Missio Dei - #11: It's Climax Is Christ

The previous post in this series was left unresolved. In fact, each of the posts dealing with the realities we encounter in Scripture were left unresolved. We have looked at the reality of this God, YHWH, the Holy One of Israel. We have looked at the reality of this story, a story of creation, rebellion and restoration. We have looked at the reality of this people, the nation of Israel chosen by God to be blessed and to be a blessing.

All three of these realities are intertwined. God has chosen Israel to bring the story to a climax, and so bring glory to God's name and blessing to creation. As mentioned before, this is what Tom Wright calls God's-single-plan-through-Israel-for-the-world. But Israel could not be all that YHWH called them to be. The name of YHWH was being blasphemed on account of them, and the story was looking hopeless. There is where the apostle Paul might say, "But God..."

But God's purposes would not go unfulfilled. The reality of God, story, and people would all come to a climax in Jesus of Nazareth.

"He is the image of the invisible God." What YHWH was and did throughout the Old Testament, Jesus of Nazareth was and did in the New. He was Emmanuel, God with us, putting human flesh on the Divine. We encounter the reality of God only through Jesus.

The reality of this story is also found in Jesus. As my former teacher likes to say, Our story became His story so that His story could become our story. On the cross He took upon Himself the story of the world, and secured for the world a new story - His story of victory over death and perfect fellowship with God and with one another. His resurrection is the first fruits of this new story and the guarantee that God's good purposes will be brought to completion. Through Jesus, restoration is at hand.

In Jesus, God has constituted a people for Himself. Our union with Christ makes us a part of a community of people called and empowered by God to be conformed to the image of His Son. The reality of this people finds its origins in the faith of Abraham, but finds its fulfillment in the seed of Abraham, which is Jesus. This is why Paul can say in Galatians 3 that,

in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

What has all of this got to do with mission?

We began this discussion on reality by examining the nature of biblical authority. Does mission exist because the Bible commands it in passages such as the Great Commission? Perhaps, but there is a deeper authority at work than the simple, "The Bible says it, I do it", a deeper authority which is actually expressed right before the command to go and make disciples. Jesus says to His disciples, "All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me." We must not think of this as Jesus merely saying that all authority to command has been given to Him, therefore do what I say or else. His authority rests in the realities He incarnates - the reality of God, God's story, and God's people. It is an authority which authorises His followers, which frees His followers and which empowers His followers to participate in missio Dei.

Mission begins not with an imperative but with grace. The mission of God does not flow from the power of His command, but from the power of His love. It is to this, and not to a lifeless text, that we respond.