One of the greatest dangers and pitfalls for you as an ambassador is to attempt to ingratiate yourself with the present world system and its thinking, worldview, lifestyle, etc. This will often result in your misrepresenting your “Head” of State by watering down, softening, “perverting,” “corrupting” and “handling deceitfully” the “word of truth” that has been committed to your trust.

This is why your chief “charge” over and over again is to remain “faithful” to what has been committed to you. In order to remain faithful, you have to get properly oriented so you are not overcome and intimidated when challenges and “fiery darts” come your way (Ephesians 6:16). A proper appreciation for the “sound doctrine” will produce a “sound mind” that is able to faithfully carry out your commission as God’s ambassador on this earth.

Though all your fellow “comrades” may run for cover and “turn away,” don’t be discouraged. Remain faithful. Don’t let anyone “take your crown” (1Cor 9:25). Social Security and earthly pension plans are nothing compared to the compensation plan that God has for His ambassadors who have a “vocation” in accordance with God’s “calling” and “election” of the “one new man.” Earthly schemes are all “corruptible.” They all pale in comparison to the return on your investments in the “kingdom of God’s dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). Your labor is not in vain and He will pay you back. As God’s ambassador, you have an investment plan and the “eternal” and “incorruptible” return is connected to “glory.”

“That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom AND GLORY” (1Thessalonians 2:12).

A full examination of this matter is beyond the scope of this particular section, but this is where the three important doctrines and “tenses” of your salvation converge. That is, if you are “saved,” have believed Paul’s gospel, then there are 3 “P’s” to your salvation in accordance with the 3 tenses.

1.) JUSTIFICATION - PAST: You have been saved from the “PENALTY” of your sin. It is finished. God offered you the “free gift” of salvation, “redemption,” and “forgiveness of sins” in His Son, and you received it by faith. You accepted His “gift” on His terms. This is the “position” that you have been given “in Christ.” The “sin question” has been forever settled between you and God. Because Christ paid for the debt and penalty of your sin, you now stand “justified” before God having trusted in the blood of Christ knowing that there is nothing you could possibly do to earn or merit it. The only thing the Law could ever do is “condemn” you and “shut your mouth” as you stand “guilty before God” (Rom 3:18-20). Indeed, the purpose of the Law is just that, to “magnify” sin and to bring you to the point of recognizing your “guilt” before the HOLY and RIGHTEOUS God. Christ is the only man who could ever claim acceptance with God based on his works. Because he had no sins of his own to pay for, He could therefore be that perfect, worthy sacrifice and take the judgement that you rightly deserve upon Himself. When you “believed the gospel” you were baptized into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit and were given an “identity” “in Christ” (Rom 6; Eph 1:13). You ARE NOW “justified by his blood,” ARE “reconciled,” “HAVE peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” and “HAVE NOW RECEIVED the atonement” (Rom 5:1-11). You are now in the One about whom the Lord declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). There is far, far more to this, but needless to say there is “power” in that word received and believed. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth…” (Rom 1:16). “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved the power of God…it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1Cor 1:18,21). “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom 4:5). That is, you “HAVE RECEIVED Christ Jesus the Lord…” (Col 2:6) which then leads us to the next tense.

2.) SANCTIFICATION - PRESENT: You are being saved from the “POWER” of sin in your life. This has to do with you walking in accordance with your position “in Christ.” In other words, it is about you putting your position into practice in accordance with your “calling” and “election” as a member of the “one new man” that God is forming today. You have been given a sanctified position in Christ, have had His righteousness imputed to you and have been “set apart” (sanctified) by Him to be used in accordance with His present purpose in the world. You have not been saved in a vacuum, but according to God’s “calling” and “purpose,” a formerly “secret” purpose (Ephesians 1). This is what your “calling” and “election” as the “one new man” is all about. You now have a certain “identity.” These are things you need to “learn” about and that is what the ministry of the “apostle of the Gentiles” is all about as contained in his epistles, Romans-Philemon. When God “called” you by the “word of the gospel” and you responded positively to that call by “believing,” you then became a part of something that God is doing and accomplishing in accordance with His “will,” or more particularly, the “mystery of His will” (Eph 1:9). God expects you to “abound” in “wisdom” and “understanding” concerning His will having made known unto us “the mind of the Lord” through the ministry of His apostles (1Cor 2:6-16). Part of this “wisdom” is “rightly dividing the word of truth” in accordance with Paul’s ministry and the “revelation of the mystery,” as in “time past” we know that “Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers” (Rom 15:8). Fortunately for us Gentiles, God had a “secret” purpose “in Christ” and is currently fulfilling that “mystery of Christ” with us, offering us a special dispensation of His grace through the “gospel of the uncircumcision” until He has finished that purpose and we receive our “fulness” as the “one new man” (Romans 11:25). This is “edification” and as you “learn,” “understand” and “comprehend” (Eph 1; Col 1), you are to be intelligently “building” a house of doctrine out of which to live the details of your life as the word of God “effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1Thess 2:13). Your object and goal, as you function as a “son” (Rom 8) is to “…prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). God has given you all the “edification” tools you need to build and fully equip you to come “unto a perfect [complete] man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph 4:13). But, as with any building project, you must undertake it intelligently in accordance with the instructions of the one who has commissioned you to build in the first place and be “faithful” to the “pattern” (1Cor 3:9-4:5). “As ye HAVE RECEIVED Christ Jesus the Lord, SO WALK YE IN HIM” (Col 2:6).

3.) EXALTATION/GLORIFICATION – FUTURE: You will be saved from the very “PRESENCE” of sin. This is where the “glory” comes in. This is when your “building” is inspected and the Lord judges how you put your position into practice. This is when it will be determined and “manifested” just how “faithful” you were. You “RECEIVED Christ,” “You WALKED in Him,” and now it will be determined to what extent that walk is worthy of “honour” and “approval” or “blame” and “shame.” This is where your “work” comes in and you will be “rewarded” in connection with your “faithfulness” and the “quality” of your “building.” There is far more to be said in connection with this, as well as some absolutely marvelous details concerning the coming “glory” to be manifested in accordance with the “vocation,” but as I said, that is beyond the scope of this very brief synopsis. The result of all this is that it ought to affect where you “look” because looking in the wrong direction will affect your reward, as it did with Lot (2Cor 4:17,18; 1Cor 3:15; Colossians 3:1-4).

“Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together WITH GOD: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man TAKE HEED HOW HE BUILDETH thereupon…Every man’s WORK shall be made manifest…Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, THAT A MAN BE FOUND FAITHFUL” (1Corinthians 3:8-4:2).

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began…Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the which cause I also suffer these things: nervertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. HOLD FAST the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes” (2Timothy 1:7-9,11-15).

“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1Corinthians 9:24-27).

“For which cause we FAINT NOT; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, WORKETH FOR US a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2Corinthians 4:16-18).

“Study to shew thyself APPROVED unto God, a workman that NEEDETH NOT TO BE ASHAMED, rightly dividing the word of truth. BUT SHUN profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness” (2Timothy 2:15,16).

There may be many hungry, cold, lonely days ahead out there on the battlefield. Are you prepared? You will need all the “strength” you can to enable you not to “faint” when you encounter the experiences ahead.

“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all WISDOM and spiritual UNDERSTANDING; THAT ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; STRENGTHENED with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which HATH MADE US MEET to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who HATH DELIVERED US from the power of darkness, and HATH TRANSLATED US into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom WE HAVE redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:9-14).