God is not satisfied with informing you about the work of His kingdom. He transforms you to participate in the work of His kingdom.

God has not revealed His truth to you so that you can be the audience, a viewer of His work of redemption. God has called all His children to participate in the work of His kingdom. Everyone who has been brought into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ has also been drafted into the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. He really does mean to employ all His children in His work of redemption. Yes, you read that right — all His children. The total involvement paradigm is His normal plan for the Church.

Now, those biblical passages that say that the body of Christ grows as every part does its part (Eph. 4:11–16) or that every one of God’s children should be prepared to teach and admonish (Col. 3:12–17) seem very radical to us, but they were not radical in the context in which they were given.

Paul doesn’t introduce them by announcing that radical material is coming. They are an explanation of God’s normal plan for His people and His Church. They appear radical to us because we have drifted so far from God’s norm for His Church.

Many, many Christians’ church attendance is the spiritual edition of going to a concert. They regularly go to experience the religious performance of ministry professionals, but they have little commitment to the health of the church or to its work in the world. Their relationship to the church is self-focused (Here’s the kind of church I want to attend”) and passive (“I’m so thankful for the good work our church staff does”).

But God’s plan for His Church is very different. He has called all His children to be His ambassadors, that is, to represent His message and His character in whatever environment He has placed them. Here’s the plan: a God of grace makes His invisible grace visible by sending His people of grace to reflect his grace to the people who need grace. You have been called to be the look on His face, the tone of His voice, and the touch of His hand. You are to represent His presence and His love. You are placed where you are to make His mercy and faithfulness visible and concrete.

This all means that your life doesn’t belong to you anymore. You have been bought with a price. Your mentality, your personality, your emotionality, your physicality, your possessions, and all your relationships belong to you from the Lord for His using. So Gods’ people of grace are driven to the throne of grace so that they can reflect His grace in the place where He calls them. you and I have to ability to represent God well. His ambassadorial call drives us to Him to receive the grace we need to represent His grace in the lives of others. What a plan!

For further study and encouragement: Mark 16:14–18

 
Dr. Paul David Tripp is a pastor and an award-winning author of more than 20 books. New Morning Mercies is his best-selling devotional, with more than half a million copies sold. Paul’s driving passion is to connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. He and his wife Luella live in Philadelphia; they have four grown children.

Taken from New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional by Paul David Tripp*, © 2014, November 10. Used by permission of Paul Tripp Ministries, Inc. (www.paultripp.com) and Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.