God’s mission is to glorify Himself. If this were not God’s mission, we would not be talking about the God of the Bible––the one true and living God. If God’s mission is not to glorify Himself, then who else is worthy of the final glory? The good and right and true mission is that which brings glory and attention to the One worthy of praise. 2 Sam. 22:14. It comes as no surprise, then, that the thrust of the “sent life” is God all the way through. See e.g., John 20:21 (“As the Father has sent me, so also I send you.”); Mt. 28:18–20 (“All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, go therefore and make disciples of all nations. . . .”). In other words, the follower of Christ is on mission for Him, sent by Him, and accompanied with Him.

A large part of the “sent life” is obedience. He says to preach the gospel, so we preach. He says to gather with the saints, so we gather. He says to love our neighbor as ourselves, so we love. And so on. Our obedience, of course, is inadequate because no one obeys the Lord perfectly. See e.g., Romans 3:23. The “obedience” part of God’s mission is mainly that of Jesus: we obey because He obeyed; we believe because He believed; we work hard because He worked even harder. It’s not that our obedience completes the mission of God; it’s that the obedience of someone else (i.e., Jesus Christ) completed it for us. Again, our mission is God all the way through: telling others what He has accomplished, not just through word or even through deed, but through a transformed life that brings glory to the Transformer.

Nevertheless, the mission of God will be accomplished with or without my help. Who am I to question the will of God? Romans 9:20. But to go against God’s doing is to be a part of Satan’s doings; and to be a part of Satan’s doing is be a part of sin; and to be a part of sin is to be a part of death. The “sent life,” on the contrary, is a life in submission to the Giver of Life.

Thus, there are only two “missions” available: the mission of life and the mission of death. I hope and pray to keep choosing the former, while keeping further and further from the latter.

p/c