3. What special ministry has God authorized? Through whom?

³ Well aware of our imperfect and sinful condition and of our inherited enmity with him, he invites us to seek a reconciliation to friendship with him, if we would gain his favor and goodwill while it may still be found. Through faithful witnesses on earth now who have already accepted the privilege of worshiping him as their God, and who have already become his “men of goodwill,” God makes his entreaty, his invitation, known to still others who desire righteousness and truth. Paul speaks of the privilege of representing God by bearing this message as the “ministry of the reconciliation”:

namely, that God was by means of Christ reconciling a world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and he committed the word of the reconciliation to us.

All of humankind is at enmity with God due to inherited sin and imperfection from Adam. God has already taken the steps to make possible the removing of that enmity, and he lovingly and mercifully sends out his “ambassadors” to show the way to “become reconciled to God” and be restored to his favor and goodwill. Will you accept the invitation brought to you by God’s “ambassadors substituting for Christ,” and put yourself in line for everlasting life through the provision that God has lovingly made through his beloved Son?