Good News (Christianity) - Christian Mission

Christian Mission

The good news about Jesus, His atoning death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, had a central place in the growth of Christianity. The Apostle Paul taught that if Jesus was not raised to life from the dead, then the preaching of Paul and the other apostles is useless and they are false witnesses (1 Corinthians 15:14-15; Resurrection). In the early centuries after the time of Jesus, the good news spread from Judea to parts of Africa, Asia and Europe.

The Christian missions movement understands the Christian good news to be a message for all peoples, of all nations, tribes, cultures and languages. This movement teaches that it is through the good news of Jesus that the nations of humanity are restored to relationship with God; and that the destiny of the nations is related to this process. Missiology professor Howard A. Snyder writes, "God has chosen to place the Church with Christ at the very center of His plan to reconcile the world to himself (Ephesians 1:20-23),".

Another perspective is described in the writings of the Apostle Paul: is that it is through the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection, and the resulting worship of people from all nations, that evil is defeated on a cosmic scale. Reflecting on the third chapter of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Howard A. Snyder writes,

"God's plan for the church extends to the fullest extent of the cosmos. By God's 'manifold wisdom' the Church displays an early fullness of what Christ will accomplish at the conclusion of all the ages. The spectacle is to reach beyond the range of humanity, even to the angelic realms. The church is to be God's display of Christ's reconciling love,".