Legacies of Light: Jim & Elisabeth Elliot

What if the front lines of God’s kingdom run straight through your front yard? We explore the unsettling and beautiful truth that every believer is an ambassador for a conquering King who offers peace to people at war with God—and that this calling rarely respects our comfort zones.

We start with a vivid image from American history: Wilmer McLean’s attempt to avoid conflict, only to see the Civil War begin at his farm and conclude in his parlor. That story becomes a lens for 2 Corinthians 5:17–20, where Paul names our role and our message—reconciliation. God makes us new, then hands us the word of reconciliation: a peace treaty drafted on a blood-soaked cross, where trespasses are no longer counted. Ambassadors don’t invent policy; we carry the terms of surrender and invite people to lay down their arms before a merciful, victorious Lord.

To sharpen that calling, we look at ambassadors through Paul’s world, not ours. Roman envoys set borders, delivered constitutions, and integrated conquered peoples into a larger kingdom. They lived among strangers, learned their ways, and commended their homeland with clarity and courage. That’s our pattern too. The gospel must be truthful, accessible, and embodied where we live and work.

The message comes to life in the story of five missionaries who reached out to the Waorani of Ecuador. Their careful approach, their choice not to retaliate, and their martyrdom sparked a movement of repentance, translation, and church planting led by the very people who once killed them. Elizabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint modeled a long obedience that turned enemies into family, giving us a living picture of reconciliation’s power. The takeaway is plain and piercing: our comfort, privacy, and agendas are not our own. We’re sent to commend our true homeland and deliver God’s terms of peace with humility and courage.

If this stirs you, take one step: pray for the person nearest your “front parlor,” share the gospel with clarity, and ask God for the courage to live like an ambassador. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the message of reconciliation.

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Stephen's latest book, Legacies of Light, Volume 2, is our gift for your special donation to our ministry. Follow this link for information or to donate:

https://www.wisdomonline.org/mp/legacies

Chapters

• 0:58 Called As Christ’s Ambassadors
• 1:45 The War Finds Wilmer McLean
• 3:55 Drafted Into God’s Service
• 5:20 The Ministry Of Reconciliation
• 8:28 Ambassadors In The Roman World
• 11:06 The Missionary Martyrs’ Legacy
• 13:33 Jim And Elizabeth’s Calling
• 16:41 First Contact And The Killing
• 18:46 Choosing Not To Retaliate
• 21:13 Grace Among The Waorani
• 23:43 A Sky Full Of Singing Lights
• 24:31 Our Costly, Joyful Commission

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:38

As Christians, God has given us the privilege of serving as his ambassadors with a message of hope and deliverance.

SPEAKER_01: 0:47

Delivering to our world the terms of surrender and how they might have peace with God. It might mean the loss of our comforts and the loss of our agendas and the loss of our privacy and the loss of our desires and maybe even the loss of our lives. This is our ministry. Wilmer McLean had retired from the Virginia militia and had become a rather successful wholesale grocer living there in his home state. However, he was doing everything he could to stay out of the conflict that was brewing because, again, he was retired from the military. And this developing conflict he wanted to avoid, known as the American Civil War. He wanted to stay out of harm's way. But harm's way seemed to follow him. In fact, the first major land battle of the Civil War that took place on July 1861 was called the First Battle of Bull Run, and it took place on McLean's plantation in Manassas, Virginia. Union artillery fired at McLean's house because it was being used by the Confederate general and his staff as their headquarters. In fact, a cannonball dropped down his fireplace, destroying most of his kitchen. McLean never wanted to take sides. And since he was retired, you remember, from military service, wanting nothing to do with this outbreak of war, he sold his plantation after that battle and moved his family 120 miles south to get out of harm's way. He bought another plantation in Appomattox, Virginia. Poor guy. When General Robert E. Lee knew that he was going to surrender, he sent one of his aides to Appomattox to find a location where they could meet. And that aid knocked on the door of Wilmer McLean's plantation home. Here was a man who wanted to steer clear of the conflict, and yet it really did start in his front yard and end in his front parlor. One of the misconceptions of the Christian life is that we really ought to be left alone. That we ought to be able to avoid conflict with the world. That somehow we have a right to peacetime conditions. According to God's design, though, every Christian has been drafted into service. Frankly, your front yard and your front parlor do not belong to you. They belong to the commander in chief, whom we follow. In fact, we've all been, according to the Bible, commissioned to occupy a singular role. It'll have a million applications, and it'll have a million different assignments to this commission, depending on the will of God for our own particular lives. But we are to take the gospel to a world that is at war with God, and we we put everything on the line as we desire, as we seek to see a peace treaty signed between man and God. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Look at verse 18. Paul writes, if you want to back up, verse 17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. What are some of those new things? Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Did you catch that? He reconciled us to himself and then turned around and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, our lives effectively serve as front parlors where we effectively demonstrate to a world at war, we deliver the gospel of Christ to those engaged in civil war against their creator. Paul goes on to reference not only the ministry of reconciliation, but the message of reconciliation. Look at verse 19, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. In other words, mankind is reconciled to God by means of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. The sin, he references them as trespasses that are in the way, are no longer in the way, that is, they have been paid for by Christ. There's nothing in the way of mankind signing the treaty. The gospel is the message of reconciliation. Reconciliation, then, really, is nothing more than accepting the terms of surrender offered by God through the peace treaty drafted on a blood-soaked cross. And that's the treaty we offer as we engage our world and deliver to them the message. In case any of the Corinthian believers or believers living in Kerry or in this vicinity get the idea that this ministry, this message of reconciliation is for you clergy. He clarifies here that we're all involved. Look at verse 20. Therefore, in other words, based on what I've just said, we, he includes the church, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. We are ambassadors of Christ. Part of our problem in misunderstanding our commission is in misunderstanding this idea of being an ambassador. You know, we're tempted to think in modern terms, whatever we may have, and I'm sure we have misconceptions, but we tend to think of ambassadors as men and women who spend a lot of time attending banquets, wearing out tuxedas or formal dresses, you know, smiling at foreign dignitaries who really don't mean what they say, but that's okay because we're going to try to put our best foot forward and the best face on our unsettled and rather uneasy piece. Well, you need to understand that when Paul wrote this, ambassadors would show up and they would determine the boundaries of the provinces by order of the emperor. They would draw up a constitution telling the people, this is now how you are to live. You can imagine how welcome that would be. They were literally responsible, one historian called it, for bringing these vanquished people into the family of the Roman Empire. The ambassador reveals the terms of peace from the conquering king. The ambassadors effectively assimilate people who have surrendered into the family of the victorious empire. That is in the gospel. I don't know what it is. Listen to some of these additional characteristics I uncovered in my study. Ambassadors were to spend their lives among people who, of course, spoke a different language, with different traditions, a different way of life. Ambassadors were often to deliver their message, the message of the emperor, to these people. Ambassadors were to deliver a definitive message, to carry out a definitive policy, but they were encouraged to be alert for opportunities to place before their hearers in the most attractive form possible the message of their emperor. Listen to this. One author wrote, it was the great responsibility of the ambassador to commend his country to the people amongst whom he was placed. What a great analogy for the believer. Do we not do the same? We have a definite message. We are to commend on every opportunity our home country to the people around us. For some reason, the deaths of five new tribes missionaries never made it into the headlines. They had attempted to reach a savage tribe in Bolivia in 1943, and all five of them were killed. Thirteen years later, five missionary martyrs would indeed send shock waves. Not only throughout the Christian community, but even our own culture took note. Life magazine would publish, I've seen the article, a 10-page article on the lives of these missionaries. God would choose to use the deaths of these ambassadors in a way that literally incentivized for decades the church to send hundreds, if not thousands, into service. Their names, some not so familiar as others, were Roger Eudarian, Peter Fleming, Ed McCauley, Nate Saint, and Jim Elliott. No doubt the most well-known martyr of the five, more than likely because of the fact that his story would be retold through his wife, Elizabeth, who would write two books and eventually host an international radio program for many years called Gateway to Joy. Elizabeth, in fact, along with Nate Saint's sister, would make contact with and actually go to live with the Alcas, this vicious tribe who had cut down their beloved family by spearing them on a sandy riverbed deep in the jungles of Ecuador in 1956. Let me reintroduce you to Jim and Elizabeth. Let me back up a few minutes, though, and tell you how Jim and Elizabeth accepted their foreign commission. They met at Wheaton College, where they were both majoring in Greek. You can imagine it was a small class, they would eventually meet. They were actually majoring in Greek because they both felt the leading of the Lord into linguistic and Bible translation. Elizabeth would later write, and I quote her, there was this student on campus whom I had been noticing more and more. In fact, my brother Dave had been encouraging me to get acquainted with him. He and Dave were on the wrestling squad, so I went to a match, supposedly, to watch my brother wrestle. But I found myself laughing along with the other fans that Jim Elliott nicknamed the India Rubber Man because he could be tied in knots without being pinned to the mat. I noticed Jim in the Foreign Missionary Fellowship on campus, earnest, committed to missionary service, outspoken. I noticed him in dining hall lines with little white cards in his hand, memorizing scripture verses or Greek verbs. Finally, my brother Dave invited Jim to come to our home for Christmas break, and we would end up having long talks after everyone else had retired for the night. When we returned back to college, I began to hope that he would sit next to me in class once in a while, and he did, often. Even when at times he had to trip over other people to get to the seat next to mine. Eventually, Jim shared his heart's desire to marry Elizabeth, but first believed that God wanted to settle him in Ecuador to learn the language. And Elizabeth would come a little later on to Ecuador as well to serve nearby him. But they agreed to put off their marriage until they both learned the language so that marriage and homemaking and maybe even parenting duties would not interfere with their ability to speak the language. So, to accomplish their ultimate desire to reach these people, they put off their wedding for five years. Five years after initially proposing, Jim and Elizabeth were married in Ecuador. Within two years, he would be dead. Roger, Ed, Pete, and Nate, the pilot, along with Jim, spent months pouring over maps of the jungle of Ecuador. Now they were very aware, by the way, of the previous attempt of those five new tribes missionaries. They were well aware of the risk. They knew that they had been savagely killed. One author writes, they knew what they were risking. Their dream was not pursued on a whim. They would risk their lives because they firmly believed this was their calling. They were to be ambassadors for Christ, even if it meant losing their lives. So they began to fly over this village and they rigged up a loudspeaker, and they would shout as they would circle slowly around the village. We are your friends. We are your friends. The team found a sandbar along a river nearby where they landed their plane, and eventually contact was made with a couple of younger women in the tribe, and everything was progressing wonderfully. Even made contact with one of the men, and the missionary team was excited with the prospects. On January 8th, 1956, they flew back to that same location after spotting nearly a dozen Alcal warriors on the trail leading to that river. Within minutes of making contact, the killing would begin. Savagely and unexpectedly. Even though all of the missionaries were armed, they had decided not to fire on any of the warriors, even if they were being attacked. In fact, Nate Saint had told his wife and son of that decision. He said, We have decided that we cannot kill them. They are not ready for heaven. We are. Steve Saint, if you've been around here long enough, a number of years we had him here to speak. Nate's son, years after this event, would be seated at a campfire with several of these warriors, now believers, committed disciples of Christ. For the first time ever there at that campfire, they recounted to Steve the events of the afternoon. They remembered being mystified as to why the missionaries didn't fire their weapons at them, but only into the air instead. Why one of the missionaries would simply wait for one of the warriors to wade out into the river to spear him when he was armed. Why another missionary would beg the warriors in their language, we are not going to hurt you. Why are you killing us? We are not going to hurt you. One native said to Steve, if he had run away, he would have probably lived. But they all died. Almost intentionally. Months later, Elizabeth Elliot, her young daughter, ten months old, and Rachel, Saint, Steve's sister, were able to establish a home among these Alkas thanks to a young native girl who fled the village and come to faith in Christ and then led these women back. These women would live among them for years, adapting to the hardships of an incredibly primitive lifestyle, in order to deliver to them the gospel. In fact, Elizabeth would personally lead to Christ two of the warriors from that killing party. Elizabeth would remember and write later, and I quote her when I stood by my shortwave radio in the jungle of Ecuador and heard the report that my husband was missing, God brought to my mind the words of Isaiah the prophet. Jim's absence thrust me, forced me, hurried me to God. My only refuge. I can say that suffering is an irreplaceable medium through which I learned an indispensable truth. And he is the Lord. Nine years after the martyrdom of these five men, the Gospel of Mark was published in the Alcal language. A church had already been established. The pastor of the church was one of the warriors who dispiered these missionaries. He, if you can believe it, would personally baptize Steve the Saint in that river, adopting him as his grandson. No better way to illustrate the ministry of reconciliation than that. One author wrote, God had used these martyrs, a wife and sister of the slain missionaries, to reconcile with the Alcas and bring them the ultimate reconciliation of Christ's salvation. Steve Saint, just as an addendum, and his family would later return to Ecuador in 1995 when they would build a hospital and airport for the tribes of this region. In fact, just 15 years ago or so, Steve published the conversation he had with these warriors there at the campfire. And let me fill you in on one of one incident. One of the now aged Alca warriors who'd taken part in the killing of Jim Elliott and Steve's own father told a story that was confirmed by the other warriors who were still alive and the women who'd been there on that sandy riverbed that afternoon. They talked about hearing music. Strange music. As the missionaries lay on that riverbed, dead or dying, these Indians began to hear music and looked above the tree line to see a multitude of cowodi, the same word for missionary or foreigner, hovering. Above the trees. One native described this singing, these people as lights moving around and shining, a sky full of jungle beetles, similar to fireflies, with a light that was brighter and didn't blink on and off. One of the women who were there told Steve that she had hidden in the bush during the attack and after it was over, saw the Cowody above the trees singing. She said, We didn't know what this kind of music was until we later heard recordings played by Rachel Saint. When she came to live with us, she brought a record player and she would play us recordings of Christian choirs singing. That was the music that they'd heard. Steve said, all the participants there saw this bright multitude in the sky and knew they should be afraid because they knew it was something supernatural. Evidently, there at that riverbank, an angelic host had arrived to testify of these ambassadors who were now heading home and they're, I guess, God determined to sing them along their way from their assigned posts to their home country of heaven. Perhaps on this occasion to give tangible evidence that Christ has overcome the world even when his ambassadors lay dying. Evidence that we also, his ambassadors, for you don't have to go to a field to be an ambassador, that we have been given the honor of a lifetime to represent his everlasting victorious kingdom, delivering to our world the terms of surrender and how they might have peace with God. It might mean the loss of our comforts and the loss of our agendas and the loss of our privacy and the loss of our desires and maybe even the loss of our lives. This is our ministry. This is our message as ambassadors delivering the message of how to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, who happens to be our conquering, already victorious Lord.