The Mission of God

Christopher Wright

            Wright wrote this book due to his concern for missions and its relation to the Bible. While growing up, he heard missions proclaimed using proof-texts such as the Great Commission. He became discontented with this approach, especially when he did his academic studies in Bible and did not talk about missions at all. This book is an attempt to relate God, his people, and missions in a more biblical fashion. Wright argues for the basic idea of the Bible being missional: namely, God’s mission, not our mission (Wright uses missions for cross-cultural missions and missional for anything relating to mission). He shows through this book how God’s mission can be used as a basic hermeneutic to read the Bible, not as an alien hermeneutic imposed on the text but as a natural hermeneutic arising from the text itself. Since this is an excellent book, I have included a short overview of the argument of the book. The book is well worth reading. 

            Wright includes four major parts in his work. The first part (The Bible and Mission) is the shortest, but is the essential introduction to his topic and foundation for what follows. The first chapter (Searching for a Missional Hermeneutic) details all the approaches Wright is not following in this work. He is not doing proof-texting (basing missions upon the Great Commission), he is not simply aggregating the perspectives of diverse interpreters, he is not presenting a hermeneutic which is satisfied with taking its place alongside other interested readings (such as feminist and liberation readings), and he is not taking a postmodern “everything is acceptable” attitude. After getting the negatives out of the way, he presents his main thesis in chapter two (Shaping a Missional Hermeneutic). He begins with the Bible, showing that it is a statement of God’s mission to reveal himself to his creation. He seeks to nuance the idea of biblical authority by showing that authority derives not only from imperatives but also from narratives. Reality itself (specifically, God himself), this story (as expressed in the Bible) and this people (God’s people), also give authority to missions and to a missional reading of the Bible. Hence, missions is not based simply on Matthew 28, but on the reality of who God and what he is doing in the world (his mission). Wright is not saying that the whole Bible is about evangelism, but that it is about the mission of God.

            The second part of the book (The God of Mission) focuses upon God. Chapter three (The Living God Makes Himself in Israel) begins the story with the relationship of God with Israel. God made himself known to Israel through their experience of his grace as well as his judgment. YHWH makes himself known through the Exodus as incomparable, sovereign, and unique. He closely examines what monotheism means in the Old Testament, and decides (following Richard Bauckham, one of the most quoted authors in the book) that the OT presents YHWH as unique, but that others are also called god. But YHWH is not simply another god on the menu: he is the incomparable one, the one in a class by himself. In the return from exile, Israel is taught that God is sovereign over history, exercises sovereignty through his word, acts for the sake of his name, and entrusts his uniqueness and universality to the witness of his people.

            The next chapter continues the story in Jesus Christ (The Living God Makes Himself Known in Jesus Christ). Wrights shows the close connection between Jesus and YHWH through such links as the terms Marantha and the Lord Jesus and the functions of Jesus like Creator, Ruler, Judge, and Savior. He concludes the chapter by looking at how monotheism affects missions. Since biblical mission is “driven by God’s will to be known as God” (126), then missions is highly doxological. Instead of warfare terminology for missions, Wright suggests that we use metaphors like singing a new song among the nations.

            Since Wright has acknowledged that there are other beings called gods in the world, he dedicates chapter five (The Living God Confronts Idolatry) to God’s relation with other gods. Wright further specifies his view by saying that other gods are both demons and human constructions, although the focus of the biblical text is on the latter, putting responsibility on the human end of idolatry (162). Wright tells how idols destroy our essence and how to confront idolatry: depending on the context, either theological argument, evangelistic engagement, pastoral guidance or prophetic warning.

            Wright now changes focus from God to “The People of Mission” (part three). Being an OT scholar, he naturally begins with Abraham, spending two chapters on the Abrahamic covenant (6: God’s Elect People and 7: God’s Particular People). In a detailed exegesis of Genesis 12:1-3, Wright argues that God chose Abraham not because he gave up on the nations, but precisely because of the nations: Abraham was chosen to be God’s channel of blessing to the nations. IsraelIsrael). was not the point: the nations were the point. In chapter seven he moves on later uses and echoes of the Abrahamic covenant in the rest of the OT and the NT, showing how a balance needs to be kept between universality (all the nations) and particularity (

            The Model of Redemption (chapter eight) introduces how redemption should be viewed. The Exodus is the primary OT example of redemption which has been viewed very differently in recent interpretations. Wright argues against both a spiritual approach (eternal salvation only) and a political approach (liberation theology), proposing that we need an integrated approach that includes both aspects: social work must go along with evangelism. Since the Exodus was a one-time event, Wright moves on in chapter nine (God’s Model of Restoration) to a repeated event for greater applicability: the Jubilee. He uses the Jubilee as a holistic model of restoration, showing how Christians today need to be concerned with other areas besides evangelism, such as politics. He ends the chapter seeking to show, contrary to the argument of many, how Jesus and the early church actually were political active (dissolving the sacred-secular assumption, the political implications of the kingdom of God, breaking society’s boundary markers, and the use of the phrase “Jesus is Lord”). The gospel is holistic because “the world is in a holistic mess” (315). While evangelism is ultimate, it is not primary: there are a variety of places to begin, not just evangelism. Wright very helpfully points out how a holistic gospel needs the whole church: not everyone can be an evangelist, nor can everyone be involved in social work.

            In chapter ten Wright moves on to the covenants of the OT (The Span of God’s Missional Covenant). He looks at each of the covenants in turn and examines how they relate to God’s mission. The Noahic covenant shows Gods commitment to all life on earth. The Sinai covenant contains multiple international elements (such as the “kingdom of priests” of Exodus 19). David is to be the embodiment of the reign of YHWH and he is envisioned in the psalms to be the king over the nations, which makes sense as it is connected to the reign of God. The new covenant, as seen in the NT, expands the boundaries of covenant membership. The last chapter of part three is a look at ethics (11: The Life of God’s Missional People). Ethics in the Bible is to be seen in a missional light, as the people of God are to be witnesses to the nations. Election is to ethics which is to witness. There is no mission without ethics.

            The last part of the book (The Arena of Mission) begins with “Missions and God’s Earth” (chapter twelve). God is not only concerned with people, but also about the world itself. Since we were created to take care of the world, creation care should be an active part of our life as the church. Chapter thirteen moves on from the earth to the humans as the image of God (Missions and God’s Image). Since all humans are created in the image of God, the gospel is appropriate for all, and indeed, following the gospel makes one more truly human. Humans were created with a task, but sin has affected every aspect of human life (physical, spiritual, rational, and social). He discusses the AIDS epidemic as an example to show how sin affects these four levels. The chapter ends with a look at wisdom in the OT, which should lead us to “critical openness to God’s world, respect for God’s image in humanity, and humility before him and modesty in the claims and answers we offer to others” (453). Since wisdom is valued by many in the world, it can be used as a bridge to reach those who are not believers, although it is not salvific of itself. But even within biblical wisdom there are contrary witnesses (such as parts of Job and Ecclesiates) which should compel us to be humble.

The last two chapters of the book (14: God and the Nations in Old Testament Vision and 15: God and the Nations in New Testament Vision) are the climax of the book. While not exhaustive, Wright seeks to look at how both the OT and the NT regard the nations and how the nations fit into the meta-narrative of the Bible. The nations are part of the creation of God and stand under God’s judgment, although they can also be shown mercy and can be used as an instrument of God. Wright says that all nations belong to God but YHWH does not yet belong to all the nations (466). The nations are also witnesses of Israel’s history and beneficiaries of Israel’s blessing. In the future the nations will worship Israel’s God and be included in Israel’s identify.  Wright disagrees with Walter Kaiser, who says that Israel had a missions mandate, not just a basis for a missions mandate, and hence they failed in their duty. Wright says that the OT does not give an imperative for going out and spreading the witness of YHWH as the NT does. Moving to the NT, he summarizes the interactions of Jesus and the apostles with the nations, such as the inhabitants of Decapolis, the Ethiopian eunuch, and Cornelius. 

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