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"MISSION IS WHAT THE BIBLE IS ALL ABOUT." 1 THIS STARTLING TRUTH— SHORT, SIMPLE, AND PROFOUND—CHANGES THE WAY WE READ THE BIBLE AND THE WAY WE THINK ABOUT GOD. IT CHANGES THE WAY WE VIEW OUR LIVES AS BELIEVERS AND THE WAY WE SEE THE CHURCH. Yet so few of us read the Bible as the story of God's mission. We tend to read it as a collection of stories, poems, wise sayings, and otherworldly visions that might somehow fit together even though we're not sure how. We skip the difficult, sometimes bizarre, stories in the Bible to get to the "good stuff"—those passages and verses providing glimpses into God's character that we find comforting or inspiring. In other words, we often read the Bible as if it were just a collection of sayings and affirmations about God. Or we read the Bible to find helpful lifestyle tips, as if it were a handbook for a happy life. We scour its pages for insights into how to manage our money, improve our marriages, raise our children, succeed at work, lead an organization, and even interpret today's news as signposts to the coming Apocalypse. What a tragedy. The Bible is far, far more than a collection of thoughts about God or tips for a happy life. When we pick up the Bible, we hold in our hands the one true story of God's involvement in human history and destiny. As Christopher J. H. Wright puts it, "The Bible renders to us the story of God's mission through God's people in their engagement with God's world for the sake of the whole of God's creation." 2 So if God's mission is what the Bible is all about, we have to ask, What is the mission of God? HEAVEN AND EARTH RESTORED The language of mission implies that God acts in human history with some end in mind, some purpose that He will accomplish. That end is revealed in the book of Revelation as "the new heaven and the new earth." That's when God declares, "Behold, I am making all things new!" (Rev. 21:1, 5). This new creation is described in ways remarkably similar to the original creation in the Garden of Eden. God, the source of all life, dwells on the earth with humanity, meeting all of their needs through the good things He has given them. Humanity lacks nothing; death, mourning, and pain are no longer present (Gen. 2:1–25; Rev. 21:4). But then the question emerges, Why did God have to recreate the heavens and earth? What happened that deprived humanity of the good earth and the life that God had created for them? Genesis 3:1–19 gives us the answer to that question. Humanity rebelled against God and found themselves cut off from the life He had created for them. Their rebellion introduced sin, evil, and death into the world. But not only did humanity suffer the consequences of their own rebellion, creation itself was degraded and became less than God intended it to be. The Bible is far, far more than a collection of thoughts about God or tips for a happy life. And so God intervened to rescue humanity and restore creation. That act of rescuing and restoring humanity is what the Bible calls "redemption." The story of the Bible is the story of God's redemptive engagement with humanity. His mission is to rescue and restore that which was lost through human rebellion—life in its fullest, life and creation as they were originally intended. And as John's vision of the new heavens ENGAGE 13 1 Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God, 2006. 2 Ibid. Toms93/iStock