(Eph. 1:22 f., 4:4 ff.; 1 Cor. 12:12 ff.). A "body" is the organ of
Pauline Motives for the Christian Mission 79
turned Himself out toward man in relentless love. "When Israel was a child, I loved him . .. How can I give you up, O Ephraim?" (Hos. 11:1, 8), is a iaic which haunts every movement of the Old Testament symphony. But the love God had for Israel was His love for the world. "God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son" (Jn. 3:16) is simply the Old Testament refrain in a New Testament key.
No one grasped more clearly than Paul the nature of the Gospel
as invitation, God's summons to the whole world to be reconciled
to Him. Paul knew the radical nature of this unbelievable invitation because he knew the radical nature of man's situation. Man
is "estranged and hostile" to God, an outright "enemy" (Col. 1:21; Rom. 5:10). But God has acted in love which could not be destroyed by man's enmity. Entirely apart from anything man could do or desires to do, God has "reconciled to himself" all men "by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus"
(Col. 1:20; Rom. 3:24). If the very nature of the Gospel is the active seeking of God's reconciling love, then to believe this gospel
is, in our measure, to be the active agents of this reconciling love
to others.
The Nature of the Church
The nature of the Gospel determines the nature of the Church. As Emil Brunner has said, "The Church exists by mission, just as
a fire exists by burning." 14 Without flame, no fire; without mission, no Church!
1. This is clear when the Church is seen as the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22 f., 4:4 ff.; 1 Cor. 12:12 ff.). A "body" is the organ of expressing the will of its head, the active agent by which the impulses and desires of the head are given concrete form. The Church, then, is that body which exists to give continuous expression to the — will of God in Jesus Christ.
As such, the Church is the true heir of ancient Israel. Through Second Isaiah, God speaks of Israel as "the people whom I formed
for myself that they might declare my praise' (Is. 43:21). 'That
this declaration was not mere verbalizing but concrete action is made clear in that Israel was given "as a covenant to the people, © as a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out
4 Emil Brunner, The Word and the World (London: SCM Press, 1931),
p. 108.