In Part I of this article, we examined what, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, the people of Israel were “chosen” for:

1. They were to be blessed in order that they would pass that blessing on to the world.
2. They are to live in such a way that the world may know that Yahweh is God, the one and only true God, of the world.

When we reconnect with the people of Israel in the gospel accounts, 400 years have passed, during which time they have demonstrated that their ‘addiction’ to worshipping other gods has finally been cured. Without this change of heart, it would be impossible to claim Yahweh as the One and only God.
Where their struggle laid was with the fulfillment of their ‘chosenness’ – being freed from the bondage of their sin and the continual need for sacrificial atonement, and understanding how to live in the ‘kingdom of God’ – the orthopraxy of ‘being a blessing’ and ‘living in such a way that the world may know that Yahweh is God’.

Jesus’ Mission

When Simeon blesses the 8-day-old Jesus in Luke 2:30-32, he uses a turn of phrase that sometimes we miss in the English translation:

For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.

Taken literally, Simeon says that Jesus will be a light to bring light to the Gentiles, which hearkens back to the language of God to Abraham, who would be blessed to be a blessing to the world. In John’s gospel account, his opening statements describe Jesus in similar fashion:

The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

This language is not accidental. If he was to be the Messiah, then his purpose would have to be the purpose of his people.

Our Mission

Jesus, in the center of his “Sermon on the Mount”, passes this mission on, in turn:

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

It is this same mission – being light to give light so that God will be praised above all – that Jesus stresses, and that underlies his teaching about the kingdom of God, which came with him, continues through today, and will be perfected when he returns. How do we go about doing this?

Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Our greatest commandment is the same as what was given to the children of Israel, along with specifying the ’second greatest’ commandment, for emphasis. In terms of mission and commandment, we are identical to the children of Israel. Paul makes this even more explicit in Romans 11, where he uses the image of the olive tree, which represents the nation of Israel, fed by the roots of God and His covenants with the patriarchs. We are all part of the same tree – the same spiritual nation with the same mission.
So how does Jesus’ sacrifice free us to complete this ‘chosen’ mission in a way unavailble during the first century BC?

Our Freedom

Paul’s turn of phrase “in Christ” is a key in helping us understand our freedom and our mission. When we are ‘in Christ’, God does not condemn us for our sins, and we are not expected to pay a sacrificial atonement for them. In other words, when God judges us, he sees Jesus (because we are “in” him), and his blamelessness is imputed to us.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…

This frees us from the need to pay God back – because we cannot – just like when God saved the children of Israel from Egypt. Paul again makes this clear:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Because we are free, that allows us to complete our mission – to be a light to give light – to be blessed to be a blessing – for the purpose of demonstrating to the world that our God is the One and only God of the universe.

Tikkun Olam

In Judiasm, there is a concept in the Mishnah which is believed to have come from the Jews who returned from the Babylonian captivity called tikkun olam – which means ‘repairing the world’ – and that God created us to do mitzvot (good deeds and following His Torah) for that purpose, to the glory of God.

Paul’s writing bears similarities to this belief:

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

So, whereas the Jewish religion (and Dominionist theology) sees tikkun olam as a means of hastening the return of the Messiah, Paul tells us that, because the Messiah has come, he (Jesus) has freed us to do these mitzvot which God prepared for us.

In Conclusion

So it is, like the Children of Israel, we have been given the mission to “be light to give light”, to “be blessed to be a blessing” (noting that ‘blessing’ does not necessarily imply material wealth), and that the purpose to this mission is to show the world, through our lives in Christ, that our God is the One and only true God. If we keep our blessings to bless ourselves, we have become the rich farmer who decided to build bigger barns.

Let us not sell ourselves short on this mission, which goes far beyond person holiness and evangelism. God has given us a purpose today beyond a viral marketing campaign for fire insurance. If we are fulfilling our mission, being a blessing to the world, then God will become indespensible to the world around us. A few days ago, I asked a question:

If your church were to announce that it was closing its doors and that its members were leaving the community, would the surrounding community cry out because of what it would be losing – that the church was an irreplaceable blessing to it?

If your answer is ‘no’, then perhaps your church is nothing but a bigger barn…