It is immeasurably sweet, and awe-inspiring, to know that Jesus’s two natures are perfectly united in His one person. Jesus is not divided. He is not two people. He is one person. As the Chalcedonian Creed states, His two natures are without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation. Jesus is one.
What Is the Hypostatic Union? Copyright December 19, 2007, Used by permission. www.DesiringGod.org.
“Hypostatic union” sounds fancy in English, but it’s actually a simple term. Hypostatic means personal. The hypostatic union is the personal union of Jesus’s two natures. Jesus has two complete natures: one fully human and one fully divine. What the doctrine of the hypostatic union teaches is that these two natures are united in one person in the God-man. Jesus is not two persons. He is one person. The hypostatic union is the joining (mysterious though it be) of the divine and the human in the one person of Jesus.
What Is the Hypostatic Union? Copyright December 19, 2007, Used by permission. www.DesiringGod.org.
So many of us think about it the other way around. We think of church in terms of our serving God and receiving from others. But this is backwards. Sacrificial service in the church doesn’t start with serving. It starts with being served by God. Then as we are satisfied in Him and who He’s revealed Himself to be in His crucified Son, we gladly overflow in service of others.
David Mathis Served by God, Serving Man, Tabletalk, March, 2009, p. 68. Used by Permission.
The church that seeks to give to God and receive from others will suffocate faith and smother love. But if Jesus’ gospel takes root, we will gladly come to God to feast and drink. Then with our hands full and our thirst being quenched, we will most gladly do good to others, especially the church – those who are of the household of faith (2 Cor. 12:15; Gal. 6:10).
Served by God, Serving Man, Tabletalk, March, 2009, p. 69. Used by Permission.
Suffering is not only the consequence of completing the commission, but it is God’s appointed means by which He will show the superior worth of His Son to all the peoples. Just as it was “fitting that He…should make the founder of [our] salvation perfect through suffering” (Heb. 2:10), so it is fitting that God save a people from all the peoples from eternal suffering through the redemptive suffering of Jesus displayed in the temporal sufferings of His missionaries.
Missions by David Mathis taken from Don’t Call it a Comeback, edited by Kevin DeYoung, copyright 2011, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, p. 235.
Jesus spent over three years with His twelve disciples. He called them to be discipled at the outset of His ministry (Matt. 4:19), and He gave them the lion’s share of His life until His departure in Matthew 28. He invested His life in His men. It is amazing to track in the Gospels how much Jesus gave of Himself to His disciples. The crowds pursued Him, but He pursued His disciples. He was willing to bless the masses, but He invested in the few.
Missions by David Mathis taken from Don’t Call it a Comeback, edited by Kevin DeYoung, copyright 2011, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, p. 229.
Missions is the church’s sending out of missionaries (the sent ones) to pioneer the church among peoples who otherwise have no access of the gospel.
Missions by David Mathis taken from Don’t Call it a Comeback, edited by Kevin DeYoung, copyright 2011, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, p. 226.
It is profoundly loving for Jesus to exalt Himself. He cannot love the nations without putting Himself on display because it is He alone who truly satisfies the human soul. This makes God’s heart for God the deepest foundation from missions.
Missions by David Mathis taken from Don’t Call it a Comeback, edited by Kevin DeYoung, copyright 2011, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, p. 227.
Missions is about the worship of Jesus. The goal of missions is the global worship of Jesus by His redeemed people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. The outcome of missions is all peoples delighting to praise Jesus. And the motivation for missions is the enjoyment that His people have in Him. Missions aims at, brings about, and is fueled by the worship of Jesus.
Missions by David Mathis taken from Don’t Call it a Comeback, edited by Kevin DeYoung, copyright 2011, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, p. 225.