THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL: A GLORIOUS MISSION

Our mission is glorious in its scope—it is to reach every person on planet earth with the Gospel. That’s the responsibility of the church; Christ has given this assignment to none other.

Paul saw this as a debt to pay. He stated, “I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise” (Romans 1:14). How are we doing in paying our debt?

If you were to line up all the lost people in the US, they’d circle the globe beyond twice. Then, could we replicate the experience of Pentecost, when 3,000 were saved in one day, it would take us a century to reach those. That’s with the population frozen and if people lived that long. But they won’t. Every second souls slip out into eternity unprepared. An we’re not even considering in this calculation, the teeming masses around the globe—many of whom have never heard the name of Jesus.

As horrible as the devastation was in Haiti—can you imagine the ground shaking and walls and roof collapsing upon you—the terror of it all, that wasn’t the worst. For many who perished, they opened their eyes in torment. Can you imagine what it was like to be buried in the rubble for days with not a drop of water? What must it be to live century after century in a place of flames with no relief from thirst? Lest you think that spiritual condition is limited to Haiti, you are sadly mistaken. Anyone, anywhere that doesn’t have a personal relationship with Christ is unprepared for death and the judgment to follow.

Is there blood on our hands? Are we paying our debt? You say, “I thought salvation was free?” It is! But don’t we sing, “Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe”? We owe a debt of gratitude to the One who saved us, and every time we confess Him, we’re paying another installment on that debt of love. But more than this, Paul said, “I am a debtor to the Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise.” In other words, we are debtors to all humanity--the cultured and uncultured; literate and illiterate; the down and out and up and out. The need of the Gospel cuts across all social strata and thankfully God’s grace is provided for all. Our glorious mission is to tell them all—to boldly go where no one has gone before!