How should Christians live as ambassadors of heaven on earth?
Christians become citizens of heaven by faith in the gospel. Though left on earth, they are ambassadors for Christ, representing heaven’s government in a foreign environment. Their allegiance belongs to God alone, with earthly citizenship secondary. They must walk on earth in a way that faithfully represents their heavenly citizenship.
Les explains that as soon as a person becomes a child of God by faith in the gospel, they become citizens of heaven. Even while left on the earth, their citizenship is in heaven, and that is what got the early Christians in trouble with the Roman government: they gave allegiance to nobody but their God, making their Roman citizenship secondary. Ambassadors represent the home government in a foreign environment, so believers are left as ambassadors of heaven to represent that citizenship as they walk on this earth. They are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech others by them, pleading in Christ’s stead, “Be ye reconciled to God,” because God made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.