Transcript

James Edwards retells the following true story to illustrate our need and Christ’s response to our need. In August 1957 four climbers—two Italians and two Germans—were climbing the 6,000 foot near-vertical Eiger North Face in the Swiss Alps.

The two German climbers disappeared and were never heard from again.

The two Italian climbers, exhausted and dying, were stuck on two narrow ledges a thousand feet below the summit. The Swiss Alpine Club forbade rescue attempts in this area because it was too dangerous, but a small group of Swiss climbers decided to launch a private rescue effort to save the Italians.

So they carefully lowered a climber named Alfred Hellepart down the 6,000 foot North Face. They suspended Hellepart on a thin cable as they lowered him into the abyss. Here’s how Hellepart described the rescue in his own words:

“As I was lowered down the summit my comrades on top grew further and further distant, until they disappeared from sight. At this moment I felt an indescribable aloneness. Then for the first time I peered down the abyss of the North Face of the Eiger.

“The terror of the sight robbed me of breath…The brooding blackness of the Face, falling away in almost endless expanse beneath me, made me look with awful longing to the thin cable disappearing about me in the mist.

I was a tiny human being dangling in space between heaven and hell. The sole relief from terror was my mission to save the climber below.”

James Edwards continues: “That is the heart of the Gospel story. We were trapped, but in the person and presence of Jesus Christ, God lowered himself into the abyss of our sin and suffering. He did it to save the people trapped below, you and me.

“Thus, the gospel is much more radical than just another religion telling us how to be good in our own power. It tells us the truth of God’s costly, sacrificial rescue effort on our behalf.”

Now that we have been rescued and reconciled to God by faith in what Christ has done for us, we are sent out in Christ’s stead as His ambassadors.

And our mission like our Savior is to rescue others who are in danger of eternity in hell by sharing the gospel of grace and what Christ did for us, and that just by trusting that Christ died for our sins and rose again we are saved, rescued and have life eternal.

2 Corinthians 6:1 says, “We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.”

“We then,” v. 1 says, or all of us in the Body of Christ, not just preachers, not just evangelists, all of us have been given the ministry of reconciliation.

Back in 5:18, it says that God “hath reconciled us (all the Body) to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to “us” (all the Body) the ministry of reconciliation.”

At the end of verse 19, God has committed to “us” (all the Body) the word of reconciliation. Then verse 20, now then “we” (all the Body) are ambassadors for Christ.

All of us then in the Church, the Body of Christ have been given the duty, the mission, the responsibility to tell the world the gospel.

We tell them that they are alienated from God, dead in their trespasses and sins, and that there is only one way to heaven, one way to forgiveness.

There is one hope and that is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who died and rose again to provide us with salvation from hell and forgiveness of all our sins.

The ministry of reconciliation is about telling people about their alienation from God. We are to confront that alienation and separation because of our sins. And then we are to tell them about the reconciliation that God has made possible.

We tell them that God’s part in reconciliation is done. He has made the world save-able by the Cross, by Christ dying for all, as 5:15 says, and because God was in Christ at the Cross reconciling the world unto Himself, as 5:19 says.

So we tell them that the door is open, the bridge is there, the payment has been made to be reconciled to God, all you have to do is receive it by faith in Christ.

To make the reconciliation complete, you simply must trust Christ and what He did for you in dying for your sins and rising again, and then you are reconciled to God.

That’s what we are called to do as Christ’s ambassadors. We also know that those who hear us will be divided into two categories: faith or unbelief.

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So many say “NO,” to the gospel, even though it is the greatest message of all. It’s hard and heartbreaking when they do. It’s a spiritual issue though. The heart can be hardened and proud. And Satan blinds people to their need.

2 Corinthians 2:14-16 says, “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place.

“For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life.”

The ministry of making the gospel known is a matter of life and death, eternal life and eternal death. As we share the gospel and spread the sweet aroma of the knowledge of the gospel in every place, to those who believe we are a sweet aroma of life unto life. To those who do not believe, we are a stench of death unto death.

But Paul says that it always is a sweet aroma to God and we always triumph in Christ, and He is pleased each and every time that the gospel of grace is shared.

When we make Christ known, we always triumph in Christ, regardless of how people respond to it. Of course, we want people to believe when we share, but sometimes we’re a link in the chain, part of the many times people often need to hear it before they respond.

Some plant the seed of the gospel, others water that seed, another waters it again, and another waters it more, but it is God that gives the increase, 1 Corinthians 3:7 says.

What God looks at and is pleased with is our faithfulness in sharing the gospel. God’s Word never returns void, and He always uses our efforts in making the gospel known, though we may never see exactly how on this side of glory. But we live by faith.

Working in a cooperative effort with God in the gospel ministry is what Paul is talking about here when he says: “We then, as workers together with Him.”

First, note that to be ambassadors of reconciliation involves “work.” We are “workers” in the gospel ministry. It takes work and effort to get the gospel out faithfully.

But Paul says we are “workers together with Him.” You hear people occasionally say something like, “You know, I’m really privileged, I’m at a certain university and I get to work with such-and-such a professor.”

Or “I got an internship at a certain hospital and I get to work alongside a certain physician.” Or “I got a job in a certain field and I get to work alongside a person who is respected and gifted in that field.”

Nothing like that even comes close to comparing the privilege we have to work together with God. If we understand that in ministry and sharing the gospel we are involved in a cooperative effort with the living God, that changes everything.

This brings a higher perspective to serving the Lord, and brings a dignity and strength to all that we do. We work together with Almighty God, called and gifted and empowered and placed in a strategic location to serve Him and share His truth with others.

He who breathed out the stars, and spoke the galaxies into existence, Who set the world upon its axis, created night and day and all things has allowed us to join Him in His ongoing creative work today, of making sinners into new creations.

And He has called us to be His ambassadors, His mouthpieces and for us to work together with Him in the gospel ministry.

Notice that “with Him” is in italics. That means that it does not appear in all the manuscripts in the original. It has been supplied by the translators.

But based on the context it belongs there. The thought is being carried over from chapter 5, verse 20 where it says, “as though God did beseech you by us be ye reconciled to God.”

In the ministry of reconciliation we are God’s representatives, and through us and our lives God beseeches or begs the unbeliever to “be ye reconciled to God.”

This brings out a soul-searching question: Is God pleading with people to be saved through my life? Am I allowing Him to do so?

It is God who works through us to make known the message of reconciliation. It is us working together with Him, it is He working through us to make the truth known.

It is us joining our hearts and vision and wills to His, knowing that He loves all people, and allowing Him to use us to reach out in His power, with His gospel.

We are all in the ministry. All of us are called to serve the Lord. In life and ministry, this reminds us that we’re not in it alone. God is always there with us. We are always working together with Him. The following Scriptures confirm this as well:

1 Corinthians 3:9 says, “For we are laborers together with God.” Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

In Acts 15, speaking of Paul and Barnabas it says, “And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church and they declared all things that God had done with them” (15:4).

After the Lord’s ascension to heaven, the last verse in the book of Mark says, “And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them” (16:20).

God is working with us and through us. All of this reminds me of the parable the Lord told in Mark 4 about a man that casts seed “into the ground.”

Mark 4:27-28 talks about how he sleeps by night and rises by day, and suddenly the seed springs and grow ups, but “he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.”

You could say in the gospel ministry that we are all “old sow and sows”! We throw the seeds out and sow the seed of the gospel, and we sow and we sow and we sow, and we go to bed and we get up, and suddenly there’s life and we don’t know how.

We don’t know how or why what we do results in life, except that we know we are “workers together with Him,” and God gives the increase, God produces the life.

Some years ago, a study was done by an agricultural school in Iowa. It reported that production of 100 bushels of corn from 1 acre of land required 4 million lbs. of water, 6,800 lbs. of oxygen, 5,200 lbs. of carbon, 160 lbs. of nitrogen, 125 lbs. of potassium, 75 lbs. of yellow sulphur, and other elements too numerous to list.

In addition to these ingredients, rain and sunshine are required at the right times. Although many hours of the farmer’s hard labor are needed, it was estimated that only 5% of the produce of a farm can be attributed to the efforts of man.

So it is in the spiritual realm, God gives the increase, God gives life to our labor, God causes the growth, God produces the fruit, God deserves the praise.

And just like a farmer who plants the seeds and there’s life and transformation because of God, so we throw the seeds of the gospel, and it is God who works through our work, and He gives the new life, the change, the growth and transformation.

You know it isn’t you. All we do is throw the seed, and if or when the life comes it’s because of God and Him working with us. Ours becomes a life-changing life as we allow God to use us to spread the good news, and He produces the life and the change thru us.

This leads Paul to the next point when he tells the Corinthians that we “beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.” In v. 20 you have God begging and beseeching unbelievers through us to be reconciled to God. Here you have Paul begging and beseeching believers to “receive not the grace of God in vain.”

We have a privilege by grace to be workers together with God. And we have a privilege by grace to be Christ’s representatives. These verses are carrying on the instruction from chapter 5 concerning our duty as ambassadors.

Those verses teach us about the grace of God in being called to participate in the privilege of the ministry of reconciliation, that each one reconciled to God by Christ is called to beg people to be reconciled to God by Christ.

Our reconciliation with God puts each of us into the ministry of reconciliation.

But not all in Corinth were doing this. They missed their ministry. “Vain” means “empty, without content, useless, fruitless.”

Receiving the grace of God in vain is another way of saying 2 Corinthians 5:15: “And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.”

When believers live their lives only for themselves, rather than for the purposes to which God has called us, that’s receiving the grace of God in vain. Out of gratitude for God’s grace, that gratitude is to drive us to want to live for and work for the One who gave everything for me and who died for me and saved me from eternity in hell.

By inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul writes and begs believers to not receive God’s grace in vain. This is God’s Word, so it is God who ultimately is begging those who have received God’s grace in salvation to take part in the privilege of the ministry of reconciliation that He’s committed to us by grace.

We have a stewardship, a responsibility, a duty as ambassadors for Christ.

Receive not the grace of God in vain is not teaching that the salvation of the Corinthian believers was in jeopardy, it is teaching that the salvation of other people is in jeopardy, when believers live for themselves and not the purposes of God in being a gospel light.

So what does this look like? It means to have a gospel mindset, a gospel worldview, to have gospel glasses on as you look at people and life. It doesn’t mean that you have to go door to door every day to be fulfilling this. It doesn’t mean to be obnoxious with the gospel, but to be real, for it to be a part of your everyday lifestyle.

It means to share the gospel in casual conversation, looking for windows of opportunity based on what is said. When someone is hurting and needs hope, it’s about being there for them, and telling about true hope in Christ.

It means to lay a gospel tract down with your tip at the restaurant, or putting one in the doctor’s office, the dentist’s office, at the mechanic, or the hotel. When you’re on social media, like Facebook or Instagram, do a post about the gospel.

It means when you pray, to pray for people’s salvation. It means to include gospel verses in your Christmas cards or birthday cards.

Or put a tract in your bills when you pay them. It means to give toward missions and the local church where the gospel is clearly presented.

It means to be a part of the evangelistic outreaches of the local church, be a part of VBS, or to invite someone to church to sit under the hearing of the gospel.

It means to live a life of testimony for Christ as a bright light, so much so that people wonder why you are different and even sometimes ask you the reason why. You live this way for Christ because you care about people around you and their eternal destinies.

Receiving the grace of God in vain is to live a life without aim or meaning. But when the grace of God is received and touches your heart, it gives you purpose, a gospel worldview, and you see the vital importance to be a light and to live for what is important to God.

And we know that the souls of people and their eternal destiny is infinitely important to God. The things that break God’s heart should

In 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

To receive God’s grace in vain is to receive God’s grace and not become a laborer for the Lord. Paul pleads with believers here to not restrain the working of the grace of God in their lives, but to allow that grace to change their hearts and to live lives for the Lord, and to serve and labor abundantly for Him, knowing that we are “workers” together with God.

Bill Fay, an evangelist who was guest speaker at the Crossroads Bible Church in Bellevue, Washington on Sunday, September 9th, returned to his home Monday, September 10. On his American Airline flight he saw a stewardess breaking up ice with a wine bottle.

He got up from his seat and asked her if there wasn’t another way she could do it more safely. He said he was afraid she would hurt herself. She was moved that he would be so concerned. He then gave her a gospel tract to read when she had a spare moment.

A short time later she found Bill and told him that this was the sixth gospel tract she had received from someone. “What does God want from me?” she asked.

Bill responded, “Your life”. A few minutes later he was praying with her to accept Jesus Christ as her personal Savior.

After September 11th’s attack on the World Trade towers, Bill looked up the names of those on American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane that crashed into the World Trade Center. The stewardess’ name was listed. On Tuesday, September 11th, 2001 she entered into the eternal presence of her Lord and Savior.

Those five other gospel tracts had an effect on this stewardess. That reminds us how we are workers together with God and how God works through our efforts for Him.

And because Bill Fay received not the grace of God in vain and was faithful and available as God’s ambassador to share the gospel, this woman was saved before it was too late. And we praise God for that.