Missions and the Larger Catechism
What would you say if missiological truths came racing out of the first few pages of the Westminster Larger Catechism? That is exactly what happened earlier in January when this writer began such a study.
Question 2. How doth it appear that there is a God?
Answer: The very light of nature in man, and the works of God, declare plainly that there is a God, but his word and Spirit only do sufficiently and effectually reveal him unto men for their salvation.
Have you ever looked up and seen how the spacious “heavens declare the glory of God?” (Psalm 19:1) In Oklahoma the sunsets can be magical and the power of a storm thunders forth God’s power and strength. On a clear winter night, the moon seems so close you can almost touch it. But can men and women understand the speech of these scenes? Johannes G. Vos in his book The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary says they can’t.
Man’s fall into sin changed his capacity to receive and understand even the message which the light of nature and the works of God do bring him. [1]
Can you feel the full impact of the word capacity? How do people without Christ have any hope when they live without the capacity to even receive the message in the skies, much less to understand what they are seeing and hearing? All people everywhere are in serious need of “salvation from sin by divine grace through a Mediator. But the light of nature and the works of God have nothing to say about salvation from sin.”[2] It is impossible for people to understand the language of the skies without someone to tell them about Jesus and his saving work on the cross. Shouldn’t this alone spur us on to pray more fervently for our missionaries, pastors, and evangelists who have much to say about forgiveness of sin through the blood of Jesus Christ?
A few weeks later, I was struck again with another realization that prayer for missions is paramount. In question 20 the reader is asked to think about the provision God made for human beings on the day they were created. He gave them communion with himself, a job to do, the weekly Sabbath, and a covenant that would give them eternal life if they obeyed God’s requirement. In short, God gave them everything. Every day they had the privilege of walking and talking with God face to face in a beautiful setting. But they fell into a state of sin and misery when Adam disobeyed God.
Human beings lost so much when Adam fell, but people are blinded with the idea that pain and death are normal. They’ve lost their purpose and missed their callings. They are on their own with no true fellowship that leads to eternity. Indeed, this is misery.
Praise God for the compassion that led Jesus to the cross, not only to save a people for himself from every tribe and nation, but also to bring glory to His name so that all his people would worship before him.
For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Romans 5:19
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Revelation 7:9-10
Because of what Jesus has done for us, we can enter into fellowship with the great three-in-one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have a calling to serve him here or abroad; we have the hope of eternity in the New Heavens and New Earth, growing in our knowledge of him and enjoying fellowship at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Don’t you want to help bring others into this multitude?
You can begin by praying for lost souls to hear the gospel message preached by our missionaries and by spurring others on to do the same. Pray for eyes, ears, and hearts to open as they hear about the wonders God has done. Pray that sinners would understand the message in the skies. Pray for our missionaries to rejoice in the work God has given them and protect them from discouragement. Support our missionaries by thanking them for their work and providing for their material needs while they are on the field and when they come home. You are an important part of Jesus’s call to missions.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20