What Is the Distinction Between God’s Mission and Christian Witness?

A Distinction

I believe we regularly confuse these two areas—each essential areas. God’s mission is what the triune God is doing on the planet to save lots of sinners. That’s completely different than Christian witness: the way in which we take part in what God is doing. If I outline, first, God’s mission, the triune God has a plan, and he has already been busy with fulfilling that plan and nonetheless is on the planet at this time. We are able to truly return to the church father Augustine, who spoke about missio (the mission of God). He outlined it as God’s two missions, truly.

God the Father has a plan of redemption. He sends his Son. That’s the primary mission. God the Father sends God the Son to perform redemption. After which God the Father and Son ship the Spirit into the world to use that redemption. And that is God’s mission, and it’s what God is busy doing on the planet at this time. Now, that’s God’s mission, and in comparison with Christian witness, it’s just a little completely different. Christian witness is how we take part in what God is doing.

Christian witness is the church commissioned by Christ, despatched out, empowered by the Holy Spirit to talk about what God is doing. Witnessing is to talk of Christ and his gospel reality, salvation in Christ alone, to talk about God—the one true God—and his reality claims in Scripture, and to talk to sinners and to deliver the gospel to them in numerous methods. That’s a Christian witness: taking part in God’s mission.

The time period “Christian witness” is an umbrella time period, and beneath this time period comes all completely different types of the witness of the church. It may be an evangelistic witness in a local people or at a jail or in another native context. It may be apologetics, whether or not or not it’s a rational protection of the religion or whether or not or not it’s cult evangelism. It may be worldwide partnerships, international partnerships, going to faraway locations and bringing the gospel by church planting or theological training.

Christian witness may also be cultural engagement, biblical counseling, humanitarian ministries, or hospitality. There are various kinds that it takes, however all Christian witness is taking part in what God is doing on the planet to save lots of sinners. And so it’s very useful to maintain these two separate. God’s mission that we take part in as Christians by the witness of Christ.

Brian A. DeVries is the writer of You Will Be My Witnesses: Theology for God’s Church Serving in God’s Mission.

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