God's Love Compels Us: Taking the Gospel to the World

by D. A. Carson (Editor), Kathleen Nielson (Editor), David Platt (Contribution by), John Piper (Contribution by), J. Mack Stiles (Contribution by)

Overview

With contributions from popular Bible teachers, including David Platt, John Piper, D. A. Carson, Andy Davis, Mack Stiles, Michael Oh, and Stephen Um, this collection of biblical expositions explores how God's love for us is meant to drive Christians out into the world on mission for him. Addressing "hot topics" that are actively discussed today—such as whether or not people without Christ are really lost and the Christian's responsibility to fight for social justice—this book sketches the biblical basis for missions based on the apostle Paul's words in 2 Corinthians, equipping Christian men and women to think carefully about their own role in taking the good news about Jesus to the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433543821
Publisher:	Crossway
Publication date:	04/16/2015
Series:	The Gospel Coalition
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	736 KB

About the Author

D. A. Carson (PhD, Cambridge University) is Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is a cofounder and theologian-at-large of the Gospel Coalition and has written and edited nearly two hundred books. He and his wife, Joy, have two children and live in the north suburbs of Chicago.

D. A. Carson (PhD, Cambridge University) is Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is a cofounder and theologian-at-large of the Gospel Coalition and has written and edited nearly two hundred books. He and his wife, Joy, have two children and live in the north suburbs of Chicago.

Kathleen Nielson (PhD, Vanderbilt University) is an author and speaker who loves working with women in studying the Scriptures. After directing the Gospel Coalition’s women’s initiatives from 2010–2017, she now serves as senior adviser and book editor for TGC. She and her husband, Niel, make their home partly in Wheaton, Illinois, and partly in Jakarta, Indonesia. They have three sons, two daughters-in-law, and five granddaughters.

  John Piper is founder and lead teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He served for thirty-three years as a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is the author of more than fifty books, including Desiring God; Don’t Waste Your Life; and Providence. 

J. Mack Stiles is the director of Messenger Ministries Inc, an organization that promotes healthy missions. Mack and his family lived in the Middle East for twenty years, where he was the founder and director of the Fellowship of Christian UAE Students (FOCUS) in the United Arab Emirates. He later served as the pastor for the Erbil Baptist Church in Iraq and worked for many years with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in the United States. Mack is the author of Evangelism; Marks of the Messenger; and Speaking of Jesus.

Stephen Um (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is the author of Micah for You and 1 Corinthians in the Preaching the Word series. Stephen and his wife, Kathleen, live in Boston, Massachusetts, with their three daughters.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

THE BIBLICAL BASIS FOR MISSIONS

Treasure in Jars of Clay

2 CORINTHIANS 4:1–12

D. A. Carson

What is the biblical basis for missions? And how shall we go about answering that question?

We might simply tease out the Bible's entire storyline. We begin with creation: God makes everything good. Then comes the anarchic revolution against God that Christians call "the fall." Yet, wonderfully, as early as Genesis 3:15, God himself promises that the seed of the woman will crush the Serpent's head. In perfect justice, God could destroy the race at that point, but already he is promising redemption. And then, a few chapters later, when hatred and idolatry multiply, he could wipe out the entire race in the flood, but he spares eight human beings.

As evil and idolatry multiply yet again, God starts, as it were, a new humanity, calling Abraham as the patriarch of a new race. From Abraham's seed, God avers, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Yet Abraham, though he is called a friend of God and a man of faith, manages, more than once, to be a liar whose deceit puts his wife in jeopardy. His son appears to be a bit of a wimp. His grandson Jacob is a deceiver. Jacob's sons, the twelve patriarchs — well, one sleeps with his father's concubine and another messes around with his own daughter-in- law. Two of them butcher all the males of a small village, while ten of them try to decide whether to kill the eleventh or sell him into slavery. And these are the patriarchs! Even so, God spares them, preserving the promised line until, toward the end of the book of Genesis, there is a promise that from one of these patriarchs will eventually spring a redeeming king, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

In the book of Exodus, God constitutes the Israelites a nation and gives them the law. This instruction commands certain behavior; it also institutes certain rites and rituals that anticipate what is yet to come. The sacrifices of the Day of Atonement, for example, offered up for the sins of the priest and of the people, repeated year after year, have the effect of reminding God's people of their sins even as they serve as the means by which God forgives them.

Soon we arrive at the utter degeneration described in the book of Judges — endless cycles of depravity, sinking lower and lower until, by the end of the period covered in the book, the scene is so dark that you cannot tell the good guys from the bad guys. Even the good guys are frankly so embarrassing and barbaric that the chapters describing them are difficult to read in public. "O God, how we need a king, for everyone is doing what is right in his own eyes."

Eventually, God raises up David, described as "a man after his own heart" (1 Sam. 13:14). This man after God's heart manages to commit adultery and murder. One wonders what he would have done if he hadn't been a man after God's heart. That dynasty rules over the twelve tribes for only two generations; then the nation splits. Two centuries later, wallowing in corruption, idolatry, depravity, endless malice, and greed, the ten northern tribes go into captivity. A century and a half after that, the southern tribes, passionately enjoying similar sins, experience the same judgment.

In this short chapter, I cannot flesh out Israel's further experiences, not to mention the diverse ways in which God speaks to them, displaying amazing patience. But we would be remiss to forget the words of some of the prophets. One of them foresees a coming servant who will be wounded for our transgressions (Isaiah 53). That same prophet also foresees a day when God will say, "In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth" (19:24), anticipating a time when the locus of the people of God will not be one nation or one tribe: "The LORD Almighty will bless them saying, 'Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance'" (v. 25).

In the fullness of time, we come to the Lord Jesus, his ministry, his death and resurrection, and the Great Commission. Empowering his people to do what he commands, Christ bestows the Holy Spirit. The closing chapters of the Bible display a consummating vision of men and women, drawn from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation, one redeemed community, the blood-bought from around the world, gathered around the throne of God in resurrection splendor.

In other words, we could assert that the biblical basis for missions is nothing other than the storyline of the entire Bible: God graciously goes after sinners and wins over a vast number of them.

Alternatively, we might simply focus on Jesus himself. We could consider, for example, his various titles and functions. He is the King, and as the King, he declares: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples" (Matt. 28:18–19). Or we might reflect on the fact that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who gives his life for his sheep. Again, Jesus is the High Priest who offers himself as the perfect sacrifice. He is the Word of God — God's ultimate self- expression, declared to the entire world. Or we might meditate on the obedience of Christ. In Gethsemane, his prayer is not, "Oh, I really do want to go through with this because I really love those sinners so much"; rather, he prays, "Not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42). The driving power behind Jesus's determination to go to the cross is, first of all, his obedience to his Father. This is the heavenly Father's plan, and the world must know, Jesus says in John 14, that he always does what pleases his Father. Again, we might consider great events in Jesus's mission and their bearing on the biblical basis of missions: the cross, the resurrection, his session at the Father's right hand, or the second coming, when every knee shall bow to him. There are so many legitimate ways to establish the biblical basis of missions.

Yet another way of getting at the biblical basis for missions is to focus on a specific passage. There are many texts to which we could turn, but I will fasten our attention on 2 Corinthians 4:1–12:

Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

How does this passage contribute to our grasp of the biblical basis for missions? Verse 1 opens by talking about this ministry we have: "Since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart." This ministry, according to verse 2, is bound up with setting forth the truth plainly. According to verse 4, we are placarding the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. When we discharge this ministry, we are nothing more than clay pots (according to v. 7 and following). And yet, all this achieves eternal glory (v. 17) as we fix our eyes on what is unseen (now, there's a paradox!) — unseen but eternal. These verses do not so much define world mission as describe it. Sometimes the most powerful and moving basis for world mission lies in the Bible's depiction of what it looks like.

It will be helpful, I think, to unpack three parts of this description.

1. Gospel Ministry Demands Unqualified Integrity (vv. 1–3)

In our English Bible, this passage begins with the word therefore. When I was a little whippersnapper, my father, who was trying to teach me elementary interpretation principles, said, "Don, whenever you see a wherefore or therefore, see what it's there for." In this case, therefore connects the previous chapter with what is found in our verses. Second Corinthians 3 establishes the fact that apostolic ministry, the ministry of Paul in particular, is blessed with many privileged advantages over the ministry of Moses at the time of the giving of the law. To put it another way, the ministry of the new covenant sealed in Jesus's blood is superior to the ministry of the old covenant. So we read in chapter 3:

Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant — not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (vv. 4–6)

Again, note some of the contrasts between the two covenants as they're teased out later in chapter 3:

Now if the ministry that brought death [that is, ministry under the law], which was engraved in letters on stone [referring to the Ten Commandments], came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! (vv. 7–9)

Again:

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (v. 18)

Then comes chapter 4:

Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. (v. 1)

In other words, Paul understands full well that Christian ministry, despite its deep privileges, coughs up many reasons for losing heart, many reasons for deep discouragement. But since it is through God's mercy that we have this ministry, and since, as 2 Corinthians 3 has shown, this ministry belongs to the surpassingly wonderful new covenant, therefore, we do not lose heart.

Before we go any further, we should ask two questions.

First, do these references to "this ministry" or "our ministry" refer only to apostolic ministry? If so, we should be cautious about applying them to us and to the work of world mission today. But although 2 Corinthians 3 focuses on Paul and apostolic ministry, at the end of chapter 3 and right through chapters 4 and 5, Paul elides the discussion into the ministry of all believers. You can see this, for example, at the end of chapter 3: "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (v. 18). Again, in chapter 5: "So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ" (vv. 9–10a).

So although Paul begins with his own ministry (and, doubtless, that is in some ways a model for all of us in any case), he specifically elides the discussion into so broad a set of parameters that he includes Christians like you and me.

The second question: What is the nature of the discouragement that Paul faces? Why is he tempted to lose heart, granted all of these incredible privileges belonging to the new covenant? It is pretty obvious that many people are offended by the straight talk of Scripture. That is surely what hides behind verse 2:

We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

Why would anyone use deception? Why would you use slightly shady language or ambiguous categories? The reason is that all of us know full well that some of what the Bible says isn't going to be too popular. So it becomes a perennial temptation to use softer language, to avoid the Bible's sharp edges and unyielding but often unpopular truths.

In every culture, many people absorb and then reflect their surrounding values and priorities without much critical thought. For example, you could have deep discussions with devout Muslims in the context of Islamic culture, and they may understand what you are saying at the level of your sentences and paragraphs, but fail to grasp what the gospel is about. They don't see it. They understand it at some level, but they do not see it. Or you could have deep discussions with hedonists who simply cannot really see the transcendent value of the gospel: they are blind to it. The god of this world has blinded them (4:4). Also, some common values in Western culture are painfully antagonistic to the gospel. For example, some popular forms of tolerance are remarkably intolerant: if you proclaim an exclusive Jesus today, you are readily dismissed as a bigot.

So what are your options? Well, of course, we might adopt "shameful ways" that "distort the word of God" (4:2). After all, everyone has his or her own point of view. Maybe Jesus is not the only way; maybe there are other ways of getting to God after all. Maybe Peter was sincere but sadly mistaken when he said that "there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Maybe Jesus was exaggerating a bit when he said: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). After all, those sound like narrow-minded, bigoted, intolerant statements, don't they? But as a result of these distortions, the god of this age, of this particular culture, blinds the eyes of countless people. Again, it is very difficult for many younger people in this culture to think of themselves as guilty. We are much more prone to think of ourselves as victims. But how do we come to grips with a Savior who dies for our sin if, at the end of the day, we don't think of ourselves as sinners? Maybe what we really need is a Savior to take us out of the muck of our misfortune. Certainly today there is a pretty hard-nosed skepticism about the existence of hell. But the person who talks most about hell in the Bible is Jesus himself. It is pretty hard to say nothing about hell and be faithful to Jesus.

In other words, sometimes, quite frankly, the truth itself is what is offensive. Jesus knew that in his own day, of course. Do you remember the remarkable passage in John 8:45? He says to some interlocutors, "Because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!" It would be bad enough if that sentence began with a concessive instead of a causal: "Although I tell the truth, you do not believe me." That would be tragic. But the word by which Jesus introduces his charge is a causal: "Because I tell the truth, you do not believe me."

So again, what are your options? Tell untruths in order to get people to believe? What then will people believe? Untruths.

It can be very discouraging to articulate the truth, to preach the truth, only to discover that many people, far from simply listening and then rejecting the truth, write you off as a narrow-minded bigot. That is truly disheartening. It is worth remembering that in the first three centuries of the Christian church, until the time of Constantine, the most common pagan criticism against Christianity was that it was too narrow, too exclusive. Sound familiar?

Some of us have responded to the call to cross-cultural ministry, and we may have been tempted to think of ourselves as fledgling heroes of the faith. We may have read our share of missionary biographies and imagined how we, too, might be used of God to preach the gospel with great power and fruitfulness, instrumental in seeing hundreds converted, maybe thousands. Then, when we actually get there, we discover how difficult and even dangerous some places can be. We like to hear the stories of preachers and missionaries who were privileged to see enormous fruitfulness, but then, there's always a Samuel Zwemer, who preached forty years in the Muslim world and saw eight converts — and five of them were killed. It's enough to make a person lose heart.

Even Paul is tempted to lose heart, but, he says, "since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart." Rather:

We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. (2 Cor. 4:2–3)

Elsewhere, Paul faces other temptations. He writes in 2:17:

Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.

It is possible to shape your message to increase the income. Paul faced this temptation and rejected it.

A very different temptation emerges in 11:20–21:

In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face. To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "God's Love Compels Us"
by .
Copyright © 2015 The Gospel Coalition.
Excerpted by permission of Good News Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Copyright,
Preface D. A. Carson,
1 The Biblical Basis for Missions Treasure in Jars of Clay (2 Corinthians 4:1–12) D. A. Carson,
2 Why the Great Commission Is Great Reaching More and More People (2 Corinthians 4:13–18) David Platt,
3 The Heart of God in the Call to Proclaim A Joyfully Serious Courage in the Cause of World Missions (2 Corinthians 5:1–10) John Piper,
4 Being Ambassadors for Christ The Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:11–21) J. Mack Stiles,
5 Are People without Christ Really Lost? Andrew Davis,
6 The Individual's Suffering and the Salvation of the World Michael Oh,
7 Jesus and Justice Stephen Um,
Contributors,
General Index,
Scripture Index,