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From the very onset of the sin by Adam and Eve, God the Father responded not only with the necessary disciplinary action but also with a missionary heart!  In Gen 3:15, God rebuked the serpent, stating that “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.”  Already God was revealing His plan to defeat satan and offer salvation to the world through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

And God did not stop there either.  Another of countless episodes of God redeeming His people is recorded in Ex. 14.  The Israelites were encamped by the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s elite army pursuing them.  The terrified Israelites immediately lost faith in the God who delivered them out of Egypt.  The Lord then instructed Moses to raise his staff and stretch out his hands over the sea to divide the water to allow the Israelite passage through (Ex. 14:16).  But in Deut. 5:15, it becomes clear that the mighty hand and outstretched arm that delivered the Israelites out of Egypt belonged to the Lord, not Moses.

In the New Testament, Jn. 3:16-17 reaffirms God’s unchanging heart, in that He sent God the Son into the world not to condemn it, but to save it.  The gospel in the first four books of the New Testament are divine records of the missional Christ, sent by the Father, born as a human being, to make God the Father known to us (Jn. 17:25-26) and come to repentance in Him (2 Pet. 3:9) so that we can be reconciled with God the Father (Col. 1:22).

Acts 1:8 describes the role of God the Holy Spirit in empowering us to be Christ’s witnesses, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  And Jesus has also promised that the Holy Spirit will be with us forever (Jn. 14:16).

When Jesus Christ sent us into the world to be His witnesses, He did not send us out on our own.  The Holy Trinity is with each of us every step of the way.  We can step out in faith in our witness for the Lord by living exemplary lives and proclaiming the gospel with boldness (Acts 4:29).