Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 93:369 (Jan 1936)
Article: The Bible and Missions The Missionary Character of the Scriptures Part 1
Author: Robert Hall Glover

BSac 93:369 (Jan 36) p. 101

The Bible and Missions
The Missionary Character of the Scriptures
Part 1

Robert Hall Glover

It is not sufficient to be able to say that we are “interested in missions,” nor even that we are taking some part in the promotion of missions. A good deal of missionary interest and effort falls short of being satisfactory, because it rests upon an altogether inadequate conception of what the missionary enterprise really is. Here pity for the people of mission lands, called forth by some heart-moving tale of dire need or some instance of cruel suffering, is not enough, commendable though this may be. Something deeper and broader is needed to constitute a solid foundation for worthy and enduring missionary effort.

The missionary enterprise is no human conception or undertaking, no modern scheme or invention. It did not originate in the brain or heart of any man, not even of William Carey, or the Apostle Paul. Its source was in the heart of God Himself. And Jesus Christ, God’s Great Missionary to a lost world, was the supreme revelation of His heart and expression of His love.

The one great fact in which all true thoughts of God must find their root is the fact of John 3:16, that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This verse is commonly regarded as the central text of the New Testament, the very heart of the Gospel. For this reason it is also the central missionary text. Along with it several other texts naturally associate themselves: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17);

BSac 93:369 (Jan 36) p. 102

“God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Cor 5:19); “He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

The texts just quoted, and many others like them, make clear the fact that the redemption of the whole world was God’s great purpose from the beginning. “He made of one blood all nations of men...that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him” (Acts 17:26, 27). Nay, more, he came Himself, in the person of His Son, “to seek and save that which was lost.” The Gospel was intended for, and is adapted to, every race and clime and condition of mankind. The enterprise known as worldwide missions, then,...