The Mission of God and the Witness of the Church
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About this ebook
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). This declarative phrase introduces fundamental questions circling the minds of skeptics and believers of Christianity alike. What was God's mission when he chose to create? And why, through the Savior's death on the cross and the witness of his church, does he continue to redeem the very creation that rebels against him?
To answer these imperative questions, author Justin Schell takes readers on a canonical journey exploring the mission of the eternal God—Father, Son, and Spirit. Drawing insights from creation, the exodus of God's people, the suffering servant, the Great Commission, and consummation, this book examines the purpose and beauty of God's great story. It is out of an abundance of love that God brings us into union with him, calling his church to bear witness to all that has been done in Christ, until the day that he returns.
- Explores the Mission of God: Takes readers on a canonical journey to examine the purpose and beauty of God's story
- Academic yet Accessible: Perfect for pastors, college and seminary students, missionaries, and lay leaders
- Short Studies in Biblical Theology: Part of a series designed to give readers accessible volumes on God's word. Other volumes include Sanctification as Set Apart and Growing in Christ; The Sabbath as Rest and Hope for the People of God; and more
Justin A. Schell
Justin A. Schell (MAR and MAME, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) is the US Director for Union, a ministry that seeks the reformation of Christ’s church worldwide. He is also the Director of Executive Projects for the Lausanne Movement and has served cross-culturally in the Muslim world.
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The Mission of God and the Witness of the Church - Justin A. Schell
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Crossway on FacebookCrossway on InstagramCrossway on TwitterThe theme of missions is a key to understanding the Bible. Justin Schell enables us to see this afresh in this book. This is not just a rehashing of previous books on missions, and it is certainly more than an academic book. It is a God-centered call to the church to see the vital place that its Christ-representing witness has in the mission of God. It brings us a message we all need to hear!
Conrad Mbewe, Pastor, Kabwata Baptist Church, Lusaka, Zambia; Founding Chancellor, African Christian University
Justin Schell provides an excellent overview of mission through the storyline of Scripture. His work reminds us of our identity as a community of witnesses to the work of God in the gospel and gives us a better glimpse of the God whose self-revelation is oriented toward restoring a relationship with his image bearers.
Trevin Wax, Vice President of Research and Resource Development, North American Mission Board; Visiting Professor, Cedarville University; author, The Thrill of Orthodoxy; Rethink Your Self; and This Is Our Time
I am excited to recommend this book. Today there are roughly seven thousand people groups on the planet with little to no access to the gospel. That’s more than three billion people. Justin Schell helps the church see the glorious God of mission, his gracious purposes in the world, and our role in that larger work. The reader gets to watch God’s mission unfold from the garden of Eden to the new Jerusalem. It’s a breathtaking story, and it’s our story. We are his witnesses. This book is a wonderful addition to an excellent series.
Michael Oh, CEO, Lausanne Movement
From Genesis to Revelation, Justin Schell shows us God’s relentless pursuit of a bride for his Son. This book will do more than shape your view of mission or of Scripture. It will refresh and refocus your view of our great missionary God.
Glen Scrivener, evangelist; author, The Air We Breathe and How to See Life: A Guide in 321; coauthor, Come and See: A History and Theology of Mission
This is a thoroughly readable and well-informed account of God’s mission in the world, in which we, as disciples of Christ, are privileged to share. Justin Schell carefully follows the redemptive-historical approach of this series, from the garden to the garden city. Beginning with God’s missional activity in creation and its continuation, despite Adam’s failure, we see God’s purposes unfold through Abraham and the nation of Israel, culminating in the coming of Jesus, God’s incarnate missioner, who empowers his people to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins to all people. A feast of biblical insights to enrich our understanding and equip us to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
Glenn N. Davies, former Archbishop of Sydney
"Justin Schell carefully traces the theme of mission along the narrative arc of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Theologically rich and insightful, this engaging book invites the reader into the drama of Scripture as God reveals, redeems, and restores his creation. Emphasis on communion with the triune God as the aim of mission displays the coherence of the biblical narrative and rightly calls attention to the relational dimension of the missio Dei. Refreshing, like the wind of the Spirit, Schell’s book draws the contemporary church into the central theme of Scripture and the vital witness of the church."
Carol Kaminski, Senior Professor of Old Testament, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
"God made us for communion with himself, so we should care about his mission in the world. In The Mission of God and the Witness of the Church, Justin Schell helps us see how God’s mission emerges from the story that Scripture tells. Through God’s power in judgment and salvation, God is displaying his glory in the world he loves. Schell guides us through the panorama of Scripture as he takes us from Eden to the church’s Great Commission. We bear witness to the redemptive work of the triune God, and we long for the consummation of his mission."
Mitchell L. Chase, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Preaching Pastor, Kosmosdale Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky
The Mission of God and the Witness of the Church
Short Studies in Biblical Theology
Edited by Dane C. Ortlund and Miles V. Van Pelt
The City of God and the Goal of Creation, T. Desmond Alexander (2018)
Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World, Thomas R. Schreiner (2017)
Divine Blessing and the Fullness of Life in the Presence of God, William R. Osborne (2020)
From Chaos to Cosmos: Creation to New Creation, Sidney Greidanus (2018)
The Kingdom of God and the Glory of the Cross, Patrick Schreiner (2018)
The Lord’s Supper as the Sign and Meal of the New Covenant, Guy Prentiss Waters (2019)
Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel, Ray Ortlund (2016)
The Mission of God and the Witness of the Church, Justin A. Schell (2024)
The New Creation and the Storyline of Scripture, Frank Thielman (2021)
Redemptive Reversals and the Ironic Overturning of Human Wisdom, G. K. Beale (2019)
Resurrection Hope and the Death of Death, Mitchell L. Chase (2022)
The Royal Priesthood and the Glory of God, David S. Schrock (2022)
The Sabbath as Rest and Hope for the People of God, Guy Prentiss Waters (2022)
Sanctification as Set Apart and Growing in Christ, Marny Köstenberger (2023)
The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer, Andrew David Naselli (2020)
The Son of God and the New Creation, Graeme Goldsworthy (2015)
Work and Our Labor in the Lord, James M. Hamilton Jr. (2017)
The Mission of God and the Witness of the Church
Justin A. Schell
The Mission of God and the Witness of the Church
© 2024 by Justin A. Schell
Published by Crossway
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.
Cover design: Jordan Singer
First printing 2024
Printed in the United States of America
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.
All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.
Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-8158-8
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-8161-8
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-8159-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Schell, Justin A., 1980– author.
Title: The mission of God and the witness of the church / Justin A. Schell.
Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2024. | Series: Short studies in biblical theology | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023032986 (print) | LCCN 2023032987 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433581588 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433581595 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433581618 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Mission of the Church—Biblical teaching. | Redemption—Biblical teaching.
Classification: LCC BS2545.M54 S34 2024 (print) | LCC BS2545.M54 (ebook) | DDC 266—dc23/eng/20240126
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023032986
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023032987
Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
2024-04-29 10:34:18 AM
To
the mission mobilizers
who remind us that the harvest is plentiful
but the laborers are few
Contents
Series Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction: The Mission of God
1 The God of Mission
2 Mission in the Garden
3 Father of All Nations
4 Yahweh Saves
5 Land and Exile
6 The Great Commission
7 The Church on Mission
8 Mission and Consummation
For Further Reading
General Index
Scripture Index
Series Preface
Most of us tend to approach the Bible early on in our Christian lives as a vast, cavernous, and largely impenetrable book. We read the text piecemeal, finding golden nuggets of inspiration here and there, but remain unable to plug any given text meaningfully into the overarching storyline. Yet one of the great advances in evangelical biblical scholarship over the past few generations has been the recovery of biblical theology—that is, a renewed appreciation for the Bible as a theologically unified, historically rooted, progressively unfolding, and ultimately Christ-centered narrative of God’s covenantal work in our world to redeem sinful humanity.
This renaissance of biblical theology is a blessing, yet little of it has been made available to the general Christian population. The purpose of Short Studies in Biblical Theology is to connect the resurgence of biblical theology at the academic level with everyday believers. Each volume is written by a capable scholar or churchman who is consciously writing in a way that requires no prerequisite theological training of the reader. Instead, any thoughtful Christian disciple can track with and benefit from these books.
Each volume in this series takes a whole-Bible theme and traces it through Scripture. In this way readers not only learn about a given theme but also are given a model for how to read the Bible as a coherent whole.
We have launched this series because we love the Bible, we love the church, and we long for the renewal of biblical theology in the academy to enliven the hearts and minds of Christ’s disciples all around the world. As editors, we have found few discoveries more thrilling in life than that of seeing the whole Bible as a unified story of God’s gracious acts of redemption, and indeed of seeing the whole Bible as ultimately about Jesus, as he himself testified (Luke 24:27; John 5:39).
The ultimate goal of Short Studies in Biblical Theology is to magnify the Savior and to build up his church—magnifying the Savior through showing how the whole Bible points to him and his gracious rescue of helpless sinners; and building up the church by strengthening believers in their grasp of these life-giving truths.
Dane C. Ortlund and Miles V. Van Pelt
Abbreviations
BECNT Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament
EBC The Expositor’s Biblical Commentary
NAC The New American Commentary
NICNT The New International Commentary on the New Testament
NIGTC The New International Greek Testament Commentary
NSBT New Studies in Biblical Theology
NTC New Testament Commentary
PNTC The Pillar New Testament Commentary
TOTC Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries
WBC Word Biblical Commentary
ZECNT Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament
Introduction
The Mission of God
There is a renaissance of scholarship and teaching on the mission of God today. Popular authors and speakers are attempting to help Christians live on mission. Mission agencies and church planting networks are training new gospel ministers to start missional churches. Missiologists and biblical scholars are exploring missional readings of the Bible along with the concept of the