Here is some material from a paper I had to write in my Reading the New Testament Missionally class. The subject of the paper is “How do you understand the mission of Jesus in his historical context and the relationship of Jesus’ mission to the mission of Paul and the early church?”
I. Introduction
The mission of Jesus, Paul, and the early church are about the same thing: God’s eschatological redemption of the world. Each of these actors play different, but complementary, roles in God’s mission.
II. Background: the Mission of God
Before we consider the specific mission of Jesus, Paul, and the early church, we must first briefly explore the missio Dei in which these actors participate.
Often we think of God’s mission in the world as one of rescue or repair. In this view, the original good creation was God’s “Plan A,” and human sin required a “Plan B,” the sending of Christ to save a few from judgment. This view of God’s plan for creation is profoundly mistaken. Jesus said that God loved him “before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24), and texts such as Ephesians 1:4 tell us that God “chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world. . . .” God’s redemptive mission in Christ and in the Church, then, was “Plan A.” Redemption was God’s plan from eternity past.
The story of God’s mission is ultimately the story of the eternal life of the Triune God.[1] As David Bosh notes, “[m]ission [is] understood as being derived from the very nature of God. It [is] thus put in the context of the doctrine of the Trinity, not of ecclesiology or soteriology.”[2] Creation results from the abundance and generosity of the perichoretic fellowship of Father, Son and Spirit.
The God who created knew beforehand that the creation would experience human sin and suffering, and that His act of creation therefore would also entail an act of sending and redemption. We cannot know for certain why God chose to create in light of this knowledge. Perhaps St. Augustine was right — perhaps this is the best of all possible worlds, and it is better for God to have created, with the result of some ultimate good, than not to have created at all.[3] Or perhaps Augustine’s classical theodicy should be tempered with the fact that God Himself enters into the suffering of creation through the cross.[4]
The problem of evil and the theodicy of creation remain mysteries.[5] A Trinitarian theology of creation and mission, however, provides a helpful glimpse into these often overwhelming existential questions. The immanent Trinity — the inner-Trinitarian relations of the Divine Persons — is also the economic Trinity — the actions of the Divine Persons with respect to creation and redemption.[6] God’s mission in creation is the extension of the shalom of the perichoretic Trinitarian dance to all of creation.
[1] In fact, if we were to follow the “Plan B” logic through the entire Biblical narrative, we would presently be in something like “Plan I,” which would encompass creation, fall, flood, Babel, Israel under Moses, Israel under the judges, Israel under the kings, and Israel in exile. It would seem that God continually engages in failed experiments, which would leave little hope for the success of the “Church Age” or even for the return of Christ.
[2] David Bosh, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Orbis 1991).
[3] See, e.g., Augustine’s exploration of this theme in The City of God.
[4] See Jurgen Moltmann, The Crucified God: the Cross of Christ as the Foundation of Criticism and Christian Theology (Fortress Press 1993).
[5] For an excellent exploration of the problem of evil, see Nigel Goring Wright, A Theology of the Dark Side (InterVarsity 2003). Nigel Wright leans towards Karl Barth’s understanding of “evil” as “nothingness,” which seems fruitful to me.
[6] For a discussion of this formulation, referred to as “Rahner’s Rule” after Catholic theologian Karl Rahner, see Stanley Grenz, Rediscovering the Triune God (Fortress Press 2004).
2 replies on “Jesus, Paul, and the Mission of God — Part 1”
You always speak like a scholar, from the heart of a Christian; and I always enjoy it.
One of the most profound realizations for me was when the idea that Jesus’ incarnation was not “Plan B” dawned on me. Rather than seeing Jesus as God’s “now what am I going to do?” reaction to the Fall, I see Jesus more as the focal point of history.