There are an estimated 2.74 billion people in the world who have no access to the gospel. They have no access to the hope of forgiveness and salvation. They have no knowledge of Jesus, the Son of God who came to restore sinners back to a right relationship with God so they can worship and adore Him. No hope. Does that stir your heart at all? These are real people; mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers entering a Christless eternity. How can we ignore this? What excuse is big enough to ignore these people as they cry out for hope? In this blog, we are going to look into Scripture seeking the heart of God regarding the nations. It shouldn’t take long for us to see that God’s heart beats for His glory among the nations. Among the many reasons that we as Christians should care about the nations, we will look at just three: because God cares, because God has a plan, and because You are a part of God’s plan.
We should care about the nations because God cares.
In fact, God cares a lot about the nations, more than we can even fathom. God cares so much, that He sent His only Son Jesus to die for the sins of the nations. For all man has sinned against God and no man can stand before Him in judgement as all have broken his law. Therefore, since we are completely hopeless in restoring our relationship with God on our own, He chose to provide a propitiation to make salvation effective for His people. And we know that from Scripture, His people includes representatives from every nation, and tribe, and tongue and people (Rev 5:9, 7:9). So the gospel is designed to be proclaimed to all peoples on earth so that representatives from every nation will be purchased by the blood of the Lamb and respond with faith and repentance. God’s love is not limited to one people group or country or nation, but God’s love has been shown through the cross to people from every nation on earth! Since God cares this much to provide His own Son’s death as a ransom, shouldn’t we be a reflection of God’s heart to the world?
We should care about the nations because God has a plan.
As we read through Scripture, it’s hard to miss the fact the God already has a plan to redeem people from every nation. As we saw in Revelation 5:9, there will be representatives from every nation on earth who will be in heaven. So when and where was this plan established? Two-thousand years ago Jesus‘ last words before ascending into heaven were:
“but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, NASB)
Jesus gives us clear insight into the heart of God: we will be His witnesses to the remotest part of the earth. A 2000 year old plan would certainly be a well established plan. Even so, let’s look further back into the Scriptures 3000 years ago. David wrote Psalm 96 in which we see clearly God’s heart for the nations.
“Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD all the earth. Sing to the LORD, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all peoples.” (Psalm 96:1-3, NASB)
Again, we see clearly God’s desire for His glory in salvation among all nations and peoples. Let’s look even further back to Abraham. This is about 4000 years ago. God made a unilateral promise to Abraham that we can find five times in the book of Genesis. God says to Abraham:
“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall you name be called Abram, But you name shall be Abraham; For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” (Gen 17:4-5, NASB)
Living in New Testament times, we have the advantage of being able to understand the Old Testament in light of the New Testament writings. In Galatians we read about the fulfilling of the Abrahamic as the gospel being received by the Gentiles (indicating the nations).
“The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed in you.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.” (Gal 3:8-9, NASB)
A 4000 year old plan would be a very established plan, no doubt. But God’s plan for the nations is much older than even that. God’s plan for the nations has actually been established before the foundations of the earth! Before Jesus came to earth, before the establishment of Israel, before the fall of man, even before creation; God had a plan to save the nations. Remembering that there are representatives from every nation on earth, read Rev 13:8 and 21:24-27. From these passages we learn that the book of life of the Lamb who was slain was written before the foundations of the earth (13:8) and in it stores the names of all those who will be saved (21:24-27). We can conclude then since there are people from every nation who will be saved and the names of those are written in the book of the Lamb who was slain and that this book was written before the foundations of the world, that God has had the nations on his heart from before the earth was created. Shouldn’t we reflect God’s heart to the world?
We should care about the nations because we are a part of God’s plan.
How does God go about executing his plan for the nations? Through Christian witness. Through you. God has chosen to use the preaching of the gospel through Christians as the normal means by which He gathers His elect from the nations. We know the gospel message is critical in salvation. James 1:18 says, “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth...” The gospel message is the means by which people are brought forth. The Holy Spirit is active in this process by regenerating those who God will save and illuminating the gospel message to result in faith and repentance. The missionary Paul lays this out straight-forward in his letter to the Roman church:
“How will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!’ However, they did not all heed the good news, for Isaiah says, ‘Lord who has believed our report?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Rom 10:14-17, NASB)
How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? God has chosen to use the preaching of the gospel as the normative means by which people are saved. Can you believe that our God is so good to let us be a part of drawing sinners to Himself? We get to be on the front lines of spiritual warfare and get to see God awaken the dead unto salvation. What greater thing can we live for than to see God glorified by people from every tribe, tongue and nation? All we do is preach the gospel and then we get to watch the Holy Spirit work. We should thank God that He has chosen to use us to accomplish His purpose.
How will God use you to accomplish the gathering of the elect from every nation? Will you be the preacher? Will you go to the front lines and preach? Or will you send those who will go preach? By neglecting either of these two roles, you are neglecting to reflect the heart of God. In other words, you are being disobedient to God. God is passionate about gathering His people. God is worthy to receive worship from all all people, and one day all will worship Him. But first, He has His elect from all nations on earth who need to be preached to so that they can worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. What will your role be? How will God use you?
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