Walls' Latin-American Mission

This post is the first of several on the nature of the church’s mission. These posts are the content of an essay I wrote last year for one of my seminary classes and it was a helpful time to think through the nature of the church and missions. The first (this) post will look at the biblical-theological foundation for the church’s mission. The second post will look at the three-fold mission of the church. The final two posts (part 3, part 4), will look at how the means of grace in the church are a key part to the church’s mission. To see the other posts, subscribe or go to our latest post page.

Introduction

The church is the focal point of God’s redemptive-historical plan (Eph. 3:7-11). God is progressively manifesting his manifold wisdom to all of the principalities and powers of this world “through the church”. In addition to the special place that the church has in God’s plan of redemption, the church also occupies a special place in the heart and affection of the Redeemer. Christ “loved the church and gave himself for her” (Eph 5:25); he even “obtained [her] with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). Since the church is so important, it is imperative that we rightly understand what the church is about and what she is to be doing. We, therefore, need to be conscious of the church’s mission and do all we can to contribute to the fulfillment of it. 

There is much confusion over the meaning of the church’s mission. There is debate over whether it is simply to preach the Gospel and convert people, or if it is to change the culture by advocating for social justice, or if it is merely to obey all of the Lord’s commands. 

However, I will contend that, as was God’s intention for mankind from the very beginning, the mission of the church is to expand the borders of the place of His special presence and reign until it encompasses the whole of creation, which will completely occur at the resurrection. This purpose is fulfilled by the completion of three distinct yet related tasks; the church is to expand the borders of God’s special dwelling by (1.) witnessing to the external world of darkness, (2.) nurturing God’s people as they grow in maturity, and (3.) doing all for the ultimate and supreme goal of God’s glory.

The Biblical-Theological Foundation of the Church’s Mission

In connection with the church’s mission, there are two main texts of Scriptures that we have to reconcile in this consideration: The Cultural Mandate (CM) of Genesis 1:28 and The Great Commission (GC) in Matthew 28:18-20 (and parallels). Though we typically think of Matthew 28:18-20 as the GC, as we will see, it borrows greatly from the CM and its further development in the OT. G. K. Beale, in his book The Temple and the Church’s Mission, explains in great detail the role of the church in the divine plan of God. Beale demonstrates how there is not an essential distinction between these two passages. As the church fulfills the GC, at the same time the last Adam is fulfilling the CM originally given to the first Adam and then later repeated to the patriarchs and the corporate Adam—Israel. John Frame agrees with this conclusion and states that these two fundamental tasks of God’s people “are essentially the same”. 

The Kingdom of God and the Cultural Mandate

The CM is the initiation of the biblical theme of the ‘kingdom of God’. In this passage God establishes Adam as a king (subduing and being God’s image), gives him a people (his descendants bearing the same image of God) and a territory (the whole earth). This mission of expanding this kingdom until it is filled with the image and glory of God and its borders extend throughout the whole earth is the original commission given to Adam. Frame and DeYoung and Gilbert highlight this major biblical-theological theme of the ‘kingdom of God’ and relate this theme to the church’s mission statement. They highlight how the church is to be expanding the kingdom of God, which was inaugurated with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, until the final consummation of that kingdom at the second return of Christ. 

In Matthew 28:18-20 we can see these same aspects:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 

The first thing we see is the establishment of Christ as the rightful king of all the earth, however, in contrast to the first Adam, this last Adam is not only the king of the earth, but He is also the king in heaven. This establishment of Christ as rightful king is the foundation of the church’s mission, as we see in verse 19 with the conjunction “therefore”. Since Christ is king and He has all authority in heaven and earth, therefore we must go and make disciples. Second, we have the aspect of reproducing the image of God—“make disciples”. Then we see the idea of filling the earth in making these disciples of “all nations”. And, we have the promised blessing of the Lord’s hand and His special presence to accompany us as we fulfill our mission. This is also what we see in the commission given to Adam. His goal was not merely to expand his own kingdom, but this kingdom was the special place of God’s presence, it was God’s temple. 

The Temple of God and the Cultural Mandate

In the CM we also see the ‘temple’ theme and how the church is to be spreading the special place of God’s presence throughout the whole world, which commission was originally given to Adam, and then repeated to Israel, but which finally began to be fulfilled in the work of Christ and is now being continued through the church, “the inaugurated end-time temple”. Using his main text of Revelation 21:1-22:5, G. K. Beale shows how when the Apostle John saw the consummated kingdom of God it was equated with a perfect temple. As he demonstrates, these two ideas of the kingdom and temple of God go hand in hand; the kingdom of God is a temple, the special place where God dwells with His people. Therefore, in the CM we see the establishment of God’s kingdom and God’s world-wide temple. We have the commission to not only expand the borders of Adam’s kingdom as God’s vice-regent, but we see that God’s intention is to spread His special presence throughout the whole world through this very means.  

Giving a closer look at this CM, this connection and this mission can be seen in Genesis 1:28 where God gives His mandate to Adam: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” This mandate has four aspects: (1.) a blessing, (2.) a kingship, (3.) filling the earth, and (4.) subduing the earth. The idea of Adam as a king over God’s creation is fairly explicit in this passage. The idea of Adam subduing and having dominion over all of God’s creation plus Adam being created “in the image of God” establishes the fact that Adam is God’s vice-regent on earth. Adam was the first king. However, his commission was not merely to subdue the garden, but it was to expand that garden, where God dwelt with man and walked with him in the cool of the day, until it filled the entire earth. 

The idea of a temple is not as explicit in this passage, but it can be found by comparing the structure of the garden with the three-fold structure of the Tabernacle and the Solomonic Temple and even comparing it with other Ancient Near Eastern temples. In addition to the structure of the garden and the other temples, the temples of the Bible and the Ancient Near East are often associated with a mountain top (Gen. 2:10), arboreal imagery (Gen. 2:9), and precious metals (Gen. 2:11-12), which aspects we also find in the garden of Eden. For example, even Ezekiel recognizes these aspects and calls Eden “the mountain of God” and “the holy garden of God” (Ezek. 28:13-14). We also find this idea in the language used in Genesis 2:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” These last two verbs when used together, “to work it and keep it”, are always associated with temple service or obedience to God’s Word. In light of this brief summary of evidence, which is more thoroughly explained by Beale and Fesko, we conclude that Adam was placed in the garden as the first priest-king with the special blessing of expanding this territory of God’s temple-kingdom throughout the whole earth, and guarding it from infiltration by anything unclean. 

However, due to his disobedience, Adam failed to fulfill this commission; he profaned the special place of God’s presence and was exiled from the garden and God’s special dwelling place; however, in His grace, God did not allow His plan to be voided by man’s sin. He repeated this commission later to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 in the form of a promise, and later again in Genesis 22:15-18. This promise was repeated to all of the patriarchs and eventually was entrusted to Israel, a type of “corporate Adam”. 

The Temple-Kingdom of God and the Church

In God’s desire for Israel we see the repetition of this connection between the temple and the kingdom when God says that Israel was going to be a “kingdom of priests” (Ex. 19:5-6). In this special covenant, God was going to be with the people of Israel and He was going to dwell with them and everyone was going to be a priest before God, but, due to their sin, the presence of God was confined to the back room of the temple hidden from all eyes. This intention for a “kingdom of priests” was not intended to be kept secret among the people of Israel because Abraham had originally received the promise of being a blessing to and a father of many nations. Although the corporate Adam, commissioned with filling the world with God’s temple-kingdom, failed, there was still a promise of a particular seed that would fulfill this commission and would inaugurate the end-time temple-kingdom that grows and expands until it encompasses the entire world—the last Adam. G.K. Beale summarizes this story nicely: 

…[W]e conclude that God created the cosmos to be his great temple, in which he rested after his creative work. His special revelatory presence, nevertheless, did not yet fill the entire earth because his human vice-regent was to achieve this purpose. God had installed this vice-regent in the garden sanctuary to extend the boundaries of God’s presence there worldwide. Adam disobeyed this mandate, so that humanity no longer enjoyed God’s presence in the small Garden. As a result, all humanity and all creation became contaminated with sin. Therefore, in view of the storyline of the Bible, the assertions about God’s inability to exist in any building on earth include allusion to the old earth and temple not being an adequate abode for him because of being polluted with sin and the need for purification and restoration before God’s Shekinah presence, limited to heaven and the holy of holies, could dwell everywhere throughout the cosmos.All human attempts to extend God’s presence throughout a sinful earth met with, at best, limited success. The successful fulfillment of the Adamic commission awaited the presence—and obedience—of the last Adam, Jesus Christ.

Having seen the expectation of the OT for this temple-kingdom and God’s intention to accomplish it, it is now fitting that we would see the NT’s understanding of the church as the inauguration of this promise. Though we are still awaiting the time when the whole world will be covered with the knowledge and glory of God and we will all dwell intimately in His presence, we now enjoy the inauguration of this joyous expectation in the church. Christ came declaring the arrival of the kingdom of God, and the apostles continually recognize that the church is the temple, the special dwelling place of God’s Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19, 1 Pet. 2:4-5). Also, Hebrews clearly recognizes that the NT community is the literal fulfillment of the type and shadow that was the OT temple and tabernacle. This is corroborated by Beale: ”Therefore, Hebrews 12:22–28 says that believers have begun to participate in an unshakeable mountain, temple and kingdom, which are different images for the same one reality of God’s glorious kingship in a new creation.” We no longer enter into God’s presence through a veil, but we enter through Christ directly into the heavenly holy of holies. 

Moreover, Geerhardus Vos equated the church with the beginning stage of the consummated end-time kingdom of God when he said, 

She [the church] forms an intermediate link between the present life and the life of eternity… Now to him [Jesus] there was not that sharp division between the church-kingdom and the final kingdom which there is for us who live on earth. For him the consummation of the kingdom in which all is fulfilled began with his resurrection and ascension [when the church was inaugurated]. 

This idea of the kingdom is often connected with the church, both visible and invisible; thereby, we see that the church is the present inaugurated form of that eschatological kingdom that Christ began with His first coming and will consummate with His second.

Therefore, the church is the inauguration of this end-time temple-kingdom that will eventually fill the whole world in fulfillment of the mandate given to Adam. As the church takes part of the blessing of the GC, the Last Adam is at the same time expanding His temple-kingdom and slowly but surely is increasing its borders until it encompasses the whole world. As was promised to the nation of Israel in Exodus 19:5-6, each new member of this kingdom is being made a priest with a special right to God’s presence, even the gentiles are given a special access to God’s presence through the atoning work of Jesus Christ (Isa. 66:19-21; 1 Pet. 2:9-10). 

Moreover, like the first Adam, the Second Adam was given a helpmeet to aid Him in the fulfillment of His mission. The church, therefore, is not only the temple-kingdom itself that is to be expanded through the whole world, but it is also the anti-typical Eve who is commissioned with aiding her husband in fulfilling the special commission God has given Him as king over both heaven and earth. 

In conclusion, the church is to be busy guarding this special place of God’s presence and expanding this temple-kingdom unto the uttermost parts of the earth. This fact gives us the overarching mission of the church and at the same time demonstrates the centrality of the church in the redemptive-historical plan of God. As Earl Blackburn said, “In this era of the New Covenant, the visible church is the central agent God uses to carry out all His redemptive purposes.” 

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 Beale, G. K. The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God. Edited by D. A. Carson. Vol. 17. New Studies in Biblical Theology. Downers Grove, IL; England: InterVarsity Press; Apollos, 2004. 395.

Blackburn, Earl M. Jesus Loved the Church and so should You: Studies in Biblical Churchmanship. Vestavia Hills, AL: Solid Ground Christian Books, 2010. 28.

DeYoung, Kevin, Greg Gilbert. What is the Mission of the Church? Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom and the Great Commission. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011. 15-16.

Fesko, J. V. Last Things First: Unlocking Genesis 1-3 with the Christ of Eschatology. Scotland, UK: Mentor, 2007. 59-67.

Frame, John M. Salvation Belongs to the Lord: An Introduction to Systematic Theology. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006. 250.

Vos, Geerhardus. The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church. Edited by John H. Kerr. Second Edition, Revised. New York: American Tract Society, 1903. 156-157.