Mission is doing what God the Father did
A church, a mission organization, or man do not own the mission. Since God is the principal author and finisher of Mission, it is His property. He is Mission’s well-known strategist and promoter.
Furthermore, in the twenty-first century, mission has not started with us, through us, via a church, or through a mission organization. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command and sinned against Him in the Garden of Eden, the True Mission began. God did not ignore Adam and Eve when they sinned against Him; instead, He traveled to the Garden of Eden to make amends.
The man and his wife sought refuge amid the garden’s trees from the Lord God’s presence when they heard him strolling through it in the calm of the day (Genesis 3:8).
God’s mission began when He saw that man had sinned against Him and yearned for man to return to him. We must understand what God the Father accomplished in the Garden of Eden after man sinned if we are to understand the essence of Mission. Genesis 3 teaches us that God accomplished three things, which clarifies the purpose of mission.
1. SOUGHT the lost
“But the Lord God called to the man and said, Where are you?” the Bible states. (See Genesis 3:9).
God asked Adam where He was with compassion, not out of annoyance with Adam and Eve. God was terrified to face Adam once more because He knew that he had sinned. The first definition of mission comes from God’s act of seeking him out in order to reestablish his relationship with him. The mission is to find the missing.
Our primary duty as Christians—whether we are working as missionaries through mission organizations, as individuals, or as members of churches—is to seek out the lost. Therefore, in the midst of our numerous activities and initiatives undertaken in the name of mission, if we fail to fulfill our call to seek the lost, it implies that we are also lost.
2. SAW the lost
When Adam accused Eve of giving him the forbidden fruit and causing him to break God’s command, God considered Adam and Eve as lost souls who would eventually pay a price for their transgression. God told Eve in Genesis 3:16 that he would “certainly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.”
As he was being plucked from the dust, he reminded Adam that he would die and go back to the dust (Genesis 3:19). But God continued to regard Adam and Eve as helpless beings in need of assistance. Seeing the lost as God sees them is what mission is all about. Churches and Christians do not engage in mission mostly because they do not view the lost as God does—that is, as needy individuals in need of assistance. Is it not the expectation of Christians to view the lost as God sees them and meet their needs?
3. SHARED with the lost
As a result of their transgression, God did indeed expel Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. He did, however, also express His love and concern for them. God declared that He will send a conqueror of Satan:
God will cause strife between the woman and you (Satan) as well as between your descendants and her descendants. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise His heel (Genesis 3:15).
God revealed to Adam and Eve, albeit subtly, that they had the potential to be saved from their fallen position. That gave Adam and Even a reassuring sense of hope. Mission is therefore reaching out to the lost with the message of the cross. We have a responsibility to spread the Cross’s message to the unbelievers today.
The church and Christians today fail in their basic reason of existing when they lose sight of this important goal of seeking the lost, seeing the lost as God sees them, and sharing with them the Gospel that Christ died for them on the cross and rose from the grave. The church and Christians are called to carry out as their principal ministry on earth what God the Father did in the Garden of Eden.
