The Missionary Vision of the Bible

Timóteo Carriker

• Publisher: Regnum
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781912343904
• eBook ISBN: 9781913363086
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

The Missionary Vision of the Bible treats the foundational plot of the Bible: the story of God's love for the world and the mission of his people to live out and proclaim this love. The emphasis is on the coherence of this biblical message from the beginning to the end.

1. The Universal Perspective of the Bible: Mission from the Beginning

The great Dutch theologian of missions, J. H. Bavinck, observed that Genesis 1:1 — in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth — constitutes the basis of the Great Commission given in the Gospels.

The Creation of the World

The Bible’s first verse highlights the amplitude of God’s concern and, consequently, the stage of mission: “the heavens and the earth.” The whole world is within the sphere of God’s interest. His concern is primarily universal. Before He is the God of Israel, He is the God of the universe. And before He is God of the church, He is Lord of everything and everyone. The very title “Lord” translates the composite Hebrew word, adonái¹ (adon = lord or master; ái = absolute, or of all). In this way, Genesis 1:1 reveals that as Lord of all things, God’s goal ever since creation is set for the whole world.

In John 3:16 — for God so loved the world… — we find that God’s interest is no smaller than the entire world that He created. His sight is fixed on this world. He has a master plan that involves all things (1 Corinthians 15:28). Israel was God’s instrument in the Old Testament to reach that goal. In the New Testament, that instrument is the church, comprised of both Jewish and Gentile believers, conceived as God’s instrument to fulfil the totality of His plan, but never the goal of that plan. So then, the sphere of God’s concern is universal. In Matthew 28:18, Jesus affirms that all authority was given to him in heaven and in earth. The same God that created all, possesses all authority over all things (Colossians 1:16-17) and from all will receive all glory and honour, “so at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,² to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).

Jesus told his disciples to go to all the nations, to every creature in every part of the world. He did this based on the fact that every part of this world is God’s creation and so belongs, by right, to Him.

The Creation of Humankind

The account of the creation of humankind and God’s purpose confirms the idea that God’s concern has a universal dimension.

So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. (Genesis 1:27-28)

In this part of the creation story, humankind is given dominion over the whole world. Both the heavens and the earth are mentioned once again. Here, another dimension of God’s mission emerges – the role of humankind, it receives a certain royalty invested by God. Our task will be to have dominion and subject the world that God created. Apparently, these capacities given to humankind – to have dominion, to subdue and to order – reflect God’s own image in humankind: just as God has dominion, governs and rules as King, so too, humankind, as His ambassador and envoy, must rule over creation. It was to the end of promoting God’s Kingdom that the Creator’s image was imputed to humankind. However, there was a great disorder and abuse of dominion by humankind after the fall that separated us from God.

The Provision of Victory over Evil

It is only the restoration, the re-creation and the rebirth of humankind by means of the redemption accomplished on the cross of Calvary that could rehabilitate us in order to permit our participation in God’s Kingdom and so, announce the arrival of His glorious Kingdom to all the nations. However, it would be necessary first to deal with the root of humankind’s rebellion against God. The victory over evil was foreseen in the promise that the woman’s seed would harm the serpent: 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; see also 1 John 3:8 and Romans 16:20).

The theme of “descendance” as God’s promise to reach the whole world is developed in all the Old Testament, with references to the descendance of Abraham (the people of God), and to David’s descendant, God’s anointed king. The definitive fulfilment of that promise refers to the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He is the central figure of the biblical story concerning creation and God’s love for the world and, for that reason, he is the focus of the largest chapter of this book. Through Christ, God’s purposes for creation are fulfilled and, only through him, can humankind fulfil our task to care for creation (Ephesians 1:10; Colossians 1:19-20).

One can see, then, that the biblical account of creation already brings to the forefront the principal stages of the biblical drama of mission. The goal and focus are universal. Humankind exercises the function of an ambassador, who promotes the dominion of the Creator-King throughout the world. The plot of curse and blessing appear in the fall of humankind and in the promise to defeat evil through the woman’s descendant. The rest of the Bible develops and elaborates this initial account, reaching its climax in the promised Messiah, Jesus.

However, one might question why the Old Testament emphasises so much just one nation – the people of God – if God has from the beginning a universal concern. In fact, from Genesis 12 until the end of the Old Testament, much of the attention is given to the specific history of the people of Israel. However, God’s concern for the universe is not lost throughout the development of the biblical narrative. On the contrary, Israel is seen as God’s instrument to achieve his larger goal: the whole world. Both in the period of the patriarchs and that of the kings and the prophets, although the focus lies on just one people, the larger purpose of God continues to be the same as that from the beginning. It remains universal and seeks to reach all the peoples of the world and, indeed, all of creation. The next chapter will elaborate on this point in more detail.

Questions for Reflection

•How far does God’s concern reach? What evidence of this can be found in the creation account?

•What is the fundamental characteristic of God’s image in humankind? What missionary dimensions does this involve?

•What are the principal parts of the biblical drama of mission already found in the biblical account of creation?

2. The Promise to Abraham: A Chosen People, Blessed Peoples

If God’s concern remains essentially universal throughout the whole Bible, why then in our reading of Scripture is so much attention given to a specific history: the history of Israel in the Old Testament and the history of the church in the New Testament? Why do we not read more about the history of other major and more powerful peoples that lived during the same periods? Why do we not read more about the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Samaritans, the Greeks, and the Romans? And why do we read nothing of the great Chinese and Indian peoples, of other Asian peoples, of the great African empires, not to speak of the great ancient civilisations of the Americas?

The answer is in the way that God decided to achieve his major purpose in relation to the whole world and for all peoples. Mysteriously, He separated only one people for Himself, in order to bless not exclusively that people, but rather to bless through that one people all the peoples of the world. This “people of God” would be his instrument to bring salvation to “all the families of the earth” (Genesis 12:3) or “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This was a promise, the most important promise in the Bible from which all other promises derive.

The idea of promise was always fundamental to the identity of God’s people. During all their long history, Israel understood herself to be the people of the promise, the chosen people of God, not at the cost of the rest of humanity, but exactly on behalf of and for the benefit of all the peoples of the world. The church inherited the same vision that also became the key to her identity. Therefore, in order to better understand the nature and purpose of a “people of God,” we need to begin with the idea of promise.

From the Whole World to Just One People

From the very beginning of the Book of Genesis, God reveals Himself as someone who makes and fulfils promises. Because of human physical necessity, God promised two things: food (1:29-30) and conjugal companionship (2:18). And because of the human spiritual condition, God promised various things: victory over evil (3:14), suffering due to sin (3:16-19), the greatest disgrace and curse for stubborn violence (4:8-12), the salvation of the just, the upright and those close to them who surround him (6:9, 18-19) and judgment for the wickedness of the heart (8:21-22; 9:11). In these first eleven chapters of Genesis, the promises (including judgment!) of God are directed to all humankind. Here, God relates to the whole world. The very name “Adam,” that means “humankind,” demonstrates such a universal concern. However, this “universal” focus does not end in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. It continues throughout the Bible because all the peoples of the earth, the whole earth, remain the breadth of God’s merciful concern.

Still, from Genesis 12 onwards, we find a change of strategy that characterises the rest of the Bible. God separates just one people through whom His goodwill and restoration will become manifest among all the peoples and in the whole world. In this context, the object of God’s promises is narrowed down from all humankind to only one people, even though his larger goal continues to be the whole world. God continues his universal project (he does not relinquish his prerogative as the creator of the whole world), however, he does so through the instrumentality of just one people, Israel, with the ultimate intention of blessing the whole world. This change in the way that God acts is indicated by a literary transition from Genesis 11 to Genesis 12, where a contrast is highlighted between human universal arrogance and God’s benevolence channelled to and through one specific people:

From:

Let us make a name for ourselves (11: 4b)
So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth (11:8)
The pronouncement of a curse due to arrogance (11:7)

To:

I will bless you and make your name great (12:2)
I will make of you a great nation (12:2)
In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (12:3)

Therefore, in Genesis 12, we find God’s response to the human rebellion and arrogance that attempt to realise their projects independently of God and leads to their destruction. In this chapter, God continues to be concerned with all humankind, maintaining the universal focus of the first eleven chapters. However, from this moment forward, God will have a specific and key partner, a people among all the other peoples, in order to deal with all the peoples of the world.

The Promise to Abraham: Genesis 12:1-3

From Genesis 12 on, God establishes a special relationship (called “covenant,” from the Hebrew word, berit) with a specific people and makes promises to this people, even while His goal continues to be the entire world:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

This is no small and insignificant promise, but as we wil...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. The Universal Perspective of the Bible: Mission from the Beginning
• 2. The Promise to Abraham: Chosen People, Blessed Peoples
• 3. The Promise to Moses: Treasured Possession, People among the Peoples
• 4. The Promise to David: Eternal Kingdom, Light to the Nations
• 5. The Fulfilment in Jesus: Cross and Resurrection
• 6. The Fulfilment in the Church: Equipping and Strategy
• 7. The Fulfilment in Paul: Vocation, Theology, and Mission
• 8. The Universal Perspective of the Bible: Mission to the End
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Back Cover