The Mission of the Church

1. The church has been called into existence for missionary purpose. Therefore its whole life and liturgy, work and worship, has a missionary intention if not a missionary dimension. Mission is the church's very raison d'etre. The members of the church, i.e., the people whom God through the Holy Spirit has called out of darkness into His marvelous light, are claimed by God for His own to proclaim His glory (see 1 Peter 2:9).* All who accept Christ are ordained to work for the salvation of their fellow men. By taking upon themselves the sacred vows of the church (sacramentum), the members irrevocably bind themselves to be co-workers with Christ. Mission is the hallmark of being a Christian, a member of God's family.

The church's mission is to participate in God's own mission. Itself the fruit of God's mission of love, the church is God's agency for the salvation of men, an instrument to carry the gospel into all the world and to gather men from every nation into the one household of God, a living image of God, which reflects His fullness and sufficiency through unselfish love, service, and a holy walk of life.

2. God's mission is His way of dealing with the problem of sin and its destructive power. Before sin made its entrance into the world a rebellion arose in heaven against the government of God. In opposition to God's kingdom, its laws, and its principles, Satan established a kingdom of his own. It is also he who deceived our first parents in whose fall all men die (1 Cor. 15:22) and who continues to move men to disobey God (Genesis 3; Eph.6:11; 1 Peter 5:8). Nothing in creation is protected from his evil power. Sin and suffering, decay and death, are the result. But God, who does not want any man to suffer or to perish (Ex. 18:23; John 3:16, 17; 2 Peter 3:9), sent His angels and the Holy Spirit to protect men and to guide them; He sends help and redemption (Ps. 20:2; 111:9); He sends men to be a blessing to others and His prophets to make Himself known as He really is. Our God is a missionary God, who so loves the world that He sent His only begotten Son to restore the broken relationships and to establish His Shalom. The church is both a sign and an instrument of this sending activity of God.

3. The goal of God's mission, in which the church is called to participate, is to bring about the restoration of His kingdom. The devil and his rule will be destroyed, sin and death abolished. The forces of evil that separate man from His Creator and which dehumanize him will be overthrown. Man will be recreated in the image of God and out of his own free will, he will love and honor Him. The principles and laws of God's kingdom will be vindicated and the whole universe will "be freed from the shackles of mortality and enter upon the liberty and splendour of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21).

This goal of God's mission the restoration of His kingdom can hardly be overemphasized. To that very end did God send Jesus, whose life and mission is the model of all mission. For that very purpose did Christ also call the church into existence. Every function, every institution, and every activity of the church has meaning and a right to exist only as they lead to that goal. No church, therefore, is allowed to set up goals that center in itself, its members, or its doctrines. God's great goal and the church's role as servant forbid an ecclesiocentric approach to mission. It should also prevent us from seeking our goals merely in social action: freeing the world from hunger, disease, poverty, or social injustice to establish a Christian culture. The kingdom of God is not identical with a better world. More over, sin constantly turns men into rebels. But neither can our goal merely be found in the rescuing of individual souls and the planting of churches. Surely, God's mission is always to seek and to save what is lost (see Luke 19:10), but the kingdom of God is not identical with the sum of converts; it embraces much more than those acts of salvation. After all, mission centers in God, not in man.

Both of these goals, the rescuing of men from sin and the fight against disease, hunger, injustice, and the evil structures of society, are aspects of the great controversy between Christ and Satan and therefore truly are a part and a sign of God's mission activity. But much more is at stake. All these different goals must be viewed in that wider, cosmic perspective of the full restoration of God's kingdom. "Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice before everything else, and all the rest will come to you as well" (Matt. 6:33).

4. God's mission was accomplished in the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ. Through His life and death the kingdom was established. "The kingdom has come" is the message of the whole New Testament. During His earthly ministry Christ unmasked Satan and revealed his character as that of a liar and a murderer (see John 8:44). God sent His Son to destroy the works of the devil and He indeed defeated him (see Luke 10: 18). In Christ's suffering and death the true nature of sin was manifest. But they revealed at the same time the true character of God and the foundations of His kingdom: love, freedom, justice, and obedience. Man's relationships with God and with one another have been restored. The church is called to be a living evidence of that great shalom, that new relationship of peace and reconciliation, of wholeness, well-being, and righteousness (see Rom. 14:7;- 2 Cor. 5:19). Christ has in deed brought an end to sin and has broken its power, even the power of death. He expiated iniquity and took away man's guilt (see John 1:29; Rom. 8:3; cf. Isaiah 53; Dan. 9:24). The accuser of the brothers is over thrown. Now is the hour of victory for our God, the hour of His sovereignly and power (see Rev. 12:7-10). For the church nothing is left to be done but to make these events known in all the world, through proclamation, service, and fellow ship, and to urge the people for whom Christ died, i.e., the Hindu and the Buddhist, the Moslem and the men of primitive faiths, the people who were born Christians, the secularist and the communist, to accept this gospel and to avail themselves of its benefits.

This mission calls for a decision, which involves being baptized and taking a place in God's church. Unless, then, we are "hawking the word of God about," mission becomes to some "a vital fragrance" and to others "a deadly fume that kills" (2 Cor. 2:15-17; Rom. 1: 16-24). No one whom the Lord has drawn to His marvelous light is exempt from participating in this mission either as career-missionaries, as tent-making missionaries, or as nonprofessional missionaries who are the greatest asset of the church of God in the world today. The love of God leaves us no choice (see 2 Cor. 5:14). When this gospel of the kingdom has been preached in all the world, the end will come (see Matt. 24:14). Mission, therefore, is always preparation for the return of Christ and the full realization of His kingdom.

5. In His sending activity God always aims at the whole world. The church's mission, therefore, stands and falls with the understanding that the whole world is the object of God's love and that the church is chosen as a channel of God's grace to all men. Therefore, if God elects certain people and sends them special revelations of His glory, special truths or blessings in any other form, it is always an election for service. The history of God's mission on earth, however, is full of human misappropriations of election as a result of which the restoration of God's kingdom has been hindered. This was the cause of Israel's failure. It cherished the idea of election for its own sake and their exaltation as God's church. And consequently Israel failed because it refused to fulfill the role of God's servant in mission. It shut itself away from the world, the object of God's mission. God, then, called another people into existence, likewise a holy nation and a royal priesthood to proclaim the triumphs of Him who had called them out of darkness into His marvelous light (see 1 Peter 2:9,10). Though the mission of the church differs in many respects from that of Israel, yet the New Testament concept of mission cannot be understood apart from that of the Old Testament. And what God purposed to do for the world through Israel He will accomplish through His church today. But we would do well to remember that all those things that happened in the past have been recorded for our instruction and warning (see Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10: 11). The danger of the church following in the footsteps of Israel of old is very real to day.

The church is called to be "salt to the world" (Matt. 5:13). It can fulfill this function only when its members become scattered all over the world, mingle with its people, become involved in their activities, and thereby season and save, purge and judge the world. This does not mean that the church becomes like the world as many maintain, for "if the salt becomes tasteless," it is "good for nothing," but it means that God's mission is always accomplished through incarnation. No program, institution, or communication satellite will do much good unless the world sees the gospel of Christ exemplified through the daily lives of His own people, in the way they have solved the problems of self and society, in the service to their fellow men, and in the genuine Christian fellowship of the community of faith.

Neither is the church's mission fulfilled when it merely crosses geographical boundaries. The world is a colorful mosaic of diverse groupings: sociological, economical, political, cultural, linguistic, religious, consanguinal, racial, and geographical. Each frontier, of whatever kind, has to be crossed in the fulfilling of the missionary task. And the church must present the gospel to men in the actual situation they live in, all the while remembering that these groupings and settings are continuously changing.

6. Christ's mission did not end at the cross. The very fact that Christ, after His resurrection and only then, sent His followers into all the world to make the good news known is evidence that the kingdom of God has not yet completely been realized. And the sending of the Holy Spirit after Christ's ascension testifies to the same.

Some, therefore, have concluded that Jesus failed in His mission. But that is a misunderstanding of the gospel. The kingdom has come; Christ has accomplished the mission of God (see John 17:4; 19:30). Others have reasoned that the kingdom indeed came, but that it has to be realized now in the hearts and activities of all men. The mission of the church, in their opinion, is the expansion of the kingdom that has been established, like a little seed that grows into a full tree. An other group holds that world mission started as a reaction on the part of a disappointed group of Jewish followers of Jesus after His death. They claim that the Christian mission and the whole church that is the result of it began as a crisis movement.

A Continuing Debate

The debate continues in a rather heated way. Over against those who hold that the kingdom of God has already been (fully) realized in Christ and at Pentecost stand those who maintain that it is all still future. One school of thought sees Christian mission as the very factor that will bring about the kingdom of God, while an other considers mission it self as the evidence of that kingdom. Voices are heard that mission should be demythologized, and not a few are of the opinion that mission should be abandoned altogether.

All of these schools of thought are evidence of a tension that is inherent in the New Testament and in the teachings of Jesus in particular. We cannot escape that tension. It is important, then, that we cling to the whole Christ and His entire work of mission. The Scriptures make it abundantly clear that Christ came, once and for all to establish the kingdom of God. But they teach us equally clearly that Christ, after His ascension, had to fulfill another part of His mission before He would return and bring about the complete realization of the kingdom when every kind of domination, authority, and power will be abolished (see 1 Cor. 15:12-27).

An understanding of Christ's continuing mission in the interim period be tween His ascension and His return is a sine qua non of the church's right concept of mission. For the church's mission is none other than to imitate and to participate in the whole mission of Jesus Christ. If based on the accomplished work of Christ alone, the church's mission loses its direction and is robbed of its urgency. In the past this has led to inertia in mission and has tended to humanize the activities of the church. But, on the other hand, Christian mission that focuses only on the future event lacks the historical foundations that are the very guarantee that our hope and expectations will be fulfilled. Such mission often leads to fanaticism, unbiblical enthusiasm, and overstrained expectations that leave the church in great despair. It is only when our mission rests on the accomplished work of Christ and finds its strength, vision, and guidance from Christ's own activity in heaven today through His Holy Spirit, that the church will be able to accomplish its task. Mission, then, becomes a continuous preparation for the second coming of Christ, without being shaken when the immediate con summation of the kingdom is not taking place tomorrow. But, we will "look eagerly for the coming of the Day of God and work to hasten it on" (2 Peter 3:12).

7. Christ is active in the "heavenly places." These activities of Christ in the "heavenly places," the very source and power of our mission, may be described under three headings:

a, Christ as Lord and ruler of all things

b. Christ's ministry as our mediator and high priest

c. Christ's work of judgment

Christ as Lord

a. Christ as Lord (see 1 Cor. 8:5, 6; 12:3; Eph. 1: 19-23; Phil. 2:9-11; Rev. 17: 14). Full authority has been given to Him. It is on the basis of that power that Christ sends us into all the world (see Matt. 28:18, 19). With out Christ's lordship there would be no mission of the church. The continuous execution of the lordship of Christ on the world, a focal point in contemporary theological discussion, should not be too narrowly defined.

It means, on the one hand, Christ's rule over those who believe in Him. He lives in them and gives them power to remain conquerors. Christ stands up for His church and prepares the way for its mission. Political curtains, social barriers, and legislative closed doors would be in surmountable obstacles to mission if Christ our Lord were not our missionary-in-chief. He still has a way of walking through closed doors and by His Word He calms the storms and the unruly waves. And where the church in its missionary out reach meets opposition, Christ is continually opening up opportunities for effective work (see 1 Cor. 16:9).

On the other hand, Christ's rule also extends to all the affairs of this world. All of history is in His hand. Whether wars or revolutions, technological change, or economic power, Christ is above them all and always in control. It testifies of a lack of faith and a misunderstanding of Christ's mission in heaven if we think that this world still has to be subject to other powers. In fact, it is only because of God's mercy, shown in His lordship through mission, that He has not yet made an end to these powers of the world. But, the church's mission is irrevocably leading to that end. The walls of history are only kept apart by mission.

A powerful description of these activities of Christ from the heavenly sanctuary is given in Revelation. John sees all the powers of Christ directed toward the one great goal of mission: The restoration of God's kingdom. It is in this great mission of Christ's that the church is called to participate through obedience, faithful witness, humble service, and love.

Christ as Our Mediator and High Priest

b. When Christ ascended into heaven to be crowned Lord of lords and King of kings, He also entered to be anointed as the High Priest to appear in the presence of God for us (see Heb. 4:14; 9:24). Stephen saw Christ standing there as the Son of Man (see Acts 7:56) and John saw Him as the Lamb (see Rev. 5). All this teaches us again that there is no mission without incarnation and sacrifice, humiliation and suffering.

This activity of Christ as a, high priest is a work of reconciliation. It is true that Christ accomplished His mission of reconciliation on earth by sacrificing Himself. But, the uniqueness and finality of that sacrifice is not a finality without continuation, not a static uniqueness. Our great High Priest lives continually to make intercession (see Heb. 7:25), Christ, who died on the cross for all men, continues to plead our cause (see Rom. 8:27, 34; 1 John 2:1). The book of He brews very emphatically points out that Christ offered Himself once and once only, but it states just as emphatically that Christ continues His ministry in heaven to complete His mission of reconciliation. This is a profoundly important matter for our understanding of mission, based on the widely accepted doctrine of the person of Christ.

The Old Testament Sacrificial System

A key to the understanding of Christ's mission of reconciliation after His ascension may be found in the Old Testament sacrificial system, the shadow and antitype of the heavenly reality. In the Old Testament, atonement was made by the shedding of blood. But to complete the reconciliation between the sinner and God something more than the mere killing of the sacrifice was needed. It included over and above this the application oi the atoning sacrifice and the appropriation of its benefits by faith. An essential part of the ritual, therefore, was that the blood was taken to the holy place and sprinkled on the altar. The covenant had as its aim not merely the expiation of sin—accomplished by the killing of the sacrifice—but the re-establishment of a union between sinful man and God. (A clear illustration of this twofold aspect of reconciliation is found in Deuteronomy 21:1-9, where a law is given concerning the expiation of an unknown murderer.) So it is with the mission of Christ: The goal is not just the expiation of sins, but the full reconciliation between God and each individual sinner. At the cross Christ removed the obstacle of reconciliation. But it is equally necessary that Christ, after He had shed His blood, would bring it before the throne of God, there to make an application of His atoning sacrifice. (See the apostle Paul's use of the terms katallage and hilasmos.)

It is in this mission of reconciliation that Christ has enlisted us (see 2 Cor. 5:18), first to proclaim to all the world the great event of the accomplished sacrifice by which the obstacle to man's reconciliation has been re moved, and second, but equally important, to urge people of all nations, cultures, tribes, and religions to come boldly before the throne of God where Christ our High Priest is now making application of His sacrifice for us (see Heb. 10: 19-22). The church's mission of reconciliation is therefore never completed with just proclamation. It must call for ,a decision on the part of the listener to appropriate by faith the benefits of Christ's work for himself. "Sharing in God's work, we urge this appeal upon you: you have received the grace of God; do not let it go for nothing" (2 Cor. 6:1).

While we cannot fully explain the nature of Christ's priestly ministry, enough has been revealed for us to know for sure that He is our intercessor (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25), our advocate (1 John 2:1), and our mediator (1 Tim. 2:5). Surely, this intercessory work of Christ in man's behalf is as essential to accomplish His mission of restoration and reconciliation as was His death upon the cross. The church cannot be negligent about this aspect of its mission, either. Mission, then, always includes the call to repentance (see Acts 2:37-39), to walk in the newness of life that comes as a result of man's at-one-ment with God, and to a consecrated and sanctified life, so that we may stand before our God and Father holy and faultless when our Lord comes (see 1 Thess. 1:9,10; 3:13; 4:16; a.o.). This makes the teaching of patterns of behavior, discipline, and obedience to God's holy law an essential part of the church's mission. These patterns of behavior should be worked out and presented in such a way that they can be accepted as a true and necessary response to the gospel of Christ. Discipline must be understood as the nurturing of discipleship and obedience to God's holy law as a fruit of the new relationship with God. It is Christ working in us, so that we do not continue in sin (see 1 John 4:9-21; 5:1-5).

Christ's Work of Judgment

c. Christ's mission in the heavenly sanctuary—and through His church, His mission on earth—will not go on endlessly. "He must be received into heaven until the time of universal restoration comes, of which God spoke by his holy prophets" (Acts 3:21). The church's mission leads to the return of Christ, when the kingdom of God will be completely restored. This is the third, and last, act of Christ in which the church is called to participate: the work of judgment.

In the Scripture this work of judgment is not some new or gloomy event that is isolated from Christ's other mission activities. Did not Christ say that He was sent into the world for judgment (see John 9:39)? The meaning of these words is clear: Christ had come to restore the sight of the blind and to feed the hungry, to liberate the prisoners and to bring justice to the oppressed; with Him a whole new order had come, an order that was not of this world. But of course, His laws and principles are in great disharmony with the existing social order where selfishness and lawlessness abound and where the rich and the proud are in control. To these people the restoration of the divine kingdom is a dreadful event: "He has brought down monarchs from their thrones" and "the rich [ He has] sent empty away" (Luke 1:52, 53). Said Jesus: "Now is the hour of judgment for this world; now shall the Prince of this world be driven out" (John 12:31). And he was—at the cross. But, although the judgment began at the cross it did not end there as some believe. The hour of judgment, when the discrimination between those who have the faith of Jesus and those who refuse to obey His Word becomes final, was not then (see Acts 24:24; 2 Cor. 5:10; Heb. 9:27; 2 Peter 2:4). But, this final judgment is the direct consequence of Christ's in carnation, death, and resurrection.

By their response to the Light, the Way, and the Truth, men declare them selves and thus pronounce their own judgment. " 'The man who puts his faith in him does not come under judgement; but the unbeliever has already been judged in that he has not given his allegiance to God's only Son'" (John 3:18-21). Christian mission always leads to such a discriminating (krisis) between those who believe in Christ and keep His commandments and those who do not. The church's mission is not done when it merely proclaims or announces. We should urge people to repent and to turn away from their sins and to put their faith in Christ. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (2 Cor. 5:10, K.J.V.; Rom. 2:6; 1 Peter 1:17, ff.). The closer we come to the end of time, the clearer and more definite will this process of sifting become (see Matt. 13:36-43). The acceptance of Christ or the rejection of His love will be final. It is surprising how little attention is being paid to this aspect of Christ's mission, either in missionary or in theological literature, and yet Scripture has a great deal to say about it. The final judgment is an essential and inalienable aspect of Christ's mission and one of the strongest incentives to our mission in these last days.

Judgment in Both Old and New Testaments

Both the Old and the New Testaments refer to such a special activity of judgment by our High Priest in heaven. In the book of Hebrews a rather detailed account is given of the service of Christ that culminates in the total cleansing and consecration of God's people. After that, "sin done away," Christ will appear a second time, "to bring salvation to those who are watching for him" (Heb. 9:26-28). This activity of Christ just before He re turns, namely the wiping out of sin and the final discrimination between the righteous and the sinners, is also attested to by Peter in Acts 3:19-22 and by the parables of Christ (see Matt. 18:23- 25; 22:1-14). In the ritual of the Day of Atonement an other clear picture emerges of our High Priest's final work (see Leviticus 16). The prophet Daniel describes the final activities in heaven as a courtroom scene (see Dan. 7:9,10), and other prophets, such as Joel and Zachariah, describe the scenes in their own way. But this much is clear: There is an "hour of his judgement" (see Rev. 14:7) that is bringing the mission of Christ and of His church to an end. The sentence is made public—the prophet says the books were opened—to the thousands and myriads of beings. This means it is final. It cannot be changed anymore. All who have repented of sin and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice have pardon against their names in the books of heaven. As they become par takers of the righteousness of Christ and their characters are found to be in harmony with the character and purpose of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves will be accounted worthy of eternal life. Those who rejected Christ will die in their sins destroyed along with death and devil.

8. Time prophecy indicates that this final phase of Christ's mission has already begun. Now is the time when God's mission is being fulfilled. We are living on borrowed time. It is Christ's mission through His church on earth that prevents the walls of history from collapsing.

This last phase of Christ's work in the heavenly sanctuary gave rise to a missionary awakening on earth that has not had its equal since the church began. New missionary societies came into being in every part of the Christian world; thousands and thousands of missionaries left the shores of North America and Europe and re ported to the folks at home mass conversions from everywhere in the world. This vast and rapid missionary expansion is evidence that Christ Himself is the missionary-in-chief. Through His delegates on earth He is bringing His mission to an end. For let us make no mistake here, the tremendous religious revival and evangelical awakening, the universal expectation of a soon-coming king, and the sudden rise of missionary societies—all characteristic of the first half of the nineteenth century— were not merely the result of socio-economic or psycho logical factors as many would have us believe. They are directly the result of Christ's work. All mission has its origin in Him. He is the One who sends. He moves people and works in them, inspiring both the will and the deed for His own chosen purpose (see Phil. 2:13). And that purpose is clear: to bring His mission to an end and restore the kingdom.

The Rise of the Seventh-day Adventist Church

It was this conviction that Christ had entered upon His last phase of mission, namely, to bring about the restoration of all things through His work of judgment, that brought into existence the Seventh-day Adventist Church, now the most widespread, single Protestant missionary movement in the world. These people believe that God has called them to participate in Christ's own mission to prepare the world for His imminent return. Their mission is to present the gospel in such a way, through a comprehensive mission approach, that every person on earth will see Christ as their Saviour, their Lord, and their judge, and prepare for His soon coming. This is not the teaching of a set of doctrines, but a mission of restoration: The restoration of God's image in man and the putting away of sin; the restoration of God's holy law and of every principle of God's kingdom; the vindication of God's sovereignty and the defeat of everything evil, rebellious, and unholy.

There is no room for trivialities here. This mission requires the church to go into every part of the world and it impels the believers to cross every boundary: sociogeographic, cultural, political, and religious. The Seventh-day Adventist Church does not insist that only through its own witness Christ can make Himself known, but it cannot leave to others the witness to which Christ has called it. Adventists "recognize every agency that lifts up Christ before men as a part of the divine plan for the evangelization of the world," but they wish at the same time to bear their witness freely and openly in all the world.

In its mission the church must avoid both a wrongly conceived confessionalism and a wrongly conceived ecumenism. A wrongly conceived ecumenism that seeks unity of witness without a clear statement of the Word of God, as it must be proclaimed in the present situation, invites confusion and further fragmentation. It leads the church to disobedience. A wrongly conceived confessionalism holds to a particular confession for no other than traditional, human-ecclesiastical reasons without the openness to the always dynamic Word of God, which is our only source of truth. The church of God stands in constant need of a critical self-examination, an openness to the Word of God and to the world to fulfill its role as the servant of Christ in mission.