The Crisis of Missions
The Christian's desire to make Christ known is directly proportionate to how he sees Christ. If he sees Christ for the beautiful Savior that He is he will, with all that is in him, make it his personal business to make Christ known to all men by all means and at any cost. If he doesn't see Christ that way. Why indeed would he go through all the trouble? It is safer to be a silent Christian like Jonah was among the pagan sailors. Will not the Christian give priority only to what is important to him? If Christ is not worth telling people then Christ means little, and is even an embarrassment for the Christian. And so the crisis really is not about the lack of zeal for the great commission, or about how little and insignificant the person of Christ is to the Christian, but about how ignorant the church is regarding God's will in the unfolding advancement of redemptive history as He moves towards the fulfillment of His covenantal purpose. There was a plan from eternity past th...