John’s Trinitarian Mission Theology -- By: Andreas J. Köstenberger

Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 09:4 (Winter 2005)
Article: John’s Trinitarian Mission Theology
Author: Andreas J. Köstenberger


John’s Trinitarian Mission Theology

Andreas J. Köstenberger

Andreas J. Köstenberger is Professor of New Testament and Greek and Director of Ph.D. and Th.M. Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He is the editor of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society and has written numerous books and articles. He is the author of The Missions of Jesus and the Disciples according to the Fourth Gospel (Eerdmans, 1998) and John in the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Baker, 2004). He has also co-authored (with Peter T. O’Brien) Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission (IVP, 2001).

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). John’s entire Gospel is pervaded by this divine mission: God, the Father, in his love sending Jesus, his Son, to save all those who believe in him, for eternal life. The Spirit, too, is shown to play an important part in Jesus’ mission as well as in the mission of his followers, jointly witnessing with them (15:26–27) and empowering the community’s proclamation of forgiveness and salvation in Jesus (20:22–23).

In the following essay, I will seek to demonstrate the following dual thesis: (1) John’s mission theology is an integral part of his presentation of Father, Son, and Spirit; and (2) rather than John’s mission theology being a function of his Trinitarian theology, the converse is in fact the case: John’s presentation of Father, Son, and Spirit is a function of his mission theology.1

In order to demonstrate this thesis, I will proceed as follows. After a brief treatment of John’s references to theos, God, I will first trace John’s presentations of Father, Son, and Spirit one at a time, with particular attention to their role in mission. Subsequently, I will discuss the way in which John’s Trinitarian theology culminates in several strategic references to mission involving the persons of the triune Godhead toward the end of the Gospel. Hence, it will be shown that Father, Son, and Spirit alike contribute to the one great cause of the mission of God to the world.

Theos

God

Apart from three major references to Jesus as theos in John 1:1, 18, and 20:28 (on which see further below), the usual referent of theos is God the Father. On the whole, God as a character remains in the background. As Culpepper observes, “God is the reality beyond, the transcendent presence.”

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