Our Awesome Unity with Christ in Evangelism

The amazing unity of the herald of the gospel with Christ and even with the Father is an unfathomable New Testament teaching. This principle is taught in several contexts.

First, it is taught in the context of persecution specifically because of Christ:

Matt 5:10-11, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Luke 6:22-23, “Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.”

Second, it is taught in regards to communicating the gospel itself, as found in the context of Jesus training His disciples for evangelism:

Matt 10:40, “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”

Luke 10:16, “He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.”

This incredible union with Christ concerns not only our own lives, but also the response of the recipient of the gospel, that is their reception or rejection of the message!

This same idea is communicated to His disciples by Jesus in the upper room discourse:

John 13:20, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”

Jesus continued later in the discourse:

John 15:20-21, “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.”

This unity with Christ in sharing the gospel makes the evangelist a fellow-worker with Christ. Paul echoed the theme of cooperating with Christ in evangelism as exemplified in his own evangelism:

2 Cor 5:20-6:2, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Although we cannot fully understand it, when a Christian is evangelizing, he has an unusual level of unity with Christ. This unity with Christ extends to the point of his representing the gospel, Christ, and even God Himself in a person’s acceptance or rejection of the gospel.

Paul exclaimed the grandeur of this concept as he discussed the gospel being simultaneously the aroma of life and of death:

2 Cor 2:15-17, “For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.”

Rather than lead us to be arrogant or boastful, our unity with Christ in evangelism should drive us to greater humility and true sincerity.

For further information on these concepts, see: http://www.evangelismunlimited.com/documents/evangelizology/evangelizology-2014-chapter-20.pdf.