Basis of the Society Article 4

Belief that we are by nature dead in trespasses and sins; that we are called according to God’s purpose by His Spirit working in us; that through Grace we obey the call; that by faith only, on account of the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are justified freely; that we become the sons of God by adoption, to be transformed into His image, to walk in good works, and at length to attain to everlasting felicity.

When we were in Paraguay in the 1990s we initially worked exclusively with the Paraguayan churches, consciously avoiding the temptation to get involved with the English-speaking community because we wanted to immerse ourselves in the local culture. Five years later the bishop asked us to take on leadership of the English-speaking congregation in Asunción (in addition to our other roles). We and one or two friends in Britain started asking big questions about this move. We had gone to work with the Paraguayan churches, which were economically poor. We had struggled to learn the language and culture. What were we doing moving to work with the expatriate community, which was economically much better off? This revealed an interesting view of humanity and God’s mission, in us and in others; one which needed correcting. 

The Article clearly refers to Ephesians 2 where Paul tells the Ephesians that they ‘were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked . . . ’(v:1-2). He then goes on to change from ‘you’ to ‘we’ language in verse 3‘. . . (we) were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind’. Thus the biblical view of all humanity (Jewish and non-Jewish) after Genesis 3 is a bleak one; still made in the image of God but sadly marred. The Bible describes this in various ways but none more starkly than in Ezekiel 37 and the valley of dry bones, summed up in the final despairing realisation by the Jewish exiles in Babylon: ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely’. The natural state of all people is precisely this; alienated from God and without hope of changing the situation.

So, to return to Paraguay, our error was thinking that only the economically poor Paraguayans were the objects of God’s mission and not the more affluent expatriates. The fact is that both are by nature dead in trespasses and sins. The greater affluence of the expats only serves to anaesthetise them from easily recognising their predicament. The frontiers of mission are no more economic or cultural than geographical. Our natural status before God is the same and it is desperate. Most are completely unaware of this or live in denial. Jim Packer helpfully puts it like this: “If you have not learned about sin, you cannot understand yourself, or your fellow-men, or the world you live in, or the Christian faith . . . the Bible is an exposition of God’s answer to the problem of human sin, and unless you have that problem clearly before you, you will keep missing the point of what it says. Apart from the first two chapters of Genesis, which set the stage, the real subject of every chapter of the Bible is what God does about our sins”.*

Into this terrible reality comes the wonderful good news of Jesus Christ. If we understand this Article and the biblical truth it summarises we will understand more clearly just what good news Jesus is!

* God’s Words: Studies of Key Bible Themes. J I Packer (Baker 1981)

Crosslinks magazine April 2004 index