This week in our study on missions, I want to dive into Romans 10:13-15. This is one of my favorite missions passages. Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions that get us thinking about the process of missions.
"Whosoever..."
To start off, I want point out the word whosoever in this passage. Anyone and everyone, anywhere and everywhere, can call on Christ for salvation. Jesus paid the debt for the sins of the whole world! Christians must go share that good news with the whole world.
"How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?..."
People cannot ask for and receive salvation if they do not first believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died for them and rose again to pay their sin debt.
"...and how shall they belive in him of whom they have not heard?..."
People cannot believe that Christ died for them if they have never heard the gospel story.
"According to Finishing the Task, there are 189 unengaged, unreached people groups, numbering over 5.7 million souls, that are still beyond the reach of the Gospel. These 189 ethnic groups are perhaps the neediest of the needy as they are unengaged, which means that no one - no church, no missionary, no mission agency - has yet taken responsibility to tell them about Jesus Christ" (global frontier missions).
"...and how shall they hear without a preacher?..."
Christ gave believers the task of evangelizing the world. We are the ones who must preach to the lost. If we do not go tell those around us and around the world the good news of salvation, who will? We must not take for granted that others have already heard. In the case of the unengaged, unreached people groups, no one has ever told them!
"...And how shall they preach, except they be sent?"
Jesus Christ sent us to the lost. In Matthew 28:19-20 He commanded, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." We must not go in our own strength or our way. Christ is the one who sends us, and it is He who will guide and provide.
"...preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!"
I notice in this phrase the message that we are supposed to give to the lost. Our focus should not be on destruction and condemnation, although those whom we evangelize must understand their sinfulness and its consequences, but rather on the good news. We are to be God's ambassadors who share tidings of peace and forgiveness.
This week, prayerfully consider who God would have you share the gospel with. Is he calling you to labor where you are or could He be sending you to those unreached peoples who have never before heard the name of Jesus?
In Christ alone,
Mission
This is an amazing message and one the Church really needs to hear right now!
Keep up the amazing work Mission!