Luke 17:9 2 Luke 17:9-10 (NLT) And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’” )
But what does it mean to ‘live for Christ’? Paul answers it a few verses later:
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:19 (NLT)
So we live for Christ by:
– no longer counting people’s sin against them
– persuading people with the ‘message of reconciliation’
So, does this message of reconciliation mean we tell them “God has forgiven you” or do we just ‘display’ Jesus to them? Or is something else intended altogether? Paul for-sees our question and makes it very clear…
So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”
2 Corinthians 5:20 (NLT)
First, we are both a delegated representative of God (Ambassador of Christ) and an actual spokesperson for King Jesus, when we share the “message of reconciliation”. The literal call is “be reconciled to God”. This means far more than ‘be better, be good, don’t sin’ – it is the very heart of the Gospel. It is the message we are to be shod with in the armour of God (Eph 6:15).
It brings us right back to Paul’s earlier words:
For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”
Romans 10:13 (NLT)
In this passage Paul is quick to tell us that ‘someone must go and preach’ for people to call on the name of the Lord. In fact, we are told that faith itself is evoked, comes from and requires the hearing of the Gospel:
So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.
Romans 10:17 (NLT)
The Good News, long forecast came in to focus when Jesus walked the earth boldly proclaiming:
“The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”
Mark 1:15 (NLT)
This message has never changed, as we can see repeatedly through the New Testament. (Acts 2:38, 3:19, 5:31, 8:22, 2 Cor 7:9-10, 2 Peter 3:9, Rev 2:5, 16, 3:3)
I would argue that the same message was (finally) uttered through the prophet Jonah all those years ago – and the results were fantastic: a whole pagan nation repented and was saved! A true success story of the results of the Gospel message.
This glorious message is more deep and powerful than we will ever understand as can be seen in the last verse of our passage, which could be expounded on for hours.
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT)
May we continue to revel in this timeless message, pray that others hear and respond to it but also be willing to live for Christ as His ambassadors, His spokespeople, uttering at every opportunity His very call “Come back to God”.
Footnotes:
- 1Matthew 18:21-35 (NLT) Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
“But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
“His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
“When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
“That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.” - 2Luke 17:9-10 (NLT) And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”