Putting First things First, Part II
Currently I am doing a review of Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert's book, What is the Mission of the Church? Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission. Hereafter I will refer to this book by (DeYoung, followed by the page number). The reason I am doing this is due to the fact that this single readable paperback provides some critical challenges to the church when it thinks about its mission (what Jesus sends us to do, DeYoung, p 29) in the midst of responding to the cultural challenges we face. How we respond to such challenges is important since we want to be doing what Jesus has sent us to do. Nothing more, but certainly nothing less.
Here we find the beginning of a key challenge that DeYoung and Gilbert bring to Christians who desire to be engaged in the problems facing our culture. Allow me an attempt at a summary thought related to this. For example, if we see our primary task as fixing this world, bringing social justice, changing things politically, stopping all wars, and basically ending the cultural results of sin we might end up focused on things Christ has not primarily sent us to do. That is not to say we should not be involved in worthy causes such as social justice, peace making, and other worthy endeavors, but it might mean that even in the midst of laboring for worthy things we can lose sight of our real mission. Worse we might find ourselves re-interpreting the things Jesus has told us to do. We can even end up making the Bible say something it does not say (DeYoung, p 110-113). When this happens we could say we are not doing what Jesus has sent us to do. In other words, instead of giving ourselves to the real mission that is accompanied by good works and proper involvement, we give ourselves to things that become misdirected and we are ill equipped to bring to pass. Again, this is not to say we should not be engaged in the culture or that our efforts will not have significant impact. Because of this we need to be involved, but with a proper focus. In order to do this Christians must turn to the Scriptures and labor to understand its message and application.
One of the strengths of this book, as I stated in an earlier post, is the exegesis it provides on key texts that are often preached on when making appeals to the church to fulfill its mission. One text in particular that is often cited is Genesis 12:1-3. In this very familiar passage on mission is God's call to Abraham to go forth from the land of his ancestors and travel to the land God will show him to settle and eventually his offspring will inherit. This passage is pointed to as an example, along with others, of God expressing his desire to make Abraham's life missional by blessing all families. He is to go forth from the country of his ancestors in order to be a blessing to the families of the earth. From this passage we have the current formation of the "blessed to be a blessing" phrase that is popular in large sections of the church. However, God's dealings with Abraham does not stop here in Genesis 12. God expands and fills out his promise to Abraham in how he will bring this to pass. The promise of God is ratified by a covenant (Genesis 15) and expanded to include not just Abraham being a blessing, but his "offspring" (Genesis 17:7).
Blessed to be a Blessing?
DeYoung and Gilbert's exegesis of this passage (Genesis 12:1-3) shows that Abraham's call to bless the nations takes on a particular application as one considers its expansion and how Paul applies it in his letter to the Galatians. Paul's understanding of Abraham's call and its fulfillment in Christ is often neglected in understanding the mission (DeYoung, p 33). In other words, "the blessed to be a blessing," idea has nothing to do with you and I sharing our physical blessings except by sharing them we begin the process of sharing the ultimate wealth of Abraham's blessing, which is Christ. People will not receive Abraham's blessing by us sharing our food or giving them money out of our prosperity alone. We need to do these things as we have opportunity, but we do so knowing that the ultimate fulfillment of this comes when people receive Christ by faith and receive the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:11). The blessing of Abraham is fulfilled in Jesus, not our programs or our misguided attempts at times to resolve all the worlds problems. Therefore, we need to" put first things first" without neglecting our good works. Finally, we need to be wise enough to understand that even if we make the world a much better place for everyone if we do not turn the nations to Christ we have not fulfilled Abraham's mission (DeYoung, p 34). In fact, in light of God's redemptive purpose we have fallen far short of our call.
Gary Finkbeiner
Christianity and Culture
Currently I am doing a review of Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert's book, What is the Mission of the Church? Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission. Hereafter I will refer to this book by (DeYoung, followed by the page number). The reason I am doing this is due to the fact that this single readable paperback provides some critical challenges to the church when it thinks about its mission (what Jesus sends us to do, DeYoung, p 29) in the midst of responding to the cultural challenges we face. How we respond to such challenges is important since we want to be doing what Jesus has sent us to do. Nothing more, but certainly nothing less.
Here we find the beginning of a key challenge that DeYoung and Gilbert bring to Christians who desire to be engaged in the problems facing our culture. Allow me an attempt at a summary thought related to this. For example, if we see our primary task as fixing this world, bringing social justice, changing things politically, stopping all wars, and basically ending the cultural results of sin we might end up focused on things Christ has not primarily sent us to do. That is not to say we should not be involved in worthy causes such as social justice, peace making, and other worthy endeavors, but it might mean that even in the midst of laboring for worthy things we can lose sight of our real mission. Worse we might find ourselves re-interpreting the things Jesus has told us to do. We can even end up making the Bible say something it does not say (DeYoung, p 110-113). When this happens we could say we are not doing what Jesus has sent us to do. In other words, instead of giving ourselves to the real mission that is accompanied by good works and proper involvement, we give ourselves to things that become misdirected and we are ill equipped to bring to pass. Again, this is not to say we should not be engaged in the culture or that our efforts will not have significant impact. Because of this we need to be involved, but with a proper focus. In order to do this Christians must turn to the Scriptures and labor to understand its message and application.
One of the strengths of this book, as I stated in an earlier post, is the exegesis it provides on key texts that are often preached on when making appeals to the church to fulfill its mission. One text in particular that is often cited is Genesis 12:1-3. In this very familiar passage on mission is God's call to Abraham to go forth from the land of his ancestors and travel to the land God will show him to settle and eventually his offspring will inherit. This passage is pointed to as an example, along with others, of God expressing his desire to make Abraham's life missional by blessing all families. He is to go forth from the country of his ancestors in order to be a blessing to the families of the earth. From this passage we have the current formation of the "blessed to be a blessing" phrase that is popular in large sections of the church. However, God's dealings with Abraham does not stop here in Genesis 12. God expands and fills out his promise to Abraham in how he will bring this to pass. The promise of God is ratified by a covenant (Genesis 15) and expanded to include not just Abraham being a blessing, but his "offspring" (Genesis 17:7).
Blessed to be a Blessing?
DeYoung and Gilbert's exegesis of this passage (Genesis 12:1-3) shows that Abraham's call to bless the nations takes on a particular application as one considers its expansion and how Paul applies it in his letter to the Galatians. Paul's understanding of Abraham's call and its fulfillment in Christ is often neglected in understanding the mission (DeYoung, p 33). In other words, "the blessed to be a blessing," idea has nothing to do with you and I sharing our physical blessings except by sharing them we begin the process of sharing the ultimate wealth of Abraham's blessing, which is Christ. People will not receive Abraham's blessing by us sharing our food or giving them money out of our prosperity alone. We need to do these things as we have opportunity, but we do so knowing that the ultimate fulfillment of this comes when people receive Christ by faith and receive the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:11). The blessing of Abraham is fulfilled in Jesus, not our programs or our misguided attempts at times to resolve all the worlds problems. Therefore, we need to" put first things first" without neglecting our good works. Finally, we need to be wise enough to understand that even if we make the world a much better place for everyone if we do not turn the nations to Christ we have not fulfilled Abraham's mission (DeYoung, p 34). In fact, in light of God's redemptive purpose we have fallen far short of our call.
Gary Finkbeiner
Christianity and Culture
No comments:
Post a Comment