What is the mission of God in the world? And how has Jesus engaged in that work? This is an exciting concept to consider. If the Lord hung a sign outside His shop with “God & Son” inscribed on it, what would that shop be producing? This is one way to think about it. The mission or work of God has been understood as the formation and redemption of all creation. Some have suggested that God’s redemptive work is an extension of the creation story rather than two distinct narratives that intersect at an apex. Rather than understanding the work of God the Father and Jesus the Son as a tag-team handoff, it can be understood as a cooperative work. It should be said here that this does not negate the work of the Spirit in the story of creation and redemption. Later in this article, I will briefly mention some critical notes on the work of the Spirit. However, we are looking specifically at cooperative work in these two areas of God the Father in Jesus.

It can be easy to read Genesis 1-2 and see the creation story as an act solely or at least primarily of God the Father. We must remember that the first two chapters of Genesis are not intended to be read in a vacuum. They are part of a larger God-inspired meta-narrative. This is even more apparent if we approach Scripture with the presupposition that Jesus is the primary character in the Bible, and all of Scripture is understood through that lens.

In some cases, reading the Bible requires careful interpretation, while in others, it is much more overt. The key to this understanding of Scripture is to read each Bible chapter in the context of the whole. Let’s return to the story of creation noted earlier. To read the first two verses of Genesis in the context of the entirety of Scripture, consider what we read in John chapter one. He, Jesus, “existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him” (John 1:2-3). As we reconcile these creation accounts, we see it was a cooperative work. In other places in the New Testament, we are given the benefit of additional commentary on the creation and work of the Father and the Son. The book of Colossians adds that God created all things through Jesus Christ.

Jesus does not merely observe what the Father is doing in the creation narrative. Jesus is actively participating in the creation. Some have interpreted this to mean that creation was conceived by the Father and carried out by the Son. Others have offered that God carefully directed the creation and that Jesus organized and formed it under the guidance of the Father. What is clear is that both the Father and the Son share in the work of creation. Remember that while this work is being accomplished, the Spirit hovers over the earth or the waters. What is the Spirit doing? Creating also appears to be the correct answer here. We can find some helpful direction in the creeds. 

The Nicene Creed affirms our belief in the Spirit as the Lord and giver of life. It was Irenaeus, a theologian who lived in the second century, who wrote that “The Spirit of God brooded over the face of the deep, so also that same Spirit brooded over the virgin’s womb to bring about the new creation, a new beginning for humanity and indeed for all things, through Jesus Christ.” I don’t know if we could ever unwind all that each member of the Trinity is doing in creation. There is cooperation and shared work. An oversimplification of what is happening can be stated this way: the Father is speaking creation into existence, the Son is creating all things as spoken by the Father, and the Spirit is giving life to that which the Father and Son are creating.

Creation is only one-third of God’s work as described in our second doctrine, where He is described as creator, preserver, and governor, and only half of what we understand to be God’s mission—the formation and redemption of creation. Through efforts to understand this concept of God’s redemptive work, the Church began to establish more formally the role of the Spirit in this work, particularly how it relates to the work of God the Father and God the Son. If you spend more than an hour in Sunday school, you will undoubtedly be instructed that Jesus died on the cross to take away our sins. The work of the Son in the redemptive story is as rudimentary as it is profound. Our doctrine teaches us that it is by Jesus’ suffering and death that a sacrifice has been made for mankind. At the heart of missional theology is the understanding that the Father sent the Son to make an atonement for humanity. It is the sending that is critical to the concept of mission. The Father sends the Son. Missional theology takes another step to say that the Father and the Son send the Spirit together. It should also be noted that the Father did not only send the Son to die but also raised Him from death as well. This is critical because, as Michael Lodahl wrote, “Apart from faith in Jesus’ resurrection, the forlorn and confused disciples certainly would never have thought of the Cross as anything but an absurd and tragic ending to a great prophet’s life.” It is the resurrection that had an incredible transformational influence on the formation of the Church and fills us who have been redeemed with hope for eternity.

As important as humanity’s redemption is, God’s mission is the redemption of all creation. Humanity was not the only casualty of the fall and sin. The fall sent deep veins of the consequences of sin through the far reaches of creation. As the writer of Romans has stated, creation was subjected to futility. However, creation longs for redemption. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21 ESV). It is this redemption or, as Romans puts it, “setting free” that is the work of the mission of God. It is a cooperative work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A work initiated by the Father, fulfilled in the Son and reassured us by the Spirit. Jesus’ work can be seen as a fulfillment of the work done earlier by the Father and their work together. 

Illustration by Matt Chinworth