REFORMED WITNESS
August 1991
Some Principles of Missions
Article by Prof. Herman Hanko
From The Standard Bearer, Volume 43, pp. 491-494See more articles by this author
Also in this issue: The Believer's Calling in Missions - Prof. Robert Decker
...the power of the gospel is always the power of God Himself through Jesus Christ. God chose a people from all eternity which He has destined to be His. He chose these people in Jesus Christ and sent Christ into the world to die for their sins -- and for their sins alone. The salvation which God ordained as the inheritance of His church is purchased in the blood of the cross. It is Christ, therefore, Who causes His gospel to be preached -- the gospel of His cross. And it is by this gospel that the purpose of God determined in election and realized in the cross is accomplished. The gospel is the power of God whereby His elect, redeemed people are called irresistibly out of darkness into the fellowship of the kingdom of heaven. Always the gospel is God's power. It accomplishes God's purpose. It does all that God determines it to do. All the elect are saved by the gospel; none are lost. None of the reprobate are saved; all are lost through the way of their unbelief and rejection of the gospel. It is all as God wants it to be.
In the second place, this means that salvation is the sovereign work of God's grace. You can readily perceive what this means for all Arminianism. It is a sad and hopeless travesty of the gospel to make it into an offer or an invitation by which God invites all men to accept salvation with the power of their own free will. It is destructive of the very gospel itself to alter its character so that it is no more God's power, but a mere presentation of a possibility for man to save himself. God is effectively ruled out of mission work by such a teaching. Yet, much of mission work today is carried on along these lines. But it is hopeless. Through this kind of preaching the church will never be gathered. The work of missions is then not done. Better to stay at home than to go to a foreign or domestic field with such caricatures of the gospel. How much mission work must be condemned on this basis is hard to tell; but it is a great percentage. God will not use the arrogant philosophies of men to accomplish His purpose.
We must insist that it is only by sovereign grace that the gospel is the power of salvation. And this must also form the content of the gospel which is preached. This message must be proclaimed on the mission field, that God is the sovereign Lord Who does all His good pleasure and saves His elect people through the power of the cross and by an irresistible work of the Spirit...
Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?
"Where dwellest thou?" By this example we are taught that from the first rudiments of the church we ought to draw such a relish for Christ as will excite our desire to profit. And next, that we ought not to be satisfied with a mere passing look, but that we ought to seek his dwelling, that he may receive us as guests. For there are very many who smell the gospel at a distance only, and thus allow Christ suddenly to disappear, and all that they have learned concerning him to pass away.
The circumstance of Andrew immediately bringing his brother expresses the nature of faith, which does not conceal or wench the light, but rather spreads it in every direction. Andrew has scarcely a spark, and yet, by means of it, he enlightens his brother. Woe to our indolence, therefore, if we do not, after having been fully enlightened, endeavor to make others partakers of the same grace.
We may observe in Andrew two things which Isaiah requires from the children of God; namely, that each should take his neighbor by the hand; and next, that he should say, "Come, let us go up into the mountain of the Lord, and he will teach us" (Is. 2:3). For Andrew stretches out the hand to his brother, but at the same time he has the object in view that he may become a fellow disciple in the school of Christ. We ought also to observe the purpose of God, which determined that Peter, who was to be far more eminent, was brought to the knowledge of Christ by the agency of Andrew; that none of us, however excellent, may refuse to be taught by an inferior; for that man will be severely punished for his peevishness, or rather for his pride, who, through his contempt of a man, will not deign to come to Christ.
John Calvin - Commentaries
Evangelism is not a human enterprise; it is a divine operation.
Arthur Skevington Wood
The Believer's Calling in Missions
by Prof. Robert Decker
The Standard Bearer, Vol. 56, pp. 203-205See more articles by this author
...the believers have the calling to support the work of missions. From a material point of view the believer must liberally provide for the earthly needs of the missionaries and the mission. God calls believers to do this. Certainly, without the faithful support of the congregations there can be no mission work. But there is more, much more. Believers must support the missionaries in prayer. In a very touching plea the apostle Paul exhorted the Ephesians to pray for him: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which
I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak" (Eph. 6:18-20). The apostle made the same request of the Thessalonians: "...that the
Word may have free course, and be glorified..." (II Thess. 3:1). And that same request is made of the believers in Collosse. There can be no question of the fact that
the apostle was deeply conscious of his need of the prayers of the believers in all his preaching and teaching of the gospel. It is obvious that, apart from the support, encouragement, and certainly the prayers of the believers, the missionaries cannot labor. This is no little matter. If there be no support and if there be no prayers on the part of the believers the missionary cannot make known the mystery of the gospel. Once more, the plain fact is: believers are indispensable to missions!As prophets, priests, and kings in Christ believers are also called to witness in the world. The New Testament is full of this. Scripture exhorts us to have our conversation honest among the Gentiles. The purpose is that they may see our good works and glorify God in the day of visitation. That term, "conversation," means manner of living. This includes all of our speech and all of our actions, our lives in every detail and from every point of view. Our manner of living must be a testimony to the Gentiles, the heathen (cf. I Pet. 2:12). According to I Peter 3:15 we must be ready always to give an answer to every man who asks a reason of the hope that is in us. Again the purpose is that unbelievers who falsely accuse our good conversation in Christ may be ashamed. We must be ready to testify to those who ask concerning the hope that is in us. That implies that we are living in such a way that our hope is obvious to those about us. I Corinthians 10:31-33 teaches that whether we eat or drink or whatever we do we must do all to the glory of God. We must not give offense, either to the Jew or the Gentile or the church of God. We must follow the apostle's example who sought not his own profit but the profit of many that they might be saved. And, to cite no more, Acts 8:4 tells of the Jerusalem Christians who were scattered abroad by the persecution which followed Stephen's martyrdom. They went everywhere "preaching the Word." Literally, they were evangelizing the Word, announcing the good news of Christ. The believers themselves did this; they spoke the Word everywhere. They did this not in the sense that they were official preachers. There were preachers among those scattered, Philip for example, who preached in Samaria. But the believers witnessed.
All these passages and more indicate that the church "lives in the public eye." Believers must, therefore, live in such a manner that no reproach, no shame is brought to the gospel or to the name of God. Positively, believers must shine as lights in the world. They are called to witness, to testify of the wonder of grace performed by God in Jesus Christ for them. They must call people to faith and repentance in Christ. They must not keep still about God and about Christ and about His Word. They must be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks concerning the hope that is in them. That witness must go forth also by the lives which they lead. They must live always and in every sphere in obedience to the will of God. They must do that as husbands and wives, as parents and children, as youth and aged. They must do that in their work as well as in their recreation. In that way the lives of believers will be a witness to the power of God's grace in Christ in them. No offense will be left. Christ will be seen in them. God's great glory will shine in them. J.H. Bavinck put it nicely when he wrote: "Thus the church must in her exemplary conduct, in her mutual love, in her mercy toward all, in short in all her conduct, reflect something of the greatness of Christ, to the end that the witness of the missionaries may be supported and the church may grow" (Introduction to the Science of Missions, p. 48).
That witness of the believers will bear its fruit. Negatively, it will provoke the hatred and opposition of the ungodly. The wicked cannot stand the light of the gospel and they will inevitably and persistently oppose the witness of the believers. Believers must expect to be persecuted by the world precisely because of their witnessing to the gospel. This ought in no way cause them to fear or to be discouraged. The witness of believers renders the ungodly without excuse and they will be ashamed in the day of judgment. Positively God uses the means of the witness of believers to bring His elect into the church. There they will come under the preaching of the gospel, hear Christ, believe, call upon His name and be saved...
The conclusion is apparent. Even though believers are not ordained missionary preachers they have a calling, a very serious and even indispensable calling with respect to mission work. That calling of the church is rooted in its eternal election of grace in Christ Jesus. The spiritual isolation, the uniqueness of its essence as the elect body of Jesus Christ, has for its purpose the manifestation of God's praises. In I Peter 2:9 the Scriptures teach us that believers are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people. The purpose is that they should show forth the praises of Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvelous light... The church does this chiefly by means of the preaching of the gospel, but also by means of the godly lives of its members. By that mighty power the elect are gathered out of the nations, the ungodly are condemned, and the Kingdom of God comes in Jesus Christ in all of its glory.
Let believers everywhere be faithful in their office as prophets, priests, and kings in order that the mission work of the church of Christ may prosper unto the gathering of the elect and the coming of Christ.
Evangelism is the perpetual task of the whole church, and not the peculiar hobby of certain of its members.
E. Wilson Carlisle
The gospel does not fall from the clouds like rain, by accident, but is brought by the hands of men to where God has sent it.
John Calvin
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