The Greatest Secret: How Being God's Adopted Children Changes EverythingSample

Adoption – Mission in action  

As a young person I was taught that the first mention of mission in the Bible comes at the end of Matthew’s gospel when Jesus tells his disciples to go to the ends of the earth and make more disciples. For a long time it was not only my starting point for understanding mission – it was my entire understanding of mission. Then I heard a sermon that suggested mission in the Bible began a lot earlier – way back in Genesis chapter 1. That’s when the penny dropped. The whole Bible is the story of the mission of God [1]– what he is doing in the universe. Mission is not what we do for God, it is what we do with God. (As, by the way, the Great Commission, on closer inspection, confirms.) 

A simple way to break down what God is doing in the universe is by seeing it in terms of four relationships. Firstly, the us-and-God relationship: God created human beings in his image so that we would reflect his character to a watching universe. Second the us-and-others relationship: God created human beings with an inbuilt need for one another so that together we might build families, communities, nations, companies and systems that would honour him by caring for one another. Thirdly, the us-and-our-world relationship: God created for human beings a place for them to explore, nurture and cultivate together. Finally the us-and-ourselves relationship: God created human beings to be reflective and self-aware and able to cultivate an inner life that could honour him too. 

We can find all these relationships perfectly in sync in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, and all these relationships severely fractured by the fall in Genesis chapter 3. This passage in Revelation paints a majestic picture of the four restored relationships. And then God reveals the reason behind his mission – it will all culminate in his intention to live as an adopted family: they will be my children. 

Wherever we are, wherever we go, whatever we do, we can join in with God’s mission to let everyone know that God is in the business of restoring relationships and preparing the world for the ultimate adoption celebration. 

[1] See Wright, C., The Mission of God: unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative (IVP, 2007).