"And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.
But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God." Acts 20:22-23 (NLT)
But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the LORD Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God." Acts 20:24 (NLT)
“You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it.” Galatians 1:13 (NLT)
“But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace.
Galatians 1:15 (NLT)
“For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.” 1 Corinthians 15:9-10 (NLT)
But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the LORD Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God." Acts 20:24 (NLT)
And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:18 (ESV)
“But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace.
Then it pleased him to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus…” Galatians 1:15-16 (NLT)
Either way, Christ’s love compels us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them." 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NLT)
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 2 Corinthians 5:16-20 (NIV)
"For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ." 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)
