The Apostle Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:18 – “And all things [are] of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;” God has given every born again believer the ministry of reconciliation. This ministry calls us to be an active part in bringing others back into a right relationship with God. This is God’s desire for all of humanity. He sent Jesus in to the world to die for our sins. Through the ministry of reconciliation, two kinds of relationships can be established for the repentant sinner. The relationships are an eternal and a communal relationship. God wants humanity to have an eternal relationship with Him through redemption and a communal relationship with others through family, friends and fellowship. McRaney quotes Fisher Humphreys:
‘God’s purpose is to create a community of persons who freely choose to accept God as their God, who receive His love into their lives, and who respond by loving Him with all their hearts and by loving their neighbors as themselves.’
Through evangelism the born again believer has the opportunity to fulfill God’s desire for souls to be saved. Souls are saved into a vertical relationship with God and a horizontal relation with the saints into the community of faith. It is God’s desire that all will come to repentance and he uses the born again believer as ambassadors to sow and water the word. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 3:7 “So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.”
- Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the King James Bible (Lebanon, TN: , 1996).
- William McRaney, Jr., The Art of Personal Evangelism (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2003), 17.
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