Mere Missions

122 • M ere M issions : M oving F orward to M ultiply

In all the cultural ills of Paul’s time, his focus wasn’t on transforming the culture through addressing the evils and life struggles confronting him. His focus was evangelism. “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (2 Cor. 2.2). The Church of Christ in all its complex service to the world can never forget that its primary concern is to call man into and prepare them for the life eternal . . . it is obvious that from the Christian standpoint no greater injury can be done to the true progress and healing of humanity in this present evil world than to make it promises and offer it remedies which have no vital connection with the hope of eternal life. I love the way A. W. Tozer said it, “Jesus didn’t come to save us from our problems. He came to save us from our sin.” People are eternal. There is no other way to be saved. There is a hell. There is only one hope for this world and that is the Gospel. Christian missions and the Gospel have one focus and that focus is souls . . . the currency of the universe. It is the only power (Rom. 1.16) that can exchange the currency of souls from the hands of Satan into the hands of God – “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1.13-14). We have been given stewardship of this power and this stewardship centers on proclamation. Here is the sacred and tremendous responsibility of the church toward the world. If the church fails to preach God’s way of forgiveness of sins, no one else will and the world will remain in sin, and therefore separated from God and in the bondage of the evil one. Because the church is God’s instrument in preaching the gospel, she finds herself either bitterly opposed by all evil forces or she is tempted to be ~ Geerhardus Vos, The Eschatology of the Psalms , pp. 363-364.