Missions

As Paul writes his letter to the Romans, he has been a missionary for about twenty years. He was between twenty and forty years old when he was converted (that’s the range implied in the Greek word for “young man” in Acts 7:58). We may guess, then, that he is perhaps around fifty when he wrote this great letter. That may sound young to us but remember two things: in those days, life expectancy was less and Paul had led an incredibly stressful life—five times whipped with thirty-nine lashes, three times beaten with rods, once stoned, three times shipwrecked, constantly on the move, and constantly in danger (2 Cor. 11:24–29).

Paul was probably killed in Rome before he could fulfill his dream of preaching in Spain. But one thing is certain: he was cut down in combat, not in retirement. He was moving on to the frontier instead of settling down to bask in his amazing accomplishments. Right here, we learn the meaning of missions.

Paul’s missionary strategy was to preach where nobody has preached before. This is what we mean by Frontier Missions. Paul had a passion to go where there were no established churches—that meant Spain.

What is amazing in these verses is that Paul can say he has “fulfilled” the gospel from Jerusalem in southern Palestine to Illyricum, northwest of Greece! To understand this is to understand the meaning of Frontier Missions. Frontier Missions is very different from domestic evangelism. There were thousands of people yet to be converted from Jerusalem to Illyricum. But the task of Frontier Missions was finished. Paul’s job of “planting” was done and would now be followed by someone else’s “watering” (1 Cor. 3:6).

Christian Hedonist missionaries love the experience of “not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Cor. 15:10, ESV). They bask in the truth that the fruit of their missionary labor is entirely of God (1 Cor. 3:7; Rom. 11:36). They feel only gladness when the Master says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, ESV). They leap like lambs over the truth that God has taken the impossible weight of new creation off their shoulders and put it on his own.

Without begrudging, they say, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Cor. 3:5, ESV). When they come home on furlough, nothing gives them more joy than to say to churches, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience” (Rom. 15:18, ESV). “All things are possible with God!”—in front the words give hope, and behind they give humility. They are the antidote to despair and pride—the perfect missionary medicine.

These, then, are two great incentives from Jesus to become a World Christian and to dedicate yourself to the cause of Frontier Missions.

First, every impossibility with men is possible with God (Mark 10:27). The conversion of hardened sinners will be the work of God and will accord with his sovereign plan. We need not fear or fret over our weakness. The battle is the Lord’s, and he will give the victory.

Second, Christ promises to work for us and to be for us everything we need so that when our missionary life is over, we will not be able to say we’ve sacrificed anything (Mark 10:29–30). When we follow his missionary prescription, we discover that even the painful side effects work to improve our condition. Our spiritual health, our joy, improves a hundredfold. And when we die, we do not die. We gain eternal life—endless and ever-increasing joy with Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us.