We are familiar with the idea of an ambassador: someone going to another country as the representative of his own government – from Great Britain, for instance, to the United States, or vice versa. So, when the British ambassador, say, speaks to the American Government in Washington, he does so with the authority of his Government back in London.
Similarly Christ sends out ambassadors to speak in His name and, when they speak, they do so with His authority. He chooses men and sends them out to preach as His representatives. They are not to propagate their own ideas; they are to do as Jonah was directed when God sent him to Nineveh. He was an ambassador; so the Lord sent him to “preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee”; similarly today’s ambassadors are given divine authority to proclaim the truths that have been revealed in Scripture.
So Luther, in the early years of the Reformation, when commanded by the Emperor at the Diet of Worms to withdraw his writings, declared, “I cannot withdraw, but I am subject to the Scriptures I have quoted; my conscience is captive to the Word of God”.1 Preachers must always act as ambassadors from Christ; they must be subject to the Scriptures; their consciences must always be captive to the Word of God. They must speak to their fellow creatures on the basis of the principle that Luther so memorably enunciated to the Emperor at that critical point in the Reformation.
The original ambassadors were sent out by Christ before He ascended to heaven. He commanded His disciples: “Go ye . . . 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: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Mt 28:19,20). They were sent out as eyewitnesses, to bear testimony to what they had seen Christ do and what they had heard Him say in His time on earth. Later ambassadors have not had that privilege of seeing Christ in the flesh but, having seen Christ in Scripture by faith, they are able to bear testimony to Him on the basis of what is there revealed.
1 Quoted in S M Houghton, Sketches From Church History, Banner of Truth, 1980, p 89.
The ambassadors are to bring before their hearers the truths of Scripture about sin and salvation, in particular. When they speak of the evil of sin and the punishment justly due to the sinner, they speak with divine authority, and that is how their hearers are to receive what is said. It may be solemn – and it should be. Those who are still outside the kingdom of God may find it an unwelcome message, for these are people who delight in sin, more or less. But those who preach on the basis of Scripture speak the truth, truth that has Christ’s authority behind it, and therefore their message ought to be received without question. Among many other solemn truths, Christ warned, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Lk 13:3). So when the ambassador quotes this warning, it is as if Christ Himself is speaking to all the unconverted in the congregation and bringing before them individually the danger of refusing to repent – they will perish in a lost eternity.
Again, Christ’s ambassadors are to proclaim the message of salvation to sinners under condemnation because of their sin. And, when they do so, they represent Christ, who sent them out. Thus Paul said, “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 Cor 5:20). When expounding this verse, Charles Hodge re-expresses Paul’s words thus: “We are the ambassadors of Christ, because it is God that speaks through us”.
Paul points clearly to what lies behind “the word [or message] of reconciliation”: the imputation of sin to Christ (so that He might bear it away) and the imputation, in the other direction, of His righteousness to the sinner. Christ was the substitute for sinners, and His ambassadors are to lay stress on His work as the sin-bearer, which continued until He said at Calvary: “It is finished”. Likewise they must lay stress on His perfect keeping of God’s law in the place of sinners, who cannot possibly satisfy the demands of God’s law. When these ambassadors call on sinners to be reconciled to God, they are doing so with divine authority. It is God Himself, using preachers as His instruments, who is calling on sinners to embrace Christ as the One who made reconciliation with God possible. And that is how their hearers are to receive “the word of reconciliation”, for this message has the same authority “as if God did beseech you by” His ambassadors – it is as if each person in the congregation could hear Christ’s actual voice. Therefore Paul added, “We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God”.
The call to be reconciled, to trust in the One who came into the world to save sinners, is made effective by the Holy Spirit powerfully applying gospel truths to the individual sinner. This work of the Spirit is one of the gifts purchased by Christ, who told His disciples, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth” (Mt 28:18). It is through this power that sinners are made able to turn “from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18). As the context makes clear, Paul was sent to the Gentiles to bring about these results – but only as an instrument that Christ was pleased to use. Paul had no power of his own to persuade sinners – who were going on in Satan’s kingdom and so in the darkness of sin and ignorance – to turn to God and walk in the light of God’s Word. But Paul had been sent out as an ambassador; he was to proclaim the truths of sin and salvation to those still in darkness and, to the extent that the Holy Spirit was pleased to bless Paul’s preaching, sinners were reconciled to God. Paul was only an instrument – he was perfectly clear that this was so – but God used him to bring multitudes in many places, including Ephesus, Corinth and Rome, into the kingdom of grace, where they shone as lights in the midst of these dark, heathen cities.
In commenting on the last verses of Matthew2 David Dickson brings out their teaching in 18 points, from which we select the following:
[14.] “The ministers and rulers of the Church are limited to the commands given to them from Christ; they may not enjoin to the Church anything save the commands of Christ. These, and all these, and only these, must they teach.” In other words, Christ’s ambassadors must proclaim the message He has given to His Church to proclaim. They must not depart from that teaching, and those who reject that teaching are making it clear that they were not called by the Head of the Church to be ambassadors.
[16.] “Faithful ministers have assurance of Christ’s assistance and blessing, in whatsoever part or time of the world they fall into.” The One who sent His ambassadors out into the whole world has promised to be with them always and to bless their message – which is His message – to as many individuals as the Father gave to Him.
[18.] “This whole gospel is solid truth and worthy to be embraced.” In a generation in which so many people have such difficulties with the idea of truth and when “the father of lies” is so busy opposing the truth, Christ’s ambassadors and those who listen to them must cling firmly to this vital revelation that God has given in the gospel – that it is solid truth and therefore altogether worthy to be embraced. Preachers who neglect or reject the solid truth of Scripture are doing grave damage to themselves and to their hearers; likewise those who refuse to embrace the gospel are guilty of murdering their souls, unless they yet repent of this terrible sin and believe the solid truth contained in the gospel.
What a responsibility lies on every ambassador to present his message faithfully! And what a responsibility lies on every hearer to receive the message!
2Dickson, Matthew, Banner of Truth, 1981 reprint, p 416.