Missions: God's Plan From the BeginningSample

The God of Abraham

After several large defeats for the human race (Adam, Cain, Noah), God chose to make a covenant with a man who had nothing to offer him. Abraham was the son of an idolator, and his wife was unable to have children. But to this man, God promised that he would become the father of a great nation. God did more than that, though. In his blessing, God tipped his hat to his final plan. He told Abraham, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:3). The plan was never just to save the Jews but to use Abraham to bless all nations. Sometimes we comfort ourselves with the vague statement that “everything happens for a purpose.” The reality is so much better than that: God actually plans everything. And his plans, from the very beginning, have been for the good of not only the Jewish people but also for the good of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

The descendants of Abraham before Christ only caught glimpses of the plan of God. But Paul tells us in the New Testament that “those who have faith are children of Abraham” (Gal 3:7). This means that when Christians participate in the Great Commission, bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to all the nations, they are on a task that started with Abraham. Those who have faith participate not in a new blessing to the nations but in the blessing promised 4,000 years ago. This fact gives us both a heritage and a hope. We have a heritage, knowing that we, too, are children of Abraham. We, too, participate in the promises made so long ago. We have a hope because we are able to see how this blessing is being fulfilled so much more than Abraham. We know that the ultimate hope for the nations is not in Israel but in Christ. We go out as the ministers of a new covenant, started at the death and resurrection of Jesus and extending into eternity.