Why does God work through a chosen people to bring salvation to the nations rather than simply offer that salvation directly to all peoples? If God desires to redeem a great multitude from all nations (Rev 7:9–10), then he could have engaged those nations directly, without any kind of human mediator standing in between. In other words, why does God choose the family of Abraham (and later the New Testament church) to be the vehicle of his redemptive purposes among all nations? Why not work out his redemptive purpose for each nation directly?
Lesslie Newbigin’s Answer
Lesslie Newbigin provides a compelling answer to that question. He argues that God desires not just to bind humanity to himself in covenant relationship, but also to bind the nations to one another in that process. However, such a binding together of humanity in covenant relationship would not necessarily occur if God were to provide salvation to the nations directly, apart from any human mediatorial agent (i.e., his chosen people). If, on the other hand, the Word of salvation comes to people through other human agents, then the reception of salvation not only establishes them in covenant relationship to God but also connects and binds them to those through whom they received the gospel message.
Newbigin roots this answer to the question in the Bible’s view of human nature: “The human in the Bible exists only in relationship with other persons and only as part of the created world.… In contrast to those forms of spirituality that seek the ‘real’ self by looking within, the Bible invites us to see the real human life as a life of shared relationships in a world of living creatures and created things, a life of mutual personal responsibility for the created world.”[1] In fact, the Bible not only begins with this reality but also ends with a vision of such relational mutuality playing out on a cosmic level. This relational aspect of human nature, moreover, derives from God’s nature. As Newbigin points out, “Interpersonal relatedness belongs to the very being of God.”[2] God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and thus interrelatedness is part of God’s character. In Newbigin’s words, “God is no solitary monad.”[3] That is, he is not an isolated unit that exists without relationship.
So, how does the biblical view of human nature—as well as the nature of God—relate to the question of why God chooses to work through a particular people to bring the Word of salvation to all peoples? Newbigin explains more fully,
“The biblical insistence that God’s universal purpose of salvation is accomplished through the choosing of particular people arises from this fundamental insight concerning human nature. If each human being is to be ultimately understood as an independent spiritual monad, then salvation could only be through an action directed impartially to each and all. But if the truly human is the shared reality of mutual and collective responsibility that the Bible envisages, then salvation must be an action that binds us together and restores for us the true mutual relation to each other and the true shared relation to the world of nature. This means that the gift of salvation would be bound up with our openness to one another. It would not come to each, direct from above, like a shaft of light through the roof. It would come from the neighbor in the action by which we open the door to invite the neighbor in. But the neighbor would have to be sent (Rom 10:14). There would have to be one called and chosen to be bearer of the blessing. The blessing is intended for all. But the blessing itself would be negated if it were not given and received in a way that binds each to the other. God’s way of universal salvation, if it is to be addressed to human beings as they really are and not to the unreal abstraction of a detached ‘soul,’ must be accomplished by way of election—the choosing, calling, and sending one to be the bearer of blessing for all.”[4]
Toward the Binding of Peoples Together
According to Newbigin, God desires humanity to live in harmony not just with him but also with one another. Yet Adam and Eve’s rebellion derailed that plan and rendered humans and their relationships under the curse of sin. God’s plan for redeeming a multitude from every nation therefore proceeds by reconciling humans not only to God but also to one another. In God’s wisdom, it is mission through election—the choosing of a particular people to bring the blessing of salvation to others—that accomplishes those aims.
In other words, because God created humanity to live in community, it should therefore be no surprise that God’s way of reconciling humanity to himself would also draw people together in community, as the gospel message flows from one to another rather than directly from above.
Only in this way, according to Newbigin, will nation be bound to nation in the kind of mutual affection and relatedness that reflects the character and heart of God. Only in this way will those who receive salvation be “knit together with other persons in a shared participation in and responsibility for God’s world.”[5] Only in this way will the relational enmity of sin’s curse be put asunder. Only in this way can we declare, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28).
[1] Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 69.
[2] Newbigin, Open Secret, 70.
[3] Newbigin, Open Secret, 70.
[4] Newbigin, Open Secret, 70–71.
[5] Newbigin, Open Secret, 77.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
