Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 63:3 (Sep 2020)
Article: “As The Father Has Sent Me, Even So I Am Sending You”: The Divine Missions And The Mission Of The Church
Author: Torey Teer

JETS 63:3 (September 2020) p. 535

“As The Father Has Sent Me, Even So
I Am Sending You”: The Divine Missions
And The Mission Of The Church

Torey Teer

Torey J. S. Teer is a Ph.D. student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2825 Lexington Rd., Louisville, KY 40280. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: Presentations advancing an ecclesiology that favors the church’s ontology before its function have become more common in recent years. Further, mission models employing a Trinitarian framework (viz., the missio Dei) have likewise become popular in contemporary conversation. This project explores the implications of the divine missions—of the Son and of the Spirit—upon the mission of the church while also drawing out some pneumatological emphases vis-à-vis ecclesiology. Specifically, I present a biblical-theological synthesis of the divine missions grounded upon Johannine language of “sending,” framed by Thomas Aquinas’s conception of the divine missions, and augmented by John Calvin’s notion of the “double grace” conferred via union with Christ. I then apply this synthesis to the mission of the church, showing that the church participates—analogically—in the Trinitarian agency carried out in the missio Dei. In so doing, I offer a unique line of reasoning that further supports the church’s ontology before its function as well as a Trinitarian framework for missions.

Key words: pneumatology, ecclesiology, missio Dei, Trinitarianism, Johannine theology, Thomistic theology

When the concept of “missions” comes up in biblical, theological, or ecclesial discourse, it typically takes one of two forms: the Great Commission (Matt 28:18–20) or the missio Dei—though the two are not mutually exclusive. The former typically refers to the work of the church to bring the gospel to unreached people groups around the world (often called “church missions”), while the latter refers to the triune God’s redemptive mission to the world in which he graciously allows the church to participate. Perhaps in conjunction with the contemporary renaissance in Trinitarian studies, relatively recent scholarship has highlighted the essential relationship between the Trinity and the church’s mission and, consequently, the church’s ontology as preceding—and grounding—its function.1 Relatedly, my recent

JETS 63:3 (September 2020) p. 536

work developing a Christological pneumatology and applying it to various loci of systematic theology has led me to appreciate the theology of the divine mis...