The Mission of God

This blog was originally written for For His Glory Community Church (www.forhisglorycc.org).

People are questioning God all the time. Many people ask things like, “Why did God allow that person to die?” “Why did God create the world and then allow sin in?” “Why doesn’t God let everyone go to heaven?” or “Why did Jesus die on a cross?” The problem with every one of those questions to God is that we completely miss the “what”.

We should always ask, “What is the purpose behind everything that God has done, is doing, and will do?” Glory. Everything that God has done, is doing, and will do is to demonstrate how awesome, powerful, loving, and good He is. The mission of God from eternity past to eternity future was to glorify Himself.

The first two chapters of the Bible in the book of Genesis describes the amazing work of creation. God creates the heavens, the earth, light, plants, animals and finally, humanity. It was a miraculous work that can be described as nothing other than God’s handiwork. Every other explanation the world has come up with doesn’t make any sense. God’s purpose in that magnificent work was to demonstrate His glory. In Romans 1:20, the apostle Paul says, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” God created everything and everyone so the world would see how awesome He is. Ultimately, God receives the glory. But something happened.

In Genesis 3, the serpent (who would later in the Bible be confirmed as Satan; see Revelation 12:9) convinces Eve that if she eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she will be “like God.” There were three major problems with this statement. The first was that this was in direct disobedience of God’s words to Eve to not eat of this tree (Gen 2:17). The second was that God made Adam and Eve in His own image, not as Him, but like Him, so what Satan proposed was actually something Eve already had (demonstrating our constant oversight of God’s provision for us). The third was that Eve, and ultimately all of mankind, was attempting to take from God the one thing God demanded: glory. The result of the fall (disobeying God) was the curse of sin on the whole world. Every man and woman born from that day forward would be born with a sin nature, leading them to seek their own glory instead of giving it all to God. This is where the mission of God really began. God had to do something in order to turn all people back to Him in recognition of His glory.

GOD ON MISSION

If your mission is to stop people from starving in a third world country, you may go on a missions trip to that country and help to provide the necessities to stop the starvation. If your mission is to get drugs off the streets in your local city, you may go on a mission trip (a local one) to the neighborhoods where this is taking place and interact with the people involved to stop this from continuing. Similar to that, God saw a serious problem with the sin in this world. Man’s sin and desire to revel in their own glory was in direct antithesis to God’s mission, that He would receive all the glory. God knew the only way to bring all the glory back to Himself was to go on a mission to the world.

GOD’S KINGDOM

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

When God came into the world as Jesus Christ, He came to make Himself known to the world and bring God the glory above all things. Jesus established the kingdom of God which was to reign forever.

Jesus also came to earth for God’s people. Man was full of sin and needed a way to be made right with God. There was no way for man to do it on his own. Jesus’ life on earth was an example of how we are to live our lives to bring God the most glory. In John 15:8 Jesus tells His disciples that by bearing good fruit, people would know they were His disciples and would ultimately be glorifying God. Then on the cross, Jesus defeated sin by paying the price for the sins of God’s people. When he rose from the grave, He defeated death once and for all. This allows men to be made right with God if they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior and abide in Him. As Jesus was ascending into heaven to be seated on His throne, He commanded His people to go into all the world and tell the world of His glory (Matthew 28:18).

GOD’S PEOPLE

There is nothing worse than being told what to do and maybe even how to do it, but not being shown and guided along the way. It happens in our homes, our jobs, and in many other places. But Jesus being perfect, knew exactly what we would need to continue His mission of sharing His glory with the world. In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells His disciples that He is giving them the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works inside every follower of Christ to enable them to share the good news of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection for the glory of God.

The purpose of receiving the Holy Spirit was so that, because of One Man, the Good News could be spread through many men to people all throughout the world. As the church goes into the world demonstrating Christ’s love and sharing of His perfect sacrifice, people everywhere will see God’s goodness and glory and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, come to saving faith in Christ.

GOD’S MISSION COMPLETED

“All good things come to an end,” except when they come from God. Many people use the first part when mentioning all the temporary things of this world. All good things in this world will perish through old age, brokenness, or irrelevancy. But God is eternal, and His goodness and glory will remain forever.

As God’s people, we are daily being brought to a closer relationship with Jesus, thus becoming more like Him. When Jesus comes back for the church (God’s people), He will complete this work and fully redeem each of us. We will be perfect and will rule and reign with Him in His kingdom forever. We will never worry about things (or people) perishing again. This will be an awesome demonstration of God’s glory in that He brings to perfection a broken and sinful people. The mission of God will be completed and all things will be restored to Him.