Throughout the Bible, from Genesis 3 onwards, God is the missionary. “Where are you?”, “What have you done?” God asked, as he looked for Adam and Eve in the garden. ”The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost”, declared Jesus on the day Zacchaeus came to faith. Mission is the central theme of the Bible, focused on Christ and fulfilled in his cross. It remains an unfinished task until he returns, when the new heavens and new earth are ushered in. Isaiah’s stupendous vision identifies the Lord as the one who declares: “I will gather all nations . . .” In these last days we know that God, who sees beyond our physical needs, delays Christ’s return (despite the serious consequences for men and women inhabiting a fallen world under his curse) because he “does not want any to perish but all to come to repentance”. The challenge for Christians of every generation is to see things from God’s perspective and embrace his agenda. 

As we do this we will understand that mission is not something located elsewhere, nor is being a missionary Christian something restricted to a few. It is what it is all about for every believer everywhere! If we belong to Christ then we are the fruit of his mission and are to be involved in that mission wherever we go – our homes, our neighbourhoods, our nation and throughout the world. In the context of a world that remains hostile to the Gospel, we need to remember that ultimately mission belongs to God. By setting our lives in another context – that of eternity – the Bible directs our energies to the “greater work” of Gospel proclamation. It is the urgency of evangelism alongside our concern for God’s glory that will drive us to our knees in prayer for men and women, old and young from all nations to be saved.

Crosslinks magazine April 2004 index