The Universal Gospel and the Missionary Obligation of the Church
The basic premise or window to a missiological reading of the Lutheran Confessions is the programmatic statement in the Preface to the Book of Concord where the fathers, united in their efforts to lay down foundational statements for the con- cord of the Lutheran Church, raise their vision universally and jointly profess “to do and to continue to do everything that is useful and profitable to the increase and expansion of God’s praise and glory, to the propagation of that Word of his that alone brings salvation . . . and to the needed consolation and instruction of poor, misguided consciences.” What is foremost in the confessors’ mind is the “propagation of the gospel” (propagatio verbi ipsius) among the spiritually poor and confused, which not only serves the purpose to counteract mendacious calumnies and religious controversies, but becomes above all a matter of bringing salvation. This joint accord with the universal propagation of God’s word as it is believed and confessed provides the center stage for all further statements made in the individual confessions that corroborate, as well as provide further insight, into the confessors’ unfaltering commitment to the proliferation of God’s word. The obligation of the church to proclaim God’s word is embedded in the soteriology of the Lutheran Confessions, that is, what is believed of the condition of mankind and how it is overcome by what Christ did for the world. His sacrificial death on the cross and the fallen state of the world are both confessed as universal and world-embracing events, which in turn accounts for the church’s responsibility for the universal preaching of the gospel. The Third Article of the Augsburg Confession, “The Son of God,” understands his suffering, death, and burial as “a sacrifice not only for original guilt but also for all actual sins of men” (Ap. III, 3; Tappert, 122).
In Melanchthon’s article on justification in the Apology, Christ’s sacrificial death “is a price and propitiation, for the sins of the whole world.” “After the whole world was subjected,” Christ came and “took away the sin of the whole world” (Ap IV, 103; Tappert, 332). Therefore, while in the hamartiological motif of the Lutheran Confessions the whole world (totus mundus) is condemned under sin, Christ alone (solus Christus) is placed as its counterpart. These reflections have also found a place in the Formula of Concord’s article on election, in which the universal significance of the Christ event is demonstrated most clearly. For “it is not God’s will that anyone should be damned but that all men should turn themselves to him and be saved forever” (FC SD II, 49; Tappert, 530). Christ “testifies to all men without distinction that God wants all men who are laden and burdened with sin to come to him” (FC SD XI, 70; Tappert, 627). Within this universal framework of Christ’s life and death, the Formula of Concord affirms the missionary obligation of the church. After the statement that the whole world has been subjected to sin and that the proclamation of repentance and the promise of the gospel extends “over all men” [promissio evangelii est universalis], the commission immediately follows that “Christ has commanded to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name among all nations.” In a series of biblical citations the Great Commission is underlined: “It is Christ’s command that all in common to whom repentance is preached should also have this promise of the Gospel proclaimed to them (Luke 24:47; Mark 16:15)” (FC SD XI, 28; Tappert, 620–621).
If we move to Luther, the same can be said: From the promise of God’s grace flows the missionary obligation of the church. In his Smalcald Articles under the title “The Gospel” we read: “God is surpassingly rich in his grace: First, through the spoken word, by which the forgiveness of sin . . . is preached to the whole world” (SA III, IV; Tappert, 310). In an even more graphic explanation of the Third Article in his Large Catechism, Luther joins the missionary proclamation with the gospel: “In order that this treasure might not be buried but put to use and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to be published and proclaimed, in which he has given the Holy Spirit to offer and apply to us this treasure of salvation. . . . Where he does not cause the Word to be preached and does not awaken understanding in the heart, all is lost” (LC II, 38, 43; Tappert, 415, 416). With this in mind Luther prays his famous mission prayer: “Dear Father, we pray Thee, give us thy Word, that the Gospel may be sincerely preached throughout the world” (LC III, 54; Tappert, 427).
excerpt from Klaus Detlev Schulz, ‘Christ’s Ambassadors’
