Missionary-Spectacles

There are various methods by which we can read the Holy Scriptures. I always attempt to read from a mission’s perspective for which I wear my missionary-spectacles! I am going to start from the book of Genesis and peep into key biblical characters and events. I invite you to join in this study tour! Let us start with our first parents, Adam and Eve. 

Crown of Creation

Garden of Eden was a palace garden minus a king and a queen. The incomplete garden became complete only after the creation of Adam and Eve. All creation followed a pattern of “let there be.” But when humans were created the pattern was “Let us make mankind…” (Genesis 1:26) Only the human duo was made in the image of God!  The triune God sets off human beings in the highest pedestal. Adam Eve were blessed with three God-like abilities: to think, to feel and to choose. The Great Commission of God comes in the first page of the Bible to Adam and Eve to multiply and fill the earth with many more people in the image of God (1:28-29). A hint of an external religious practice of a holy day is seen in Genesis 2:1-3. To work and take care of the created world comes in the blessed status in the life of Adam (2:15). Adam and Eve, the King and the Queen, no wonder, were the crowns of God’s creation. A formula for active holiness came in the form of “Do this, to have fellowship with me!” from God (2:16, 17) Even today, our mission mandate has a clear work culture. To work in God’s garden and take care of it is a blessing!

Seriousness of Sin

In a serene setting, villain satan came in the form of serpent. Sin arrived naïve and looked normal. The choice between holiness and sin was a real option for Adam and Eve. Both Adam and Eve fell into the trap of evil. Because of their sin of disobedience, fear gripped them. They hid themselves. Curses usurped blessings (3:14-19). But in the context of curse to serpent, a ray of hope shines bright when God said, “I will put enmity ​between you and the woman, ​and between your offspring  and hers; ​he will crush your head, ​and you will strike his heel,” which points to the redemption plan of God in dying for the sins of all human beings in the cross and his resurrection on the third day. However to Adam and Eve, the mandate to fill the earth with people and to work on it earned extra elements of pain and hard labour. Mission of God always has an adversary and spiritual warfare is a reality in it.

Merciful Mission

The merciful God came as the first missionary seeking the first sinners, Adam and Eve (3:9-10). An inaugural sacrifice takes place when God made leather garments to cover the shame of the first couple by butchering an animal/(s) (3:21). Someone has to pay the penalty and the pattern for covering sin was by the shedding of blood.  The merciful God also prevents Adam and Eve from eating from the Tree of Life (3:24) in their sinful state and proceed to a dead end! So He drives them away from the Garden of Eden. But remember the plan for evangelism has already been given about the seed of woman, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. The plan for Christmas was etched in the Garden of Eden. Galatians 4:4 says, when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as His very own children. (NLT) We have hope because Jesus bore our sins and curses we inherited from Adam and Eve and we continue to do by his death in the cross of Calvary. He was born in this world with that mission and he fulfilled it. Fulfilling our mission is still the same. It is what God gave to Adam and Eve: of filling this earth with people restored back to the image of God, having a personal relationship with God. This mission is an uphill task for us, restored sinners. But we gain victory ultimately. Is the merciful mission of God continuing through us today?

NB: A primary source for this article apart from the Bible is a book titled, "Down to Earth: A Biblical Theology of Missions" (Mission Educational Books) by Frampton F.Fox. I had the privilege of doing a course on Missions facilitated by this author at Hindustan Bible Institute, Chennai in the late nineties.