Calvin and Missions - World Evangelical Alliance

118 Calvin and World Mission
lead to license rather than holiness. Paul knew better. Faith reckons to be
true what is true: when Christ died, we died; when he rose, we rose. So,
too, Paul’s doctrines have been seen as a threat to missions. But we should
know better. Reformed missions reckons that to be true which is true. Christ
has all power in heaven and earth, and nothing can separate him from
those the Father has given him. He sends us to summon those whom he
will bring – those other sheep who must be brought to the one flock, the
one Shepherd.
But what is the attitude of those who, like Jesus, understand the Father’s
heart of compassion and share his joy over one sinner that repents? Those
who know the meaning of grace will not only join in the feast for sinners,
they will join in the search for sinners. Mission is demanded by Jesus’ revelation
of the love of the Father for sinners.
The Kingdom of God the Power of Missions
The glory of God, the grace of God, the kingdom’ of God – in the New
Testament these themes are interwoven in the fabric of the gospel. The
biblical concept of the kingdom centers upon the divine King. It means the
rule of God rather than the realm of God. Jewish nationalism had appropriated
the Old Testament promises as a divine charter for the kingdom of
Israel; Jesus restored the theocentric meaning of Old Testament eschatology
by proclaiming the kingdom of God.
The whole history of salvation in the Old Testament declares that salvation
is of the Lord. Ernst Bloch, the Marxist philosopher of the future, canonizes
the category of the ‘possible’ to quicken human hope. But God reveals
Himself as the God of the ‘impossible’. Again and again the situation
of the people of God becomes so desperate that deliverance is no longer
possible. It is then that God saves – when Israel is in helpless slavery in
Egypt, or pinned against the Red Sea by the chariots of Pharaoh, or
crushed by the Midianites in the land of the promise. Indeed, God’s great
promises of the future are set against Ezekiel’s vision in captivity – dead,
dry bones filling the valley.
Mission theology is kingdom theology; but kingdom as defined by the
person, the work, the calling, of the King. Christ’s kingship and the program
of his kingdom are foolishness to the kingdoms of this world.
Christ’s royal victory is final and ultimate and therefore spiritual. He
would not lead a Jewish war of liberation against the Romans but he went
alone to the cross to conquer Satan – by dying on the cross! Christ’s final
victory is radically spiritual. Judged by worldly standards the cross is Sa-