Theology for the Community of God by Stanley J. Grenz

Author:Stanley J. Grenz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eerdmans
Published: 1994-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

The Mission of Jesus

For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.

John 18:37

At the heart of the Christian faith is the confession that God is present in Jesus of Nazareth. In the previous three chapters, we explored the meaning of this confession for Jesus’ identity. We asserted that he reveals both true deity (chapter 9) and true humanity (chapter 10) in one personal life (chapter 11).

Jesus’ ministry is inherent in his identity. Theologians generally divide Christology into the related topics of “Christ’s person” and “Christ’s work.” When so divided, which theme ought to precede the other? Reformed thinkers traditionally move from the person of Christ to his work in salvation, whereas Lutherans often begin with Christ’s work as forming the foundation from which to understand his person.

In our Christology we have followed the basic Reformed approach, albeit with a major difference. Rather than the older nomenclature (“person” and “work”), we prefer the designation “identity” and “mission” as lying closer to the Hebrew way of thinking that pervades the Bible. Although we move from Jesus’ identity to his mission, we acknowledge a fluidity between these two topics. We cannot understand the identity of our Lord in isolation from his mission in the world. Nor does his action on our behalf make sense apart from understanding who he is.

Because of the close connection between Christ’s identity and mission, we ought not to see this fourth chapter of our Christology as marking a transition beyond “the person of Christ” to “the work of Christ.” On the contrary, our description of Jesus’ mission is the final statement about his identity, just as the previous three chapters comprise the necessary context for our understanding of the topics which follow here.

Theologians in the classical Western theological tradition tend to delineate Jesus’ mission primarily as God’s antidote for our sinful human situation. More narrowly, many look to the fall of Adam for the context in which to describe the work accomplished by Christ. Regardless of its theological propriety, placing the work of Christ in the context of the fall invites inquisitive minds to pose the speculative question: If Adam had not sinned, would Christ have come? Although itself purely hypothetical and consequently unanswerable, lurking behind this query lies an important theological issue that draws our attention to the purpose of Jesus’ coming: What was the mission of the earthly Jesus? In what context are we to understand Jesus’ vocation? Finally, is the work that Jesus accomplished primarily restorative or elevative? Did he reinstate humankind to the pristine reality of the primeval Garden, or does he lift us to a realm beyond what the first humans enjoyed in their innocency?

We now grapple with the purpose of Jesus’ coming. In the following pages, we seek to express in what sense Jesus the Christ not only restores what we lost in the fall but also takes us beyond Adam to the eschatological community at the center of God’s purposes.

Our construction of a contemporary understanding of the mission of Jesus comes in three parts.

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