This is an analytical book review of Christopher Wright’s The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative.
Rev. Dr. Christopher Wright’s passion is bringing life to the “relevance of the Old Testament to Christian mission and ethics.” In addition to his current role as the Director over Langham Partnership International after John Stott’s death, he has experience as a High School teacher, theological professor, and as an ordained minister with the Anglican Church of England.
The Mission of God is a magnum opus describing the mission of God. In other words, the thesis of this book is not only that Christian mission is firmly grounded in Scripture, but also that Scripture is most accurately read through a hermeneutical framework that is centered on the mission of God (26). In other words, “God’s mission is what fills the gap between the scattering of the nations in Genesis 11 and the healing of the nations in Revelation 22” (455).
Wright navigates readers through his comprehensive study of the mission of God by dividing his book into four parts: The Bible and Mission, The God of Mission, The People of Mission, and The Arena of Mission. In the first part, Wright describes what a missiological hermeneutic of the Bible entails. He argues that individuals need to understand the Bible’s grand metanarrative, and also that the proper way to read the Bible is messianically and missionally (31). In the second part, Wright unpacks the identity, uniqueness, and universality of the God of Israel and Jesus Christ and the ensuing implications for mission (27). He finishes the section by paying attention to the opposition of the mission of God – idols and gods. In the third part, one discovers that the primary agent of the mission of God is the people of God. This is noticeable by examining the biblical covenants and the narrative of Scripture. Wright finishes his magnum opus by concentrating on the Arena of Mission – the earth, humans, and all culture and nations.
There have only been a few books that I have read and come away with a sense of awe, humility, and a passion to reread it and act on what I have read – The Mission of God is the most recent.
It was difficult to read this book in a continuous manner because I had to periodically stop and consider the ways he was challenging my view of Scripture, faith, and how I am leading and teaching people. His treatment on worldviews and the narcissism pervading Western culture and Western Christianity had the greatest impact on me.
So often have I tried to put God into my own life and goals, when I should really be considering where my minute life fits into the grand story of God’s mission (533-534).
As a result, the question is not, where is the greatest need for the gospel and how can my gifts and talents serve to advance the gospel and make the gospel relevant to this world, but it is about realizing, first of all, that God is already on mission and that he is graciously allowing me to be his “co-worker” (1 Cor 3:9).
Secondly, I need to realize that the only reason I have my gifts and talents are because God gave them to me in order to participate in his mission, they are not for my own use, or to build up my own name. Thus, in humility, I need to understand that there is nothing that I can do to make the gospel relevant to the world because, in reality, God is “transforming the world to fit the shape of the gospel” (534).
In other words, once I begin to understand that I am a part of the grand metanarrative of the mission of God, my life ceases to be about “what kind of mission God has for me,” and begins to be all about “what kind of me God wants for his mission” (534). This changes everything. As a result, when I examine new methods to engage people in community, or pray about what to teach those I am leading, or where I should lead them, the question is not about whether these things will fit into my church’s mission. Instead, the question is, are these things going to develop my church into the kind of church God expects for his mission (534)?
So all in all, I give this book a 5 out of 5.