Mission
Mission is God's purposeful movement to reveal His glory, redeem sinners, gather a people from every nation, and restore creation, carried out through His covenant people and fulfilled through the saving work and authority of Jesus Christ.
Open the book storylines index
Return to the storyline index when you want to compare the wider canonical movement of Scripture by book.
Why It Matters
Without the theme of mission, the Bible can appear to be primarily about the internal life of a single religious community. Scripture instead reveals that God's purposes have always extended to the nations. Mission explains why God calls Abraham, forms Israel, sends prophets, and ultimately commissions the church to proclaim the gospel to the world.
Plain Language
Mission means that God is actively working to bring people back to Himself. The Bible shows that God sends His people to share His truth so that people from every nation can know Him. The mission reaches its center in Jesus and continues through the church.
Extended Definition
In Scripture, mission begins with God's purpose to bless all nations through His redemptive plan. God calls individuals and communities to participate in His purposes by proclaiming His truth and demonstrating His character. Israel was called to be a light to the nations, and Jesus commissions His followers to continue that witness by proclaiming the gospel and making disciples. Mission therefore flows from God's character and extends through the work of Christ and the ministry of the church.
- Mission is not merely humanitarian activity without the proclamation of God's truth.
- Mission is not limited to professional missionaries but involves the whole people of God.
- Mission must remain centered on the message of the gospel.
Canonical Role
Storyline Function: Mission reveals that God's redemptive purpose extends beyond a single people to the nations and the whole world.
Gospel Connection: The gospel message of Christ's death and resurrection is the central message carried through God's mission to the world.
Church Formation: Mission defines the church's calling to proclaim the gospel, make disciples, and bear witness to God's kingdom.
Biblical Storyline Arc
Creation Root: God creates humanity in His image with the purpose that His glory would be reflected throughout the earth.
Promise to Abraham
God promises that through Abraham's descendants all the families of the earth will be blessed.
Israel as a Witness Nation
Israel is called to reflect God's character and draw the nations to Him.
Prophetic Vision of the Nations
The prophets describe a future when people from every nation will come to worship the Lord.
New Testament Fulfillment: Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God and sends His followers to make disciples of all nations.
Consummation: Mission reaches its goal when people from every tribe and language worship God in the new creation.
Foundational Passages
Key Terms
Teaching Path
Start Here: Explain that God desires people from every nation to know Him.
Next Step: Trace the mission theme from God's promise to Abraham to Israel's calling.
Deeper Study: Explore how Jesus commissions His followers to proclaim the gospel to all nations.
Teaching Warning: Do not reduce mission to humanitarian work without the gospel.
For Those New to Scripture: Begin by explaining that the Bible presents God's message as something meant for the whole world.
Canonical Threads
Meta-Narrative Arc
Ministry Applications
Confessional Anchors
WCF 25.3-4 confesses that Christ has given to the visible church the ministry of the gospel, the oracles of God, and the ordinances for gathering and perfecting the saints in this life until the end of the world.
HC Q54 confesses that the Son gathers His church from all the ends of the earth; Q123 prays that the kingdom of God would come through the preaching of the gospel.