“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.”
Advancing the grace gospel to the ends of the earth begins right at home because family life is central to the missio Dei. This is Latin term means “the mission of God” and affirms that the Lord is a sending God who deploys His people into the harvest field of souls with the salt and light of redemptive truth vested in the Person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The biblical basis of the centrality of the family to the missio Dei is therefore rooted in the undeniable nature of marriage to the nuclear family, the essential position of family to the local church, the necessity of the church to a stable society, and the strategic role of the church to missionally engage culture with the gospel for the glory of Almighty God.
Centrality of Marriage to the Nuclear Family – At the heart of the undeniable centrality of marriage to God’s biblical design for the family is 1. The Irreplaceable Nature of Marriage, 2. The Irreplaceable Nature of Gender Roles, and 3. The Irreplaceable Nature of Manhood.
Christ Himself affirmed the timeless and irreplaceable definition of marriage as a covenant relationship between one man and one woman for a lifetime (Mat 19:4-5 cf. Mal 2:14-15). This male and female oneness in marriage is designed by the Creator to bear the fruit of offspring and multiply as the Creator’s vice-regents of dominion stewardship (Gen 1:26-28 cf. Ps 8:6-8). Within the context of the marriage relationship, God’s design for the husband and wife is rooted in being mutually created in the image of God with equal dignity and worth but with inherently different roles and responsibilities that are complimentary to one another for the sake of the proper ordering of both family and church life (Gen 2:18; Eph 5:23-24; 1 Tim 2:12-15). The irreplaceable nature of gender roles in marriage also affirms the reality that God particularly branded men in His image and beckons them to reject passivity, accept responsibility, and to courageously initiate decisive action as Christ-built warrior-poets for the sake of their wives and children who are entrusted to them as a stewardship (Gen 18:19; Deut 6:4-9; 1 Cor 16:13-14).
Centrality of the Family to the Local Church – At the heart of the essential position of the nuclear family to the local church is 1. The Complimentary Relationship of Family and Church, 2. The Component Reality of Family to Church, and 3. The Critical Revitalization of the Family and Church.
The Lord Jesus Christ as eternal Creator of the family and sovereign Head of the Church, which is His Body, designed each of these divinely ordained institutions to partner together in a complimentary relationship for the glory of His name (Eph 4:11-16, 6:1-4; 1 Thes 2:11-12). They are not to be in competition but the family is to enrich the church and the church is to equip the family. The health and vitality of the local church is a direct indication of the state of the home as families are the central components of this divinely ordained institution (Rom 12:4-5; 1 Cor 12:12, 27; Eph 4:16, 5:33-6:4). Departure of young people from church involvement and oftentimes the Christian faith altogether is therefore an alarming trend that is a grave concern to both entities. Revitalizing biblical family life is therefore critical to the health of the church and its mandate to missionally engage culture in every generation with the exclusivity of Jesus Christ, the gospel of God’s grace, and the comprehensive nature of the biblical Christian worldview (Rom 11:33-12:2; 13:11-14; 2 Cor 10:3-5; Eph 5:14-17; Col 2:6-10).
Centrality of the Church to the Community – At the heart of the necessity of the local church to a stable society are three biblical characteristics of the church which are 1. Buttressed Pillar of Doctrinal Truth, 2. Back Pressure of Moral Conscience, and 3. Bastion of Providential Testimony of History.
The Church, which is Christ’s Body, was established in general and the local church in particular as the pillar and ground of doctrinal truth in the present dispensation of grace thus being entrusted with the stewardship responsibility of preaching the whole counsel of God’s Word in light of the Pauline revelation around the globe (1 Cor 3:11; Eph 3:10; Col 1:24-26; 1 Tim 3:15; 2 Tim 3:14-4:5). As the Sovereign Head of the Church, Christ divinely ordained the local church as central to human flourishing being the established moral back pressure of salt and light in every township, municipality, and urban population center among all nations worldwide. He also designed it to be the reservoir of testimony bearing witness to God’s mighty hand and outstretched arm at work in the annals of history thus passing it down through the corridors of time for the glory of His name in future generations (Deut 4:9-10; Josh 4:19-24; cf. Jud 2:7-13; Ps 78:1-8; Rom 15:4; 1 Cor 10:11).
Centrality of the Church to Cultural Engagement – At the heart of the strategic role of the church to missionally engage culture with the gospel for God’s glory is the 1. Strategic Relevance of the Christian Worldview to Human Flourishing, 2. Stewardship Responsibility of the Grace Commission, and the 3. Sobering Reality of the Exclusivity of Biblical Christianity.
The comprehensive nature of the biblical Christian worldview is the key that unlocks the divinely ordained patterns of life at the heart of mankind’s pursuit, having been created in the image of God, to be creatively innovative, maximize scientific advancement, and expand the horizons of culture for the sake of human flourishing and God’s glory as our Creator King and Redeemer (Gen 1:28; Ps 8:6-8; Jer 29:4-7; Matt 22:37-40; Gal 6:7-8; 1 Tim 2:1-7).
Christ has entrusted His Church with the stewardship responsibility of the Grace Commission which is the intentional engagement of culture among all nations worldwide beginning with the gospel of grace revealed to and through Apostle Paul for the present dispensation of grace (Acts 20:24; 1 Cor 9:16-23; 2 Cor 5:9-11). This two-fold ministry mandate includes Christ’s ambassadors heralding the message of reconciliation and bringing to light what is the administration of the mystery of God’s grace as He desires all to be saved and to understand what He is doing today in the present age (2 Cor 5:18-20; Eph 3:8-9; 1 Tim 2:3-4). At the judgment seat of Christ, every member of the Church will an give an account of this wholistic ministry stewardship regarding how faithfully they defended the faith as a soldier, advanced the faith as an athlete, and cultivated the faith as a farmer in the arena of culture in general and the lives of people in particular (1 Cor 3:10-15; 2 Tim 2:1-7; Titus 2:11-14).
The one true God of the Bible divinely ordained that only those people who consciously place their faith in Christ as Savior by the preaching of the gospel through human agency are delivered from His wrath against their sin in the eternal torments of the lake of fire (Is 45:22; Jn 14:6; Acts 4:12; Phil 2:9-11; 1 Tim 2:5-6; Rev 20:15). This sobering reality is meant to electrify one’s walk with God by deliberately opening the mouth and speaking of Christ to a world in urgent need of living hope.
Advancing the gospel of grace to the ends of the earth does indeed begin right at home because family life is undeniably central to the missio Dei. May God’s Spirit raise up a new generation with the passion to intentionally live on mission “in Christ” near and far to the praise of God’s glory forever!
