Incarnational Ministry

I was having lunch with other missionaries on a mission compound in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I was enjoying getting to know these men and women that had given their lives in the service of the gospel in one of the poorest countries in the world. I was there with my friend Elias, and we were sharing with another missionary about the disabilities conference we were putting on for the churches in Addis. Joni Erickson Tada had come with us to Ethiopia to help us make the church aware of the need to reach out and care for those with disabilities among them. My role in the conference was to be a photographer and instructor on how the Bible calls us to serve “the least of these” among us. I told my new friend, “The conference is designed to equip churches with what they need to be able to serve the disabled all around them.” The missionary’s response was quite surprising: “Well, it’s all well and good to care for the poor and disabled, but that’s not the ministry of the church. The ministry of the church is to save lost souls.”

I was shocked. It doesn’t take but a glance on the streets of Ethiopia to see the pressing needs, yet as I spoke with this kind man, it became clear that for him there was a sharp division between body and soul, and gospel ministry was only about proclaiming a message by which souls would be saved (and, I presume, discipled). He reflects one side of the spectrum of how people understand gospel ministry. People simply need to be told they are sinners in need of grace, and the only way to have hope for eternal life after death is to trust in the atoning death of Jesus Christ on their behalf. Of course it is true that we need to hear this, but evangelism for some is thought of as a matter of plundering souls out of this world for heaven. Mercy ministry might be a good thing to do, but this world is going to be destroyed, so it is merely a platform for spiritual ministry—we feed the hungry so that they will sit and listen to the gospel. There may be no formal connection between “gospel ministry” and showing mercy to those in need.

I have also encountered missionaries from the other side of the spectrum. Here it seems that “gospel ministry” is nothing more than mercy ministry. This “social gospel” focuses on Jesus’ commands to minister to people’s physical needs—to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked and visit the sick and the imprisoned (Matt 25:35-40). Yet often times, any need to proclaim the gospel that people are sinners in need of the grace of Christ all but disappears. Ministry to people’s physical needs then replaces ministry to their spiritual needs. In other words, there may be no formal connection between “gospel ministry” and a need for the conversion of sinners.

I would like to suggest that both of these extremes fail to represent gospel ministry as it is presented to us in the New Testament. After all, the gospel is intended to correct a problem—a problem that began with Adam’s sin. God created the world and everything in it good, and he placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to fill the earth and govern His creation for His glory (Gen. 1:26-28). Yet at the Fall when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, human nature became subject to both sin (we are totally depraved) and suffering (we all experience both pain and misery), and the creation itself fell along with us in our sin (Gen. 3; Rom. 8:18-25). Yet, of course, this was not the end of the story. God intended from before the creation of the world to redeem what was lost in the Fall. He elected Israel out of the nations to be a light to the world, but the history of Israel actually culminates in the person of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

It is the incarnation that becomes the model for ministry the world. Jesus was born as a person with both body and soul; he ministered to us, died for us, and rose again from the dead in both body and soul. Where Adam disobeyed, Jesus fully obeyed God’s law to fully redeem all that was lost in the Fall. And He did so by becoming like us in every way, yet without sin. He entered our world, spoke our language, suffered our pain and died our death and rose again to secure our redemption. That redemption is not limited to saving souls for heaven. It includes the remaking of heaven and earth—“New Creation” as Paul calls it (2 Cor. 5:17)—and resurrecting all His people with renewed physical bodies as well as saved souls. Of course, that will not be completed until He returns, yet it should not be surprising that the Jesus who ministered to us as a whole person would call us to minister to others as whole people, including both body and soul, both in sin and suffering. For Jesus, gospel ministry anticipates the great climax of all history, when Christ will return and eradicate all sin and suffering from the world.

The apostle Paul summarized His ministry to the Corinthians as follows: “We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4:5). That statement brings together both sides of the spectrum into one focus. We cannot compromise the gospel message—Jesus came to deal with the sin of the world by giving Himself as the sacrifice for sin and rising again as Lord of heaven and earth. Yet we must also preach that message while giving ourselves as “your servants for Jesus’ sake.” Service and mercy are not just good tools to get people to listen to the gospel. When we serve each other and show mercy to those in need we give context and meaning to what we say when we tell others that salvation is to be found in the One who came “not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). It is a necessary outgrowth of gospel ministry.

Paul says this again in another way: “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us” (2 Thess. 2:8). For Paul, ministry flowed from love, since the Thessalonians had “become so dear” to him. Because of love, he delighted to share “the gospel of God” with them. However, he wasn’t satisfied with speaking words; he gave his life for those he loved. Evangelism was what overflowed from the love he had for the Thessalonians as he gave of his life for them as well. That’s incarnational ministry. We give ourselves for the sake of those around us, entering into their lives, their worlds, their sufferings, that the gospel might take flesh in their lives, and Christ might be exalted in the relationships we build.

In the mission of Christ’s church, we must keep both sides of this spectrum in one focus. Our primary aim in all Christian ministry is to love each other as Christians. Yet loving people as Christians means that we will, in appropriate times and ways, proclaim the gospel of God that “Jesus is Lord” and commit ourselves to become servants for Jesus sake—to “give our lives” for those we love. We cannot be satisfied either with serving physical needs with no gospel (the world can do that) or with sharing the gospel message without love expressed in service and mercy. After all, Jesus taught us, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matt 5:14-16).