Salvation to the Ends of the Earth

A Biblical Theology of Mission

Andreas J. Köstenberger, D. A. Carson

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780830825493
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Few biblical topics are as important as mission. Mission is linked inextricably to humanity's sinfulness and need for redemption and to God's provision of salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ. This good news of salvation must be made known. The saving mission of Jesus constitutes the foundation for Christian mission, and the Christian gospel is its message.This second edition of New Studies in Biblical Theology volume Salvation to the Ends of the Earth emphasizes the way in which the Bible presents a continuing narrative of God's mission—ranging from the story of Israel to the story of Jesus and that of the early Christians. At the same time, it provides a robust historical and chronological backbone to the unfolding of the early Christian mission. The apostle Paul's writings and the General Epistles are incorporated with the Gospel with which they have the closest and most natural canonical and historical affinity.Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.

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Introduction

Between Eden and the eternal state, between Abraham and Armageddon, between Babel and the beast’s confinement to the lake of fire, few biblical topics are as important as mission. This is because mission, while purposed by God prior to sin, is inextricably linked to human sinfulness and need for redemption and God’s provision of salvation in the person and work of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. This ‘good news’ of salvation in Jesus, however, must be made known. Thus, mission is the ingredient that both precedes Christian existence and constitutes a major motivation for Christian living: the saving mission of Jesus forms the foundation for Christian mission, and the gospel is the message of this mission, a mission that is not optional but mandatory.

A biblical-theological approach

Throughout much of the history of New Testament theology, mission has been neglected.1 The present study, while also concerned to deal with larger missiological issues, represents a modest effort to help fill this gap. An attempt is made to explore mission comprehensively throughout the entire sweep of biblical history in both Testaments as well as the second-temple period. The approach followed is biblical-theological.2 Many previous treatments of the theme of mission have tended either (1) to be descriptive and to stress the diversity of the different portions of Scripture, or (2) to assume the pre-eminence of mission in a given book of Scripture at the outset, and then to find these assumptions confirmed in the study of the respective biblical writings. The present work seeks to follow a third path, combining a commitment to a biblical-theological method and a salvation-historical approach with an openness to examining the various portions of Scripture regarding their respective contributions to the biblical theme of ‘mission’. This allows for the possibility that certain books may contribute little, or even nothing, to the theme while in others mission is central. It also makes room for discontinuity between mission in the two Testaments. The difficult question of whether second-temple Jews pursued mission likewise must be treated primarily as a historical rather than dogmatic exercise. For biblical theology is first of all inductive and must be open to diversity.

At the same time, the present study proceeds with the expectation that the message of the biblical writings regarding mission will turn out to be more than a conglomerate of disparate data. A biblical-theological approach may indeed reveal a certain amount of diversity in the scriptural teaching on mission. Since Scripture, however, is ultimately God’s Word, we may legitimately expect to see an underlying logic and unity in the biblical message on this subject.3 For Scripture is united by one primary pervading purpose: the tracing of God’s unfolding plan of redemption. It everywhere assumes that this God acts coherently and purposefully in history.

In claiming that our approach is biblical-theological we recognize that it is neither a systematic-theological nor a missiological examination. This is not to suggest that we have no interest in systematic-theological issues or missiological questions. Quite the contrary. It is hoped that any biblical-theological insights or conclusions may help both systematic theologians and missiologists in their own study of the issues related to this subject. But in the first instance, at least, we are not addressing the legitimate questions of these related disciplines.

While we have engaged in serious scholarly investigation of the mission theme in Scripture, we have conducted our research self-consciously as believers who are committed to the lordship of Christ, rather than as dispassionate, ‘neutral’ observers.4 Our interest in the subject at hand is not merely an academic one. Our driving motivation springs from a passion to see God’s mission carried out in today’s world.

History, literature and theology

The study rests on three hermeneutical pillars: history, literature and theology.5 As Eckhard Schnabel aptly notes:

Since the theology of the New Testament involves historical events and literary texts, the three main parts of a description of New Testament theology has to pay attention to these three poles: historical events and developments, the literary character of the New Testament texts, [and] the theology of the authors of the New Testament texts.6

History is important, because biblical scholarship should practise the craft of every historian: painstaking historical research.7 Christianity is a historical religion, and if its historical moorings are uncertain, theological findings will necessarily be undermined.

Literature has its place, because Scripture has come down to us as a collection of sixty-six books, in the form of literature rather than unmediated historical events. These writings convey history, but one that is interpreted, written by believers who put on their writings the stamp of their convictions concerning the significance of the events they record. The best approach to uncover biblical teaching on a given theme, and the one followed in the present study, is therefore a narrative one, which traces the way in which teaching on a particular topic unfolds in a given corpus or even all of Scripture.

Finally, theology must be given its due. Unlike history-of-religions treatments, which are largely descriptive and comparative in nature, the present study proceeds with the conviction that Scripture is first and foremost a divinely inspired book, setting forth authoritative teaching that provides a framework for Christians’ beliefs as well as actions. Thus, the primary purpose of the present work is a careful exploration of the biblical-theological interconnections between the different portions of Scripture. No abstract definition is postulated at the outset of this work, if for no other reason than that Scripture itself does not define ‘mission’.8 We consider that an inductive exegesis leading to biblical theology should come first, after which an effort is made to relate the contributions of the different corpora, and even Testaments, to each other.9

This does not mean that any of us approaches Scripture on a given topic without presuppositions. We all have a synthetic approximation in mind when we set out to explore biblical teaching on a particular subject. At present our concern is simply to maintain maximum openness to the actual scriptural message on mission and flexibility throughout the entire process of exploration. On a general level, the criterion for inclusion of a given portion of Scripture for discussion in the present volume may simply be that it relates in a significant way to the proclamation of God’s name and of his saving purposes in Christ to the unbelieving world (hence the title Salvation to the Ends of the Earth). These passages may ordinarily be accessed through a particular writer’s terminology (e.g. ‘sending’), and it is in any case important not to lose sight of the connection between biblical words and biblical themes.10 Nevertheless, any given scriptural theme is greater than strict verbal boundaries, so that attention to larger overarching concepts must balance terminological considerations.

Moreover, in our commitment to an inductive biblical-theological approach, we come to our task aware that considerable previous work has been done in this area. An acquaintance with the history of biblical scholarship is necessary, for it provides us with many questions that have, not without good reason, set the agenda for scholarly discussion. Was Old Testament Israel called to active missionary outreach similarly to the New Testament church? Did Jesus limit his mission to Israel, or did he extend it also to the Gentiles? Did Paul encourage believers to emulate his practice of evangelism and mission, or not? Can second-temple Judaism be characterized as a missionary religion? These are just some of the questions that any treatment of mission in Scripture needs to take up and seek to answer as precisely and accurately as possible. We recognize the need to be conversant with a wide range of literature, in the fields of biblical studies (OT as well as NT) and missiology. Given the magnitude of the task (and space constraints no less), our goal has been to interact with major representative works rather than provide an exhaustive treatment of the whole.

The procedure followed in this work

History is often told as the story of great men and women. This approach to history is often fuelled by the romantic notion that magnifies the significance of individuals. Greco-Roman biographies, the works of Shakespeare and, more recently, biographies by excellent historians and popular writers such as David McCullough or Eric Metaxas have all advanced the notion that history is best written as the story of great men and women. Similarly, many have found inspiration in reading Christian or missionary biographies chronicling the lives of men and women such as William Carey, Hudson Taylor, Lottie Moon, Amy Carmichael, Jonathan Edwards or Charles Spurgeon. Applied to the writing of biblical history, then, this kind of approach would seem to warrant a focus on great men such as Abraham, Moses and David in Old Testament times, or Jesus, Peter and Paul in New Testament times, as well as significant female characters such as Ruth, Esther or Mary the mother of Jesus.

While no one would deny the importance of these key figures and the inspiration they provided to those who came behind them, many trained historians today would question whether this ‘great men and women’ approach to historiography is the most satisfying and accurate.11 To go no further, any reader of the book of Acts or the last chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans will readily discover that the early Christian movement involved more than a handful of key leaders; rather, it was undergirded by many ordinary Christians who participated in the early church’s witness that soon reached the ends of the earth. Rather than unilaterally focusing on Jesus’ messianic or Paul’s apostolic consciousness, therefore, without denying the seminal impact of these key leaders, we have chosen in the present work also to pay closer attention to the various major and minor voices across biblical history and to trace as closely as possible their underlying convictions as they are attested to in the multifaceted writings they produced and that are included in the canon of Scripture.

The plan for this book, then, succinctly put, is as follows.12 The opening chapter is devoted to an exploration of mission in the Old Testament, focusing on the major theological strands (notably the Abrahamic promises) that lay a foundation for mission in later Scripture. The crucial groundwork is laid by tracking closely vital themes and events such as Israel’s exodus, the promise of a messianic son of David, and Israel in exile. Starting with chapter 3, the various corpora of the New Testament will be mined for their contribution to a biblical theology of mission. The Synoptic Gospels will be discussed in the canonical order Matthew, Mark and Luke, whereby the voices of James and the author of Hebrews will be included in conjunction with Matthew while Peter’s writings (along with Jude) will be discussed in conjunction with Mark.13 Jesus will not be dealt with in a separate chapter (neither will Paul; see below), since we have no unmediated knowledge of him and his mission apart from the Gospels (just as the early church will not be treated separately but in the chapter on the book of Acts).14 That said, the Gospels will be treated as reliable witnesses to the mission of Jesus as they constitute the one, fourfold, Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Chapter 5, on Luke’s Gospel, will also include a discussion of the book of Acts in keeping with the two-volume character of this work. In a departure from the method followed in the first edition, Paul’s writings will be treated in the...