The Missionary Heart of God

In the grand narrative of existence, few truths resonate as profoundly as the assertion that the very heart of God is intrinsically missionary, and consequently, the entirety of Holy Scripture unfolds as a profound missions book. While many rightly perceive the Bible as the definitive account of salvation through Christ and the path to eternal security, a deeper contemplation reveals an indispensable layer of understanding: God’s unwavering missional design for humanity.

My journey in ministry has been dedicated to this very truth. For my entire adult life, my energies have been devoted to the cause of global missions, a passion so deeply ingrained that one might say it flows through my very veins. This conviction is not merely an academic belief; it is the animating force behind every endeavor, every outreach, and every prayer. Indeed, if one were to gauge the essence of my being, the indelible mark of missions would be undeniably evident.

I am often reminded of the sweet simplicity of childhood faith, of summer days spent at Vacation Bible School in churches like Carmel Presbyterian in Charlotte, North Carolina. I recall the faithful devotion of the ladies who taught us, instilling in young hearts the stalwart hymns of the faith – melodies and lyrics that shape one’s spiritual foundation. One such hymn, though perhaps less common in modern congregations, holds immense theological significance for me. It is the simple, yet profound, children’s song, “Father Abraham had many sons.” This tune, which I later delighted in teaching my own children, is far more than a playful ditty; it encapsulates a core tenet of God’s redemptive plan, a truth that echoes through millennia.

My involvement with ministries like ours stems directly from this deep-seated missional experience. My colleague, a stalwart advocate for the sanctity of life, having authored seminal books and championed the cause of the unborn through tireless efforts and even personal sacrifice during historical movements, sought my assistance. While I have always maintained a pro-life stance, my theological understanding in my formative years was perhaps less developed, rooted primarily in an intuitive sense that the taking of innocent life was contrary to divine will. My colleague, recognizing my extensive background in global missions, invited me to join his pioneering work. His vision was to take the profound message of life to nations grappling with the highest abortion rates, but he needed someone with the experience to expand this vital work across multiple countries. He articulately explained, “I can teach you the theology and ethics of prayer and life, but I cannot instill in your heart a love for missions.” This encapsulates the essence of our partnership: a unified commitment to extending God’s compassion and truth to the world, combining a deep theological grounding in life with a fervent passion for global outreach.

The Genesis of God’s Missional Heart: The Abrahamic Blueprint

The concept of God as a missionary God is not an addendum to the biblical narrative; it is its very foundation. The revered Bible teacher, J. Vernon McGee, famously, and perhaps intentionally provocatively, suggested that the Bible truly begins in Genesis 12, with the preceding eleven chapters serving as an introduction. While not diminishing the foundational accounts of creation, the fall, the flood, and the birth of nations—each vital to understanding humanity’s predicament—this perspective underscores a pivotal shift. Genesis 12 marks a dramatic turning point, a reorientation of divine interaction with humanity.

Prior to this moment, the earth was largely steeped in spiritual darkness. Generations after the great flood, knowledge of the one true God had waned. It is into this pagan landscape, in Ur of the Chaldeans, that God speaks to Abram, a man with no prior knowledge or relationship with this divine voice. The sheer audacity of God’s call and Abram’s immediate, profound obedience is a testament to the miraculous nature of faith. God commanded Abram to leave everything familiar—his country, his people, his father’s household—and embark on a journey to an unknown land, trusting that divine guidance would reveal the destination upon arrival. This act of profound trust, this willingness to step into the wilderness solely on the promise of an unseen God, sets the stage for everything that follows.

What God promises Abram in Genesis 12 is nothing short of revolutionary, establishing the very blueprint for His global mission. The Lord declared: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” This passage, repeating the word “bless” or “blessing” multiple times, reveals a two-fold promise, a fundamental missional principle:

• Divine Blessing: God promises to bless Abram directly. This was not merely for Abram’s personal privilege or comfort.
• Missional Responsibility: Abram was blessed so that he would become a blessing to “all the peoples on earth.” His blessing was intrinsically linked to his role as an instrument of blessing for others.

This covenant was further ratified in Genesis 15, where God took Abram outside and promised him descendants as countless as the stars in the night sky. Abram believed this incredible promise, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Though Abram himself never lived to see the full physical manifestation of this multitude, his descendants—Isaac, Jacob, the twelve tribes of Israel, and ultimately the modern Jewish people—would indeed become a multitude. The very name change from Abram, “exalted father,” to Abraham, “father of a multitude,” underscored this sweeping vision. But the scope of this promise, as revealed through subsequent revelation, far transcended physical lineage.

Old Testament Echoes of a Missionary God

The Abrahamic covenant, with its twin pillars of divine blessing and missional responsibility, is not merely a historical footnote. It is the very lens through which to understand the unfolding narrative of the Old Testament. As I read through the Scriptures, I adopted a practice of marking an “M” in the margin whenever I encountered an instance where God blessed His people specifically so that others—those who did not yet know Him—would come to know Him. This simple act profoundly deepened my appreciation for God’s missionary heart, revealing it on nearly every page.

Consider these powerful illustrations of God’s missional intent, demonstrating that His work on behalf of Israel was always meant to extend beyond their borders:

• David and Goliath: When David confronted the Philistine giant, he declared with unwavering conviction, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I will strike you down and cut off your head… so that the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.” The slaying of Goliath was not merely a military victory; it was a cosmic declaration, a powerful display of God’s might intended for global witness.
• The Plagues on Egypt: During the Exodus, God sent devastating plagues upon Egypt, not just as judgment, but with a specific, articulated purpose. The Lord declared to Moses regarding Pharaoh, “For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose: that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Pharaoh and his people, and indeed all nations who heard, were meant to recognize the unparalleled power of the God of the Hebrews.
• Solomon’s Temple Dedication: In his prayer dedicating the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem, King Solomon included a remarkable petition concerning foreigners: “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name—for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you as do your own people Israel.” The Temple, the very dwelling place of God’s presence, was consecrated with a view towards drawing all nations to Him.
• The Prayers of David: Even the psalmist David, in his intimate communion with God, expressed this global longing. Psalm 67 is a prime example: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us—so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy.” These are explicitly missionary prayers, demonstrating a heart aligned with God’s desire for universal praise and recognition.

The New Testament: Fulfillment and Global Expansion

The Old Testament, in its entirety, serves as a meticulous preparation for the arrival of the Jewish Messiah. When we turn to the New Testament, the culmination of this missional narrative becomes brilliantly clear. The Gospel of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, notably begins with a genealogy tracing Jesus’s lineage. While genealogies might seem like mundane lists, God never wastes a single word. Matthew, writing primarily for a Jewish audience, carefully traces Jesus’s ancestry back to Abraham, powerfully affirming Jesus as the direct fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise and the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. The strategic inclusion of four Gentile women in this otherwise exclusively Jewish lineage was a profound, prophetic hint of the Messiah’s universal reach, a challenge to the narrow perspectives of the time.

In contrast, Luke, a Gentile writing for a broader audience, traces Jesus’s genealogy not just to Abraham, but all the way back to Adam. This seemingly minor difference carries immense theological weight. Luke’s intention was to establish Jesus not merely as a Messiah for the Jews, but as the Savior for all humanity, the redeemer of every offspring of Adam. This was a crucial corrective to the prevailing understanding among many Jews of Jesus’s day, particularly the Pharisees, who erroneously believed that God’s blessing was exclusively for the physical descendants of Abraham.

Jesus Himself powerfully challenged this ethnocentric view, unequivocally extending the Abrahamic promise beyond physical lineage to encompass all who place their faith in Him. As the Apostle Paul articulates in Romans 9:7, “Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel,” and even more explicitly in Galatians 3:29: “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” This means that those who believe in Christ become the spiritual descendants of Abraham, inheriting the promises of blessing, the covenant of a multitude, and the sacred responsibility to be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth.

This expansive understanding culminates in the Great Commission, articulated in various forms across the Gospels and the book of Acts. Jesus unequivocally commanded His followers: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This is not a suggestion; it is the core directive for all who bear His name. We are to be missionaries, relentlessly pursuing this mandate until every corner of the earth bows in worship to Jesus.

The book of Acts itself is a dynamic missionary chronicle. It opens with the miraculous outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, where people from diverse nations heard the gospel proclaimed in their own languages—a clear demonstration of God’s global intent from the very outset. The narrative meticulously tracks the expansion of the gospel from Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish world, progressively outwards, ultimately concluding in Rome, the capital of the known world at the time. This intentional geographical progression vividly illustrates God’s universal love and His desire for all people to worship Him. One of the most compelling narratives illustrating this expansion is found in Acts chapter 10, detailing Peter’s encounter with Cornelius, which irrevocably revealed that the gospel was intended not solely for the Jews, but for the Gentiles as well.

The ultimate fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise is painted in glorious detail in the book of Revelation, where a vision unfolds of “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” This breathtaking tableau confirms God’s enduring commitment to gather worshippers from every segment of humanity, validating the ancient promise made to Abraham. The simple children’s song, “Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham; I am one of them, and so are you,” finds its profound truth in this very image of a global, redeemed family.

And the sacred text of Matthew 24:14 provides a powerful insight into the consummation of history: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” This verse suggests that the fervent pursuit of global missions is not merely an activity but a catalyst, potentially hastening the glorious return of Christ.

Our Mandate: To Proclaim His Excellencies

Why has the Almighty God, in His infinite wisdom, chosen to leave us on earth after our salvation? The first Epistle of Peter provides a resounding answer: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” This is another profound “M” moment in the Scriptures. We have been blessed, redeemed, and transformed for a singular, glorious purpose: to herald the unsurpassed excellencies of our God to a world still shrouded in spiritual darkness.

This mandate translates into tangible action in our daily lives. It calls us to live out our transformed lives authentically before our neighbors, to serve them selflessly, and to reach out with compassion in our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our schools, on our sports teams, and even in our local grocery stores. Every sphere of influence becomes a mission field.

Our ministry is profoundly committed to this global mission, specifically extending the gospel of life to a world grappling with profound ethical questions. This work is rooted in the biblical call to rescue the most vulnerable, echoing the wisdom found in Proverbs 24:11. We believe that the Christian community represents the greatest opportunity for transformative change within any society. Therefore, our strategy is to partner with local churches and pastors, equipping them with the profound biblical truths that underpin the sanctity of human life. We do not simply teach techniques for saving babies; we teach obedience to the very Word of God.

My challenge to every believer, every congregation, is to engage deeply in this mission. It is not an arduous or complex task. It begins with prayer, with diligently studying the Scriptures, and allowing God’s love to guide your response. Look intentionally for the women in your communities who are facing pregnancy-related crises. Discover practical ways to support and assist them. When local churches open their doors to embrace and care for pregnant women, it invariably ignites and strengthens the faith of the entire congregation. It is in this profound act of compassion, in rescuing the innocent and vulnerable, that we truly obey the divine call.

For indeed, God is a missionary God, and the Bible is His missionary book. He chose to birth the Israelite nation through Father Abraham, blessing them so that they might, in turn, become a blessing to all who did not know Him. This grand design continues through Christ, through His Church, and through our obedient lives. It is a beautiful, thrilling, and ongoing saga of divine love reaching out to all peoples, in all nations, until His glory fills the earth.

This article is adapted from the episode transcript.