God in the Manger Christmas Series - Wk 1 - The Infinite in Finite

Let’s play a game called “Who Said It.” I’ll say the movie line, you shout out who said it or where it came from. 

“Here’s looking at you kid.” - Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), Casablanca.

“I’m the king of the world!” - Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio), Titanic.

“You can’t handle the truth!” - Colonel Jessup (Jack Nicholson), A Few Good Men.

“I feel the need, the need, for speed!” - Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Goose (Anthony Edwards), Top Gun.

Okay, one more, “Phenomenal cosmic power! Itty bitty living space.” Genie (Robin Williams), Aladdin.

In Disney’s 90s movie Aladdin, the main character, Aladdin, meets the Genie in the cave of wonders. There the Genie reveals that he has this unlimited power to make all of Aladdin’s dreams come true. However, for the Genie, there are some limitations to that power and we find out about what defines him by the rules he tells Aladdin. With how the Genie references modern day celebrities, as only Robin Williams could do, we see an almost limitlessness to the character.

It’s this idea of being limitless that launches us into our Christmas series on the seeing the attributes of God in the baby of the manger. 

As we jump into this series, let’s define the next four weeks first. The omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, transcendent, holy, loving, just, matchless God, is the God that is revealed through the Bible’s sixty-sixty books. Through the interaction God has with people throughout time, we can see who he is. As one theologian wrote about God’s attributes “… we are referring to those qualities of God that constitute what he is, the very characteristics of his nature. We are not referring here to his acts, such as creating, guiding, and preserving, nor to his corresponding roles of Creator, Guide, Preserver.” God’s attributes are features of God that pertain to the triune God that we see reveled throughout both the Old and New Testaments. As that same theologian states, “The attributes are permanent and intrinsic qualities, which cannot be gained or lost.”

Christmas is the celebration of when God wrapped himself in flesh. As the apostle John wrote in his first chapter, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (Jn. 1:14, [ESV])” The prophet Isaiah said it like this, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Is. 7:14)” And again the prophet would write two chapters later, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Is. 9:6)” These are the Christmas passages that we read every year, and they tell us that the God of the omni’s is the one who is in the manger. 

So we are going to look at several of God’s attributes over the next four weeks, and see how those are brought together in the Messiah Jesus. 

Like the Genie we’re going limitless. Except God’s limitless is vastly different. The limitless that we’re talking about is God as infinite. God is greater than anything he has made, and far greater than anything that has existed or will exist. Let me give you several ideas to help with understanding God as limitless. First, God isn’t limited by space, meaning unlike us, who are limited by where we can be at any time. God is beyond the constraint of space. Another idea that walks hand-in-hand with the spaceless concept is that God is beyond space, yet has access to all things. God sees, hears, and knows what’s going on throughout his creation. These two things put together hold in tension God’s transcendence, or his being nowhere, and his immanence, or his being everywhere. Both these ideas are seen when God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah, “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? 24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. (Jer. 23:23-24)” So God is both unconfined to any place, but is also able to be in all places. One helpful definition of God’s omnipresence and omniscience speaks to this infinite attribute as, “… all things are present to God… all events are present to the divine mind…” 

This limitlessness isn’t something we can easily illustrate. If we said it was like being on the Autobahn in Germany, with it’s areas of unrestricted speed, we’d still see that there is a limit to the car’s ability. If we tried to connect it with the energy of the sun, we come face to face, with the reality of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which basically carries with it the idea that energy is depleted over time. God is beyond any limiting except in one area, and that’s not being able to sin. God is only limited in that he does only good. Therefore there’s no illustration that could do this justice.

This is the God who spoke all things into existence, that no space, or time, can confine. It’s here that the limitless God sets limits. It’s a limiting that we see in John’s opening chapter, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us … (Jn. 1:1-3,14)” Here we need a deep understanding of the triune God of Scripture. That the three persons, are all co-equal in all the attributes, glory, and majesty of the Godhead. It is the Son, the eternal Word, who descends to be clothed in the flesh of his image bearers. 

Paul writes this in his letter to the Philippians, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (Phil. 2:5-7)” Verse seven is an extremely important statement on what happened when the Word of God took on flesh and in so doing limited himself. Theologian Ralph P. Martin writes that verse seven, “teaches that [Jesus’] ‘kenosis’ or self-emptying was his taking the servant’s form, and this involved the necessary limitation of his glory which he laid aside in order that he might be born in human likeness.”

Though Jesus was still fully the Word of God, though he was still God, co-equal in all things and still containing the full attribute of limitlessness that he had from eternity past, the Son limits himself for a space and time to be a servant and sacrifice for humanity. It is an overwhelming illuminating realization that the infinite God, would become finite with the intention of saving his creation. 

This is why the words of Mark Lowery’s song, “Mary Did You Know?” has such an impact. Lowery writes, 

“Did you know

That your baby boy has walked where angels trod?

And when you kiss your little baby

You've kissed the face of God …

Mary, did you know

That your baby boy is Lord of all creation …

This sleeping child you're holding

Is the Great I Am!”

The child in the manger, the one whom both angels and shepherds herald, is the limitless God who limited himself for the sake of humanity, for the sake of you and me. Never did Jesus lose his limitlessness, yet for a moment of time, compared to his eternal nature, he let himself be limited by the space of flesh and the time of roughly thirty-three years. No god of myth limits themselves for the sake of their creation, yet the true and living God did. 

The gift of the limiting of God is given to humanity, that humanity might begin to experience the limitless God. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection opens the gate to the narrow path of eternal life, which is God’s desire for all those who would accept him.

God’s intention is that whoever would accept Jesus’ as Savior, would begin to experience that eternal life today. To begin to see the limitless God in action. Where we see defeat and dead ends, God sees a limitless work through the victory found in Jesus. That victory is what God is calling each of us into.

If you have not put your trust in Jesus as Savior, the limitless God is calling you to himself. God created us to experience his eternal limitlessness, but our sin, those things that we have done in rebellion against God, have placed us in bondage. Apart from God, we are headed to an eternal separation where there is no hope. Our sin places us in that separation, in a sense, we’ve earned it (Rom. 6:23). Yet, Jesus offers his own self in our place. The limitless God, for the limited human. With him, comes limitless forgiveness and freedom, and an eternity of joy in the Lord. God is inviting you into that very relationship with him. If you feel that call today, then I want to ask you to speak with me after the service, that we might pray together as you enter into eternal life with the limitless God.

If you have put your trust into Jesus as your personal Savior, I have a challenge for you this week. What are those things that are looking like they’re dead ends? What are those things that look like there is a limit to what God can do? Is your marriage falling apart, is your career at a dead end? Are you struggling with hurt, anger, addictions, un-forgiveness? Our you feeling no hope, or peace, or love? Are you facing death itself? I want you to make a list of those things and then take them to the Lord, crying out to him as the limitless God, to show you the work he is doing so that you know there’s a path forward. This takes a humbling of us before him. It takes a life position that puts God’s will over our own (Matt. 6:10; Lk. 22:42); a position that our Savior took when speaking with the Father. 

Let us be a people who see the limitless God who has saved us through limiting himself to become a human baby that he might die on the cross, that all those who believe would experience his unlimited work and life. Amen.

4 Arguments for the Existence of God - Argument 4, Argument for the Resurrection

Last night my wife and I finished a T.V. series called the Mentalist. Years ago we started watching the series, but with life, we got too busy and never finished it. Recently we were given the opportunity to go back, so we did. The main story throughout the show was that Patrick Jane was a Sherlock Holmes type of character, except before the show begins, he acted as a psychic. He was so good at fooling people to believe that he was a psychic that his hubris led to his wife and daughter being killed at the hands of a serial killer named Red John. The show picks up several years later and spends the next five and half seasons working that story out. Spoilers, eventually they take down the guy and the show shifts to Jane working for the FBI. In the final three episodes, again spoiler, a new serial killer comes on the scene. This killer is looking to communicate with the dead, is calling himself Lazarus, and captures Jane who had put on his old psychic persona to coax the killer out. 

What I find interesting about the final three episodes is that it hits on this idea that permeates throughout cultures. That idea is the afterlife. What happens when we die? Where will we go? Is it like the naturalist say, and we’ll just be dust? Or is there something beyond this mortal veil? 

It’s this idea of addressing the hereafter that brings us back to our series of four arguments for the existence of God. Where we’ll be concluding our series by beginning in 1st Corinthians 15.

And as we open up to 1st Corinthians 15, let’s quickly go over the last three weeks. In our first week we talked about a cosmological argument for the existence of God called the Kalam argument. That argument holds three premises: Everything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist. The universe has a cause. From those three premises, we concluded that the cause of the universe has to be separate from it, so the cause must be spaceless, timeless, and immaterial. All things that the God of the Bible claims. 

However, we also talked about how the cause must be intelligent, which led us into our second argument which was the Fine-Tuning of the Universe. Which basically is understood as, the universe is so perfect for life to happen, that it appears to be created. We shared several quotes by atheists who affirmed this perceived fine-tuning, that if just one aspect of this universe was changed, life as we know it could not happen. Our conclusion was that the God of the Bible also claims to be the one who created this universe with the purpose of filling it with a creation he could interact with.

Then last week, Pastor Tony shared with us the Moral Argument. In this argument we talked about, not if something was right or wrong, but rather, where does our foundation for morals come from. It was shown that without God to give us an objective moral standard, the standard falls to us, and becomes relative to our own desires. But in that scenario, any common morals that we might share, have at their core an ever shifting self-centeredness that has no true objective foundation on which to rest. The conclusion was that the God of the Bible claims to be the foundation of goodness, and by his standard do we can have an objective view of what is moral.

At the beginning of this series, I stated that each of these arguments, left on their own, merely point us to a god in the general sense. But what we also showed each week, was that the God of the Bible claims to be the Creator of the universe, that he is the Creator of a fined tuned universe, and that the God of the Bible claims to be the source from which all morality has it’s foundation. 

It is here that we’re going to shift our focus from the general arguments of the existence of God, to the more specific, argument for the Christian God. And we’re going to do this through the resurrection of Jesus. Because it’s in the resurrection of Jesus that the whole of the Christian message rests. Now there are other arguments for the Christian God, like the argument from history and prophecy, but it’s the resurrection which is at the core of the Christian faith. So it’s one argument that we need to be able to make. 

It is here where we pick up Paul’s words in 1st Corinthians 15, starting in verse 3.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

9 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. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Paul binds the credibility and the future of Christianity to the moment in time where Jesus rose from the dead. So this is the premise of the argument. If the resurrection happened, then every argument we have made is true. If the resurrection didn’t happen, then either the God of the Bible isn’t the true God, or there is no God at all. 

So for the Argument of the Resurrection, I’m going to give you five points that go into building this argument for the existence of the Christian God:

First, Jesus is a real historical person. This is the foundation of the argument because there are people that don’t believe Jesus even existed. But in his article, “An Atheist Historian Examines the Evidence for Jesus,” Tim O’Neill argues that, “Scholars who specialize in the origins of Christianity agree on very little, but they do generally agree that it is most likely that a historical preacher, on whom the Christian figure ‘Jesus Christ’ is based, did exist. The numbers of professional scholars, out of the many thousands in this and related fields, who don't accept this consensus, can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Many may be more cautious about using the term ‘historical fact’ about this idea, since as with many things in ancient history it is not quite as certain as that. But it is generally regarded as the best and most parsimonious explanation of the evidence and therefore the most likely conclusion that can be drawn (https://strangenotions.com/an-atheist-historian-examines-the-evidence-for-jesus-part-1-of-2/).”

In other words, Tim O’Neill is saying that the vast majority of scholars, from all backgrounds, including atheists, agnostics, and Jewish, conclude that there was a Jesus in the first century on which the Christian religion is based. 

This is important, because there are a lot of internet blogs, YouTubers, and writings out there that say that Jesus wasn’t even a historical figure. But the evidence is not on their side, because the vast majority of all scholars that specialize in early Christianity, agree that Jesus was a real historical figure.

Second, Jesus was crucified. As believers, we can take for granted the knowledge that Jesus was crucified, but there are people that do not believe this. But in his book, The Resurrection of Christ, atheist scholar Gerd Ludemann, wrote, “Jesus’ death as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable.”

Another New Testament scholar named John Dominic Crossan was part of the group called the Jesus Seminar. That group’s sole mission was to separate the miraculous Jesus from the historical one. Crossan wrote, “Jesus’ death by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate is as sure as anything historical event can ever be. For if no follower of Jesus had written anything for one hundred years after his crucifixion we would still know about him from two authors not among his supporters. Their names are Flavius Josephus and Cornelius Tacitus.”

Jesus’ death on the cross is agreed upon as one of the most attested to and historically accurate events in all of human history. Even great moments such as Julias Caesar crossing the Rubicon River, or the life of the military leader Hannibal, do not have the same historical clout of Jesus’ crucification.

Third, the tomb was historically empty. Skeptic D. H. Van Daalen states, in one of his last articles entitled, “Resurrection of Jesus - the great mystery, leading people to believe in the Easter message today.” writes “…it is extremely difficult to object to the empty tomb on historical grounds; those who deny it do so on the basis of theological or philosophical assumptions…From the differing and in part unharmonizable, even contradictory, data about the discovery of the empty tomb it can at most be inferred that the tomb on Easter morning was probably empty, but nothing more.”

Daalen is saying that at the very least we know that the tomb was empty. But that’s where he stops. In other words, even skeptics who deny that Jesus raised from the dead, agree that the tomb in which he was put in after his crucifixion was empty. So as far as historians are concerned, the tomb was empty when the disciples looked upon it on that first Easter morning.

Fourth, there were eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. Again Gerd Ludemann the atheist German scholar, wrote, “It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus’ death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ (What Really Happened to Jesus?).” But it wasn’t just to his disciples the Jesus appeared. James, Jesus’ half-brother who was a skeptic, and Paul the persecutor of Jesus’ disciples, who were both adverse to Jesus, but both confirmed that they saw Jesus’ resurrected.

C.S. Lewis wrote this, “The first fact in the history of Christendom is a number of people who say they have seen the Resurrection (Joyful Christian).”

These eyewitness accounts are what Paul in 1st Corinthians 15:5-9 references. And it is verses 3 and 4 that we get the earliest creedal mention of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Atheist scholars Gerd Ludemaan (The Resurrection of Jesus, trans. by Bowden [Fortress, 1994], 171-72.) and Michael Goulder (“The Baseless Fabric of a Vision,” in Gavin D’Costa, editor, Resurrection Reconsidered [Oneworld, 1996], 48.), and Non-Christian scholars Robert Funk (Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus, 466.) and A.J.M. Wedderburn (Beyond Resurrection [Hendrickson, 1999], 113-114.), all agree that what Paul is referencing here is a creed that was developed within the first two years of the Christian faith. The early Christians believed they saw Jesus resurrected and they shared it everywhere.

Finally, the response of the disciples. The resurrection event radically changed the lives of the early disciples. New Testament scholar and former priest Luke Johnson, wrote in his book, The Real Jesus, “Some sort of powerful, transformative experience is required to generate the sort of movement earliest Christianity was." This is why other New Testament scholars like N.T. Wright, though not an atheist nor a skeptic, end up concluding, “That is why, as a historian, I cannot explain the rise of early Christianity unless Jesus rose again, leaving an empty tomb behind him ("The New Unimproved Jesus," Christianity Today).”

Eleven of the Apostles died through martyrdom. The only apostle not to die this way was John, who got off with being boiled in oil and exiled. Not only these original disciples, but also both the skeptic James, and the persecutor turned disciple Paul, died as martyrs believing that they saw Jesus resurrected.

Walking through the evidence given in this argument, former L.A. cold case detective and former atheist J. Warner Wallace concluded, “In the end, I came to the conclusion that the gospels were reliable eyewitness accounts that delivered accurate information about Jesus, including His crucifixion and Resurrection. But that created a problem for me. If Jesus really was who He said He was, then Jesus was God Himself. If Jesus truly did what the gospel eyewitnesses recorded, then Jesus is still God Himself.”

This is what all of these arguments boil down to: is Jesus who he says he is? Is Jesus the one who claims to be the Creator? Is he the one who claims to be the source of Morality? If Jesus was truly resurrected, as seems to be the best explanation of the historical case, then the question we must ask ourselves is, am I not accepting Jesus as Savior because of the evidence, or because of what I would have to now change because of who Jesus is?

A while back I read an article from a pastor who was speaking to a man about this very issue. Listen to what the pastor wrote, “Recently, I spoke with a man who had heard the story of Jesus and the resurrection several times in his life. Yet, this man seemed deeply defensive, even hostile, to the idea of becoming a Christian himself. I pointed out to my friend that he seemed not merely to disagree with the Gospel message, but also prone to attack it. I asked him why this was so. After a quiet pause, he answered, ‘Okay, Scott, I’ll tell you the truth. I’ll tell you the real reason why I dislike Christianity. It’s not because the evidence is unconvincing to me. In fact, the opposite is true. But I still don’t ever want to become a Christian because if I do, Jesus will ask me to forgive my father for the ways that he hurt me (https://scottsauls.com/blog/2019/04/21/intelligentatheistschristians/).'”

And this is the real crux of the situation. No argument will ever make someone who is opposed to Christ accept him. The last four weeks was not given to you so that you can win debates, but that you can fulfill the mandate of 1 Peter 3:15, “… but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect …” The arguments of the Kalam, the Fine-Tuning of the universe, the foundation on which Morality rests, nor the historical reality of the Resurrection, will ever transform a person from death to life. They are merely there as a resource to use to break down barriers when questions are raised against the Gospel. However coming to Christ is not a merely mental exercise, it’s a heart laid down willing to Jesus. It’s someone coming to a point of conviction by the Holy Spirit over their need for a Savior. Arguments, like the ones given these past four weeks, push aside the excuses not to believe and make way for people to struggle against the real issue of unwillingness to trust Jesus. This is why we must live holy, loving lives, honoring Christ, being gentle and respectful as we point others to the Savior who Created the world, whom we get our morality and who gave himself as a sacrifice so that his creation may be redeemed.

Our jobs are to witness about Jesus, by giving answers, but usually the questions come as we live out Jesus’ holiness in front of other people. We must live loving God and loving people. That carries with it helping people when we won’t get anything in return. It means forgiving people when they slight us. It means not gossiping about others or tearing them down. And it means when we do not live up to the standard of Christ, we ask for fogginess of those we have sinned against; humbling ourselves to honor our Savior. 

When our lives seek to honor Christ, conversations are easier to have, which gives us ability to share the arguments. These merely aid us in removing the mental road blocks that people use to keep from getting to their heart. When the those are removed and no excuses remain, the person now has to struggle with Jesus on the heart level, which is a more honest place to be. 

Now I want to challenge you, on two fronts. First, if you do not believe in Jesus, what is holding you back? Is it that the arguments are not convincing, because we only covered four, and there are many more. Or is it that what Jesus desires from you just seems to be to high a price? We must wrestle with both, because if Jesus is who he says he is, then the decision we make to either follow him or not is an eternal decision. If you have questions or want more information Pastor Tony and myself are willing to sit with you and go deeper.

Second, if you do believe in Jesus, then I want to challenge you to research the historicity of the resurrection. Looking into the points we’ve made today. And then, at Jesus’ resurrected feet, fall down and worship him. 

Because if Jesus is truly raised from the dead, then he is, as Napoleon stated, “no mere man.” Jesus is indeed the Good Creator God that left his throne to die on a cross for the sins that we commit. He has taken our place for the punishment of those sins, and now invites us into a relationship with him, where all is forgiven, and new life awaits, both now and into eternity. Amen

Theology of Mission: A Scholarly Paper

                                                                         Introduction

The Psalmist seeks God who is everlasting to everlasting so that the poet might have the Lord’s work shown to his servants. That work is repeatedly revealed through the divinely inspired word and plays out in people’s lives as they respond. The mission of God permeates all things that God is and does. That mission is shown from the first words of Genesis to the final words of Revelation and has taken many millennia to march towards its climax. Every believer is to be about God’s mission. Understanding its foundations, categories, motifs, and application grounds the believer and moves them forward in the call upon their life. To be called into the salvation of God is to be drafted into accomplishing his mission. Let each of us respond in lockstep with the Psalmist’s desire to see the work of God all around us.  

Biblical Foundation of Mission 

The biblical foundation of the mission starts, as all things do, with God himself. In the study of missions, missiology, the mission of God is referred to as Missio Dei. Which, for George Peters and J.F. Shepherd, has the purpose of the “… glorification of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” This mission of God can be seen as beginning before creation. The apostle Paul writes, “… but because of his purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel … (2 Timothy 1:9-10 [ESV])” Christ’s first generation disciples were not engaging in something new, but in the revealed mystery of God,  which he had been working towards even before he spoke existence into being.  Therefore, it is no surprise that when God’s prize creation, humanity, fell to temptation and a curse was spoken over all creation, God himself gave hope in that moment. To the woman who first took the forbidden fruit, God speaks hope, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)” This not only was meant to bring hope to humanity in a hopeless moment but was to reveal the end goal of God’s mission to restore and elevate his creation once again. Paul would understand this and write, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)” And when the time came, and God began his adoption process, the Scriptures reveal, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet … (1 Corinthians 16:20)”

From the promise or the protoevangelium of Genesis 3, God begins his work, which focuses on the lineage of Abraham It would be this lineage that both Matthew and Luke would connect Jesus to in their Gospels. John the Baptist refers back to this lineage, by which salvation occurs, when he speaks of the raising of children of Abraham from stones. Paul, too, would refer back to this lineage as that which Christians are brought into by faith. Through this lineage, God would work out his purposes to bring about goodness in the people of Israel and, through them, “…  make known his deeds among the peoples … tell of all his wondrous works!” God’s work through the nation of Israel and the specific covenant with David was to bring about the arrival of the Messiah.

Jesus is the pinnacle of God’s mission that began before the earth’s foundations. It is through the sacrifice of Jesus that God’s redemptive work finds its fulfillment that all nations can be truly blessed. This message, however, is not taken by the Risen Christ to the world but instead is given to his newly established Church. This work is to be carried out, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)” It is this partnership between the Divine Missionary and his people of all nations now where the Church finds herself. She carries the message of God’s redemptive work until the day her Bridegroom returns and puts everything right. For this very reason, Paul proclaims to the Church, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)”

Theological Categories 

Though there are doubtless many categories that would help to understand the topic of missions, two theological categories seem to be the bookends to missions: the theology of the Trinity and that of eschatology. When thinking of the beginning of missions, we must always begin with God. When thinking of the purposes of missions, one must turn to the goal, which is the eschaton of God’s divine plan. 

However, breaking down the beginning of missions, Christians have one more step to enter God’s being. Through Jesus’ life, the revelation that God is a tri-personal being reveals deeper truths about why God engages in the creation that he does. God creates personal beings, such as humans, because he is a personal being. God’s love is shown in pursuit of humanity, even while they rebel against him because love exists within the Godhead. 

Robert M. Doran sees four divine relations within the Trinity as he studies the likes of Aquinas and Lonergan: paternity, filiation, active spiration, and passive spiration; these, in turn, add to the theology of missions. First, Doren looks to the paternal terminology that Jesus uses of himself as the Son and his Father. From this relationship within the Godhead, the second divine relationship, filiation, is seen within Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son, where the mission purpose is linked heavily with family reunification. Paul’s adoption language fits rightly in this vein of the family dynamic. The relationship of the Holy Spirit preceding the Father and the Son, active spiration, connects to mission by way of the Church being something that proceeds from Christ himself. It is Jesus who is the builder of the Church, and it is he who is its foundation. The final divine relationship that shows itself in mission is passive spiration. This may be seen in the fact that it is the Son who commissions the disciples to be disciple-makers and witnesses, as it is the Father and Son who, in a sense, commissions the Holy Spirit to convict the world and indwell the believer. 

Looking to God as Trinity, missions are not simply something that God does but come forth from the very eternal person of God and how he relates within the Godhead. Missions are the divine eternal act of the relational God working out his eternal attributes. By the Church participating in God’s mission, they are participating in God’s divine personhood.

If the eternal Triune God is the theological category one begins with, as they think of missions, then eschatology is where one must end. Only a tiny glimpse is given to the new creation of Revelation 21 and 22. Yet this very glimpse brings the whole of Scripture to its inevitable conclusion. From his eternal being, God creates a universe in which relational beings exist to interact and worship their Creator. These relational beings rebel, and God’s mission is put into full swing. This climaxes in the person of Jesus, and the rest of human history as it has been under the fall, marches towards the return of Christ and all things being remade anew. The eschaton, or final act of God, flows on the words of God from his throne, “Behold, I am making all things new. (Revelation 21:5)” This final act of newness ushers humanity into God’s eternal and unrevealed mystery. Yet this is not where the book of Revelation ends. The final word in the book is that of the coming of Christ. The eschaton is linked with the mission of God to bring about the salvation of those who would respond to the Gospel. Jesus’ words, “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done … (Revelation 22:12)” are both a call to the Church to be about their Lord’s work and a warning to those who have yet to respond to the Gospel’s message. And so the eschaton of God’s new creation work is given as a means to spur on the mission of God to its completion.

Motifs in Mission Theology

Several motifs within the Scripture carry the idea of what missions are for the Church. The authors of Introducing World Missions point to David Bosch’s six motifs, and Wilbert Shenk’s more broad motifs, before putting forth their own. From the authors of Introducing World Missions’ motifs, the kingdom of God and shalom are fascinating. 

The kingdom of God is said to be “intertwined” with that of mission. Moreau, Corwin, and McGee put forth that the kingdom is the operational seat, while it is also the goal of every Christian to strive for. In this, the authors see how it is both a force to be reckoned with and yet a movement of the “quiet, life-changing” work of God. Moreau, Corwin, and McGee put forth that the kingdom is the operational seat, while it is also the goal of every Christian to strive for. The kingdom of God motif is an all-encompassing work of God. He establishes his kingdom in the opening two chapters of Genesis, sees a rebellion against the kingdom in chapter three of the same book, and then spends the following chapters to restore it. This restoration becomes “at hand” in the life of Jesus and is fully realized in the closing chapters of Revelation. 

The second motif of shalom that Moreau, Corwin, and McGee mention is interesting because it flows from the title of Christ, Prince of Peace. The authors write, “... shalom is concerned with the spiritual (salvation), the physical (healing), the psychological (wholeness), and the social (justice and freedom from war).” This works hand-in-hand with the kingdom motif due to the desire to restore all things. If the kingdom was good in Genesis 1 and 2, a sense of peace follows. If one of the kingdom’s goals is to restore that good creation, then peace would be an understandable companion. So when God speaks through his prophet of a future time when, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat … (Isaiah 11:6),” an image of peace is noticeably displayed. It is this peace that Paul writes to the Roman Church as something that all Christians should seek. 

Here, I would put forth my motifs influenced by these three lists: rebellion, promise, call, incarnation, indwelling, commission, and return. Though it is a negative, rebellion is the breakpoint of humanity; this could also be called the motif of serration to blunt the harshness of the term. The mission is unnecessary without the motif of rebellion/separation between God and humankind. Mission happens because there’s a reason for it to happen. If Adam had not rebelled, then there would have been no need for the second Adam, Christ, to come. The Gospel is the Good News because the bad news of rebellion is real and ever-present. The second motif would be promise. The promise is God’s hope and mystery that is revealed repeatedly through the Scriptures to Eve, Abraham, David, and the prophets. It is realized in Jesus, and through him, it is given to those who put their trust in him.  The third is the call. God calls people into his work, which they must respond to. This call is for God’s redemptive work. It was given to Abraham, and God continued to call when the incarnate Word walked the shores of Galilee with the words, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. (Matthew 4:19.)” The fourth motif would be an incarnation. It was the God himself who brought about salvation. No human was up to the task of fulfilling God’s mission of restoration, so the eternal Son wrapped himself in humanity’s flesh and became the payment for sin. Motif number five is indwelling. By accepting the work of Christ on a person’s behalf, they are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.It is by the Holy Spirit that we receive the power of God to carry out the mission of God. Apart from the Spirit, we simply build human structures to care for spiritually dying people without the transformational power that bridges them from eternal death to eternal life. For it is the Spirit who “… convict(s) the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. (John 16:8)” The sixth motif, commission, is similar to that of the third but carries without a specificity that the other does not. The call is to the general life of God, while the commission is the specific work of making disciples. The Church is not simply to talk about God; we are to train others in the life and work of God. The call is the life; the commission is the work of the Church and what every believer is to march in. The final motif, and the seventh in keeping with the complete number of God, is return. The work of the Church in commission is that of the return of Christ, not only by witnessing the Gospel of the kingdom but also by living in holiness and godliness. The return of the Bridegroom should turn the believer’s eye away from their everyday living and see their life within the framework of God’s mission.

Application for the Church

In applying the topics above, we look to three facets of the Church: The overseers, the sent, and the laity. Those who make up the office of overseers are those whom God has called to shepherd local congregations. In doing so, they are the initial champion of God’s mission work. They are to speak frequently about the kingdom of God, pointing others to Christ as the head of the Church and the one from whom all things flow from and back to. The overseers are to watch for the Holy Spirit’s gifting and build up the next generation of disciples for the mission. Overseers are also those who are pointing to the peace and the coming eschaton of Christ’s return. They are to communicate the peace of God that all believers are to live in now and the peace that will come at the return of the Bridegroom. For it is their role “… to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ … (Ephesians 4:12)”

It is through the overseers’ equipping that the next generation rises and is called to become the sent of God. Some are called to international missions, broadly sent, where they will leave their nation and culture behind to bring the Gospel to tongues and people not their own. These sent ones must learn from those who came before them how best to relay the timeless Gospel in different cultural contexts than where they grew up. However, there will be ones who might stay within their cultural and national boundaries. Yet they must never forget, and so must be encouraged to remember, that the Gospel must be a “testimony to all nations … (Matthew 24:14)” They’re work is both to reach their neighbor and region with Christ’s message of redemption and to be of the mind that until the return of Jesus, all people must hear. So, the local sent must support those who are broadly sent.

Finally, the laity must see themselves as foundational to the call of senders. Not everyone is a Paul and Barnabas who crosses the seas to speak the Gospel. Nor is every Christian a Timothy or a Titus who stayed to build up local congregations. Most of the laity are more akin to Stephen, a caretaker of local ministries. The laity are takers of collections that support fellow brothers and sisters in the faith and those of the sent ones. Yet, at the same time, they must be encouraged to be like Stephen, who continued to preach the Gospel in his context, and to seek God in finding their gifts and possibly the call to be a sent one. Every believer is called and commissioned to be a part of God’s mission, and when the Church is wholly involved, the testimony to the nations will be proclaimed.

Conclusion

The Missio Dei is rooted in the person of the Living God, who, from his triune nature, creates a universe in which finite beings have the will to rebel or walk in obedience to the Creator. Due to this will, the mission of God works tirelessly to mend and restore the broken relationships that result from rebellion. Through the foundation of God’s word, the mission of God reveals itself to move through the seed of Eve to Abraham, culminating in Jesus. Through his work, the mission of God breaks open to all those who would join him in it by trusting in Christ as Savior. In the end, it is a task given to Christ’s Church to carry His Gospel to all nations as a testimony of his great holy love. His mission marches on to the great and glorious day when all things are made new, and those who trust in him will be ushered into a new mystery of which “… no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)” May each professing Christian seek to be used by God to bring about his eternal kingdom, for all glory, honor, and power of the Lord Almighty. 

Bibliography

August, Jared M. “The Messianic Hope of Genesis: The Protoevangelium and Patriarchal Promises.” Themelios 42, no. 1 (April 1, 2017): 46–62. 

Grisanti, Michael A., “The David Covenant,” The Masters Seminary Journal, 10/2 (Fall 1999) 233-250, https://tms.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/tmsj10p.pdf.

Cotro, Hugo A. “Best Is Better Than Good: Christology and Progressive Revelation in Hebrews.” DavarLogos 17, no. 2 (2018): 1–35.

Davis, Barry C., “Psalms,” The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, ed. Gary M. Burge and Andrew E. Hill, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012.

Doran, Robert M., The Trinity in History: a Theology of the Divine Missions: Volume Two: Missions, Relations, and Persons, Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2019.

Moreau, A. Scott, Corwin, Gary R. and McGee, Gary B., Introducing World Missions: A Biblical, Historical, and Practical Survey, ed. A. Scott Moreau, Second Edition, Encountering Mission, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015.

Peters, George W. and Shepherd, J.F., A Biblical Theology of Missions, Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 1984.