It’s the scramble for mission and your church is already part of the fray. Our churches, organizations, and movements are on a quest to find a convincing overarching story through which to live out the mission of the church and call others to do the same. And there is more than one mission and story that is calling for allegiance.
Unfortunately, although greatly encouraged by a renewed focus on the gospel and careful attention to the pastoral epistles, the local church in the West has not really been a significant mission driver in the last 30 years. Yes, there is talk of urban mission here and rural mission there. Everyone is revising their missions policy. But there remains a fundamental hole in the Western church’s self-conception, a missing theological narrative which integrates its local and global mission, helps us prioritize our various passions, and leads to fervent action. We need a story to live out our mission by.
And the local church is not alone. Across the missiological spectrum, many of the older missionary narratives are dying. Globalization has killed any sense in which “colonialism” (compassionate or otherwise) could act as a driver for mission. In many quarters, global Christendom is disintegrating. For example, some evangelized countries, after flirting with “the civilization of Christianity” for a couple of generations, are reverting back to earlier religions in a show of ethnic pride.
Many missions organizations are struggling to find significant ways to articulate their raison d’être, other than claiming the latest and greatest methodological trend which is “sure to be more effective” than the last. In the West, we are struggling to find a true and powerfully motivating vision when it comes to global mission.
In light of the Western church struggling to articulate its own mission and story in a compelling way, this article argues that Paul’s introductory words to the Romans (Rom. 1:1-7) are critical for the church to understand itself and its mission. First of all, the article will explore Paul’s own biblical-theological argument in these verses and how they were intended to shape his audience. Secondly, it will examine how Paul’s story is actually the fulfillment of the Messianic narrative of Isaiah. Thirdly, in closing, it will reflect on how this underlying narrative has the ability to reshape our own understanding of the mission of the church at this present moment.
Paul’s Mission: The Nations Obeying the Powerful Messianic Son
Paul writes to the Roman church at the end of his third missionary journey and his purpose, according to his own words, is to encourage them in the gospel (Rom. 1:13, 15) and in so doing garner support from them for his upcoming mission to unevangelized Spain (Rom. 1:5; 15:24).
With this background, it is surprising that various commentators have tried to minimize the significance of these introductory verses, arguing that Messiahship is not central to the book of Romans or Paul’s mission. But this seems to me an attempt to try to make the data fit the theory rather than the other way around. For in these introductory verses Paul asserts that the Messiahship of Jesus, the divine Son, is the story which drives global proclamation. Let’s look at these verses in more detail.
Initially, Paul starts his description of “the gospel of God” as that which was “promised beforehand” by the “prophets in the holy Scriptures” (Rom. 1:1, 2). This statement alerts us immediately to what follows in Romans: the gospel of the Messiah is the fulfillment of the prophetic story, the salvation which Israel needed and God promised in the Old Testament.
Paul continues in verse 3 by declaring that the gospel is about the Son. Although this Sonship certainly includes Messianic Davidic descent, it also includes divine Sonship. After all, this is “Jesus Christ our Lord” who is confessed in the same ways as the Father (Rom. 1:7; 10:10-13). The Davidic Son is the Divine Son, who has come to re-establish the rule of God on the earth, a task which the first Adam failed in (Rom. 3:23; 5:12-21).
But it is not just about Davidic roots, it is about the Father appointing the Son to a position of power in the resurrection. The Son was in the likeness of sinful flesh in his earthly life (Rom. 8:3), but in the resurrection, Jesus is given the position of authority which he deserves, enthroned as powerful King by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:11).
This Jesus, who was crucified and whom God raised from the dead, has appointed emissaries, and Paul is one of them (Rom. 1:1; 4:25). His task is to bring about the obedience of faith (Rom. 1:5): submission to the Messiah by putting one’s hope in him (Rom. 15:12). As an apostle, Paul’s job is to bring about submission to Israel’s Messiah.
And even if this salvation is first for the Jew, Jesus is God’s end-time King for all nations. The Roman church is in large part drawn from this group of Gentile nations who have come to glorify the name of Jesus Christ by putting their hope in him (Rom. 1:6; 11:17-24; 15:9). Thus, they are the product of this gospel mission (even if not from Paul directly) and Paul expects that, as they grow in the gospel, they will also be participants in it, in one capacity or another. That is the goal of Paul’s letter and the reason for its existence.
The global nature of the nations submitting to faith in the Messiah will bring honour to the name of the Messiah (Rom. 1:5). God’s purpose in vindicating his Son is to lead the nations to a recognition of him which they did not previously have (Rom. 4:25; 10:9-10).
Finally, this culminates in God’s desire for the believers to personally know and experience grace and peace through Christ (Rom. 1:7). This is the gospel of grace and peace that Paul preaches and the fruit he wants to grow (Rom. 1:13; 5:1-2).
Isaiah’s Hope: The Humbled and Exalted Messiah Ruling the Nations
Paul views the story of Romans 1:1-7 as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophetic hopes (Rom. 1:2). This section is going to explore the shape of those prophetic hopes and how they are not just a random doctrinal collage that Paul puts together, but rather a clear narrative of Messianic hope within the book of Isaiah.
The good news in Isaiah (Isa. 52:7) is focused on peace, the coming of the reign of God. This is an act of mercy and compassion, where God rises up to comfort his people, heal them, and forgive their sins (Isa. 40:1-3; 57:14). This is the coming rule of God in the Prince of Peace, (Isa. 9:6-7), the Son and Root (Hebrew: shoresh) of David. He will bring the fullness of God’s presence and knowledge to the ends of the earth (Isa. 11:9). The Spirit will empower the King to accomplish his mission, whatever resistance there might be (Isa. 11:2).
However, this Spirit-anointed Son of David will also be like the Spirit-anointed root (Hebrew: shoresh) out of dry ground with nothing to attract others to him (Isa. 42:1; 53:2; 61:1). He is the suffering King. David may have been beautiful in form (1 Sam. 16:18), but his Anointed descendant will not be (Isa. 52:14; 53:2).
Remarkably, even if the Anointed Servant is opposed and put to death, God will vindicate him (Isa. 50:8). He gives him the rewards of the righteous (Isa. 53:11-12) in a way that seems to transcend death. Indeed, in language that mirrors the exaltation of God himself, the Servant will be high and lifted up (Isa. 52:13).
With this exalted view of the Messiah, it is no surprise his reign is global. He is a covenant for the nations and kings will shut their mouths in humility (Isa. 42:6; 52:15), putting their hope in him (Isa. 9:6-7; 11:10). Indeed, there will be submission and proclamation to the end of the earth (Isa. 66:18-21).
In this way, in the Messiah, the name of the Lord will be vindicated (Isa. 42:1-8), as the Lord is so passionate about (see Isa. 43:7). Rather than being dishonoured by Israel (Isa. 52:5), God’s name will be honoured among all the nations in the Messiah (Isa. 66:5, 19).
Isaiah’s Hope is the Heart of New Testament Mission
With the two parallel summaries given above, it is clear that the longed-for prophetic hope of Isaiah is the gospel of the Messiah which Paul proclaims in Romans 1:1-7. And this narrative is the story of New Testament mission.
What is Matthew’s great commission if it is not the resurrected Messiah having received “all authority in heaven and on earth” and issuing a call for all nations to learn his ways (Matt. 28:18-20)? What are the closing verses of Luke but a firm assertion that the death, resurrection, and proclamation of the Anointed were Old Testament hopes (Luke 24:44-47)? What are the opening verses of Acts but a promise that the Anointed will come again to rule but in the meantime his death and resurrection must be witnessed about to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:1-8)? All along the way, the driving story of mission is that Israel’s Messiah has come, died, been raised, and must now be proclaimed for the obedience of faith among the nations.
The Messiah, Mission, and Our Identity
At several points, Paul’s own application of this truth in Romans is instructive and repays further reflections.
From the beginning, we must see that Paul’s intention at a very fundamental level is that the Roman church would see themselves as the nations among whom the obedience of faith is proclaimed. That is to say, Paul wants the Roman church to see itself as the result of mission and a part of his. This is where the Western church has often been blind. We have tended to see ourselves (often through the glasses of Christendom or colonialism) as the originators of mission, with our locale as a kind of gospel Jerusalem and the mission fields as the “ends of the earth.” The ends of the earth are somewhere far from us, we think.
However, unless we are Jewish, our churches and the people in them are, in biblical-theological terms, the fulfillment of prophetic hopes for the Gentiles. In other words, we are the evidence of the growing success of the ends-of-the-earth part of the mission in Acts 1:8. There is no Jerusalem and Judea left to reach (see Acts 1-8). Make no mistake, we are all among the nations whom the Messiah is gathering under his rule of peace.
And so, if it is to see itself rightly through the lens of the biblical story, each local church must grasp that all it does belongs in the category of the ends-of-the-earth mission. Without “ends-of-the-earth mission” as the narrative driving the whole mission of the church (global or local), there will be a false dichotomy between church and global mission. People will say to themselves, “I can’t be part of every program in the church and reaching the ends of the earth is one of our church programs.” The whole approach is misconstrued.
Global mission (sprinkled with proof texts) is often portrayed as something fundamentally different in its essence and audience than what we do in our North American churches when we preach the gospel week-to-week. It is a different thing done with different people. But, from a biblical-theological perspective, this is incorrect on both counts.
Yes, there are fewer Christians and more cultural/linguistic barriers in the global expression of this mission. Yes, there is more urgency because of deeper darkness. But it is the same type of mission. The question isn’t whether we will do ends-of-the-earth ministry; the question is where and how?
We often (rightly) turn away from the eisegetical and pragmatic use of terms according to our culture and instead insist that our vocabulary correlate with the Bible (e.g., church elders are not just old men). Should we operate differently when we speak of mission at the ends of the earth? Rather than a cloud of confusion based on our own geography and ethnicity, our people need to feel this ends-of-the-earth Messianic narrative in their bones.
The gospel has come to us like it did to the church in Rome, and so we send it further.
What are some implications of embracing this shift in our thinking? For one, we need to stop talking about what our church “does for missions,” as if it is a program. The idea of being “missional” needs to be done away with as well, if it is perceived as a certain flavour of church or movement we participate in. Why? Because they both assume (falsely) some critical pieces about who we are in the mission.
As Christians, we don’t choose whether we are part of the ends-of-the-earth mission story. That story is the only reason any one of us ever heard the gospel. We were born again into that story.
It’s ends-of-the-earth ministry or no ministry at all. When the whole church engages its fundamental identity as the fruit of ends-of-the-earth gospel work, it is then that it will rightly see its own call to engage mission among the nations for the sake of Christ’s name, whatever end of the earth that might be.
