Is it OK to be "An Agent of God?"

Photo: Greg K. Dueker

I was recently having a conversation with a young person over coffee and a breakfast sandwich (you know who you are) about the missional life of Christians. As I have written in previous posts, as followers of Christ, we are commissioned as ministers of reconciliation. This is the term used in 2 Corinthians 5, but it seems a little tricky to explain to someone outside informed theological circles. So I tried to say it differently. I made the comment that, as a Christian and a pastor, “I am an agent of God.” Their reaction was surprisingly swift and negative. “That’s a scary thought! That people think they can get away with doing whatever they want because they claim to be ‘agents of God’!” 

I agreed with him, laughing, “That is a scary thought! But that is not what being an agent of God is about. 

If we are agents for God, we aren’t free to do whatever we want, nor are we above accountability, but are to represent God well. So the question we need to be asking is not "what can I get away with," but "what is it that God wants to do on earth?” Being an agent of God, or a minister of reconciliation, is not a carte blanche but a higher calling to represent a loving and holy God well amid an imperfect world. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21) And we know that Jesus didn’t come to serve himself...but to do the will of the Father.

It isn’t like the Blues Brothers, who thought they couldn’t be caught or stopped because they were “on a mission from God.” Even if our goal is altruistic and just, the end doesn’t justify the means. It is time for God’s judgment to begin in the house of the Lord (1 Peter 4:17). It is a biblical pattern. We should let God’s work of reconciliation begin in our own hearts and then overflow in love, forgiveness, and relational justice to all we encounter instead of tainting them through unregenerate hearts. Jesus said that we can be defiled by what comes out of us. Why would we want to splash any of this on those we meet?

And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:20-23).

We are not Agent Smith

It should be clear that we can’t do the work of God using the pride-based, bandwidth-consuming, coercive operating systems of the world. We are all fallible and dependent upon God’s grace daily. The closer we get to God, the more we realize our own need to repent, which is one reason that some people try to keep God at a distance. Sadly, there are too many pretenders—people who do not truly love and serve Jesus but try to objectify others to satisfy their own desires. They pretend to have drawn near to God, but their pride and sense of entitlement have not been killed. It seems that there are too few authentic agents of God, who, by responding to the humble glory of Christ, having been reconciled to God, choose to die to any self-seeking agenda. Instead, they seek to lead others to the place of healing, wholeness, and peace in Christ that God provides. They serve others often without recognition…which is probably why there seem to be so few.

When the opportunity for worldly power comes into play, it will corrupt almost anyone, and our ideas and ideals can become twisted. Such selfish thinking leads to abuse, oppression, fights, and even wars. If it is about getting what we want, we will fight against anyone who hinders our desires (James 4:1-3). In God’s plan, we are given a different kind of power, “power from on high” through the coming of the Holy Spirit. Our demonstration of such power will be for the cause of drawing people to the exalted Jesus Christ, not to ourselves, our own pet causes, or our own desires. Such works, if done in the power of the Holy Spirit, will be characterized by what the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

What is it that God wants to do in the world? He wants to reconcile the world to himself in Christ, forgiving sin, adopting all who will believe into his family, and giving them eternal life. He desires to bring healing, wholeness, peace, justice, and hope to all mankind. Agents of God are committed to this mission…bringing about heaven on earth—by humble faith, not by force. There should be nothing scary about true agents of God working in the world. I say, “The more the better” for everyone except those who make a living oppressing the weak.

Yet the warning for all who have been commissioned and sent into the world is that we are not immune from personal blind spots and failures, only made worse by earthly power and control. Jesus’ brother James wrote to the early Christians,

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:13-18)

They followed his instructions so well that they had turned the world upside-down within a couple of centuries. I long to engage my culture with such wisdom from above because the wisdom from below just doesn’t work! 

Why I Am Compelled2 (Part 2)

The Crucifixion by Georges Rouault

One For All...

A couple of weeks ago I started to answer this question…and it is one that I will continue to revisit and wrestle with not only this week but in the months to come. 

I included my typical vertical analysis of 2 Corinthians 5:13-21. 

As I wrote, 2 Corinthians 5 is key to the idea of this blog Compelled2: A Mission in Reconciliation. This week, I wanted to further explore this biblical foundation as I focus on verses 14-15. 

¹⁴ For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this:

                     that one   has died                 for all,

                                                          therefore all

                                   have died;

                  ¹⁵ 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.

One died that all might live…but his death was not merely so we might live forever for ourselves, doing our own thing, seeking our own desires. No, it was for a much higher purpose, for a much greater person. How could we be the recipients of such extravagant love and not want to love Christ back? Paul was compelled/controlled by the love of Christ because he, and those with him, had concluded something about the death of Christ. Not only are we no longer the same person we once were (v.17) but we no longer live for the same fallen purpose. We now live for the one who died and was raised from the dead.

Our change in trajectory is not out of guilt, nor out of some mistaken (and heretical) idea that we can earn our way into God’s affection by our personal goodness. I would like to point out that we seriously overestimate our own goodness and underestimate God’s holiness and glory! The change comes as we begin to comprehend his love for us…along with the cosmically high price he paid for our ransom. 1 John 3:16 says, "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." This "laying down" of our lives happens not merely with words and an otherworldly focus, but in "deed and in truth" (v.18) as we work to bring the kingdom to all needing healing and justice in their lives.

Illustration by Norman Price &
E.C. Van Swearingen,
 from the book I had as a child

On a bit of a side note, as I look at the word patterns in the verses above, I wonder how can we miss seeing the famous motto from Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel, The Three Musketeers, “One for all, and all for One”. Jesus Christ is truly the "one" who died for “all”, so now we, and all for whom he died, should faithfully live for him and not for ourselves. We do not do this by isolating ourselves from others in some craggy wilderness retreat, but in the world as members of the community of the redeemed. Obviously, the Musketeer example falls short in many ways, including their contextual readiness to take the life of another when challenged. Yet their motto and radical commitment to each other should inspire us, for if it isn't drawn from 2 Cor.5, then it is certainly in agreement with it.

 

"All for One..."

What does it mean to live for Him?
Certainly "living for Him" is a response to his love for us. It involves loving him back by keeping his commandments. But more specifically it is living in submission to, and thus participating willingly in, his great mission. His desires become our desires. His whole life was about the mission of reconciliation between God and man which has its roots back in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3. Actually, God had it in his heart even earlier (before the foundation of the world—Rev. 13:8)! The whole Bible is the story of God’s loving plan and faithful actions to reconcile the broken cosmos to himself.

Having been redeemed, ransomed, rescued, and raised in Christ, I am finding myself compelled to live into his wonderful mission of reconciliation until all for whom he died can comprehend his love for them, as Paul prayed so I am learning to pray,

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV).

One for all and all for one... not a bad concept indeed!

Why I am Compelled2? (Part 1)

The Crucifixion by Georges Rouault

Some of you have wondered why I chose Compelled2 as the name for my blog about the theology of cultural engagement and reconciliation. I am glad that you asked. I think that there are several reasons. 

• First, I am compelled to blog by my doctoral program directors. 
• Second, at this point in my life and ministry I have things to say that I can’t keep quiet on any longer…lest I get the bone consuming acid reflux that Jeremiah (Jer. 20:9) and David speak of (Psalm 3:3). 
• Third, and most importantly, the title is taken from 2 Corinthians 5:14 where Paul writes that, “the love of Christ controls/compels us”. He is explaining that whether he seems crazy or sane it is for a purpose, for God’s love compels him to live and act the way he does. He no longer lives for his own interests and desires. He and those who are with him are captive to the love of Christ and cannot operate outside of it. As their options were narrowed down, their focus was strengthened and their mission clarified.

Often, when studying a passage in the Bible I find it helpful to use a type of analysis that involves vertical alignment of repeated words and key concepts that allows me to better follow the threads of meaning as I scan down the page. I also may use different colors to highlight words and phrases. 

Here is an example... 2 Corinthians 5:13-21

   ¹³ For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God;

            if we are in our right mind,  it is for you.

  ¹⁴ For                           the love of Christ controls us,

because we have concluded this:

                             that one has died    for all,

                     therefore all have died;

                      ¹⁵             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.    ¹⁶

From now on, therefore,

               we regard no one

                        according to the flesh. Even

   though we once

                     regarded                    Christ

                        according to the flesh,

               we regard him thus no longer.

      ¹⁷      Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

                                           he is a new creation.

                                                The old has passed away;

                                    behold, the new has come.

      ¹⁸                                  All this is from God,

                                  who through Christ

                                     reconciled us            to himself

and gave             us

            the ministry   of reconciliation;

      ¹⁹                               that is, in Christ  God was

                                     reconciling the world to himself,

  not counting their trespasses against them,

and entrusting to us

            the message of reconciliation. ²⁰

Therefore,

               we are ambassadors for Christ, God

                                   making his appeal

               through us.

               We implore you

                                   on behalf of Christ,

                                 be reconciled        to God. ²¹

For our sake he made him to be sin

                              who knew no sin,

                     so that in him

               we might become

                                 the righteousness of God. [ESV]

If you find this approach hard to read, and you think I am crazy, that’s OK. It is not for everyone, but it helps me locate major emphases in the text. One of the reasons that I like the ESV translation of the Bible is the commitment to translate a Greek word using the same English word throughout a given passage rather than trying to constantly find a fresh synonym to fit it into English style. It is like being able to hear the verbal rhythm section in the divinely inspired symphony of scripture.

Just as this approach to reading the Bible (illustrated above) often changes my perspective and allows me to see more, so too allowing the love of God to compel/ control/ constrain me changes the way in which I see other people. I don’t just evaluate them according to physical or social labels like the world does asking, “What good is this person to me?” Now I can see them not as merely marginalized or powerful, as black or brown or white, but as the very ones to whom God has sent me as an agent of reconciliation. 

The love of God also constrains my own tendency to look at others economically since that is not the way that Christ loves me. It forces me to begin to relate incarnationally…for their good in Christ, not my own (though it does benefit me as well). The most important thing is that people are reconciled to God in Christ and for that to happen we must be compelled by the love of God…wholeheartedly offering reconciliation to others that we ourselves have received from God.