During my ten years of Bible study in UBF, I was taught many wonderful truths. Some of those truths led me into a personal relationship with my Lord Jesus, helped me to accept His forgiveness, and become a new creation in Him. However, mixed in with those wonderful, timeless truths, there were elements that I’d call “the gospel of mission.” See how the “gospel of mission” as I understood it compares and contrasts with the gospel as I’m learning about it now:
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The gospel of Jesus Christ |
The gospel of mission |
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| The character of God: | My daddy (Abba, Father) | My commander-in-chief |
| Man’s original state: | Created for loving fellowship with the Triune God and with other men | Created as servants and “care-takers” of God’s world. |
| Man’s sin: | Rejection of God’s loving authority | Disobedience towards God’s command |
| Consequences of sin: | Eternal estrangement from God; damnation to eternal hell | Loss of purpose and meaning in life; suffering meaninglessness and despair. |
| The way of salvation: | Accomplished by Jesus Christ once and for all through the cross | Accomplished by Jesus Christ, but requires the continuing obedience of the saved |
| Forgiveness: | All sins—past, present and future—are forgiven once and for all in the cross. | Repentance and public confession is required to be forgiven. |
| Redemption: | Salvation from eternal hell and entrance into eternal heaven. | Restoration of my purpose and meaning in life |
| Justification: | God’s declaration of “not guilty” because of the propitiation of Christ | God’s declaration of “not guilty” because of the sinner’s acceptance of Christ’s call |
| Sanctification: | The continuing work of the Holy Spirit within those who are in Christ | The continuing struggle to be filled with the Holy Spirit (see “Holy Spirit”). |
| Glorification: | We will be like Christ and with Christ in glory | We will be rewarded for our labors in glory |
| Repentance: | Ongoing conformance to the leading of the Holy Spirit | Ongoing personal struggle to overcome sin |
| Atonement: | Restored relationship with God through the mediation of Christ | Restored calling to serve God following the example of Christ |
| The gospel message: | Good news for the salvation of those who believe | A command to preach to a lost world (“gospel spirit”) |
| God’s providence: | The irrevocable decree of God for the salvation of the elect. | The irrevocable call of God to a particular mission or ministry |
| The Church: | Those who declare Jesus Christ as Lord | Those who share the same mission |
| Holy Spirit: | The third person of the Trinity; the Spirit of Jesus Christ given to those who in Christ | A “force” or “energy” that enables us to accomplish God’s work. Those who are full of energy towards God’s work are “full of spirit;” those who are not have “lost the spirit” and require recharging. |
| Marriage and the family: | God’s creation for the blessing of man; a shadow of the divine relationship with God; a building-block of human society and government. | God’s creation for the sake of accomplishing His mission in the world; subordinate to the “spiritual family”—that is, members of the same mission. |
- Can certain aspects of the “gospel of mission” be good? Why or why not?
- How has the “gospel of mission” influenced your Christian walk? Your church?
Think fast: what is the #1 most popular Bible verse in UBF? I think that those who have studied the Bible in UBF, who have attended UBF wedding ceremonies, read UBF mission reports, or just read the ubf.org website might answer: Genesis 12:1-3. The study of this passage has a prominent part in the Bible studies in UBF. The famous Genesis group Bible studies of Sarah Barry perhaps kick-started the early portions of the UBF ministry in Korea.
I was taught this passage from the NIV, which reads:
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you. (emphasis mine)
In the Bible study, I was encouraged to respond to God’s call like Abraham did, to leave my connections to my pre-UBF life and go to “…the place [God] will show [me],” which meant UBF ministry and campus mission. If I obeyed, I was told “…all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” When I married, Dr. John Jun delivered our wedding address from Genesis 12:3, exhorting us to be a family of blessing who not merely enjoys God’s blessing but becomes a blessing to others. I was encouraged, “Become a source of blessing to other people like Abraham.” Of course, the best method of being a blessing—we were taught—is to go to the university campus and invite students to 1:1 Bible study, shepherding as many of them as possible so that they too may “become a blessing” by doing the same. The best method of being a blessing certainly did NOT involve much consideration for my own family.
But how correct is our interpretation of Gen 12:3? Did the Bible translation affect the way this verse was interpreted? Consider the way the NASB translates verse 3:
And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (emphasis mine)
Notice that the word translated “people” in the NIV is translated “families” in the NASB. It is also translated “families” in the ESV, NLT, NRSV, and KJV. In fact, among the popular English translations, only the NIV uses the generic word “people” instead the more-specific word “families”. The Hebrew word is mishpachah. It occurs 301 times in the Old Testament, 177 times indicating family or families, 100 times indicating clan, and only 4 times indicating an unspecific group of people. While I don’t pretend to be an expert on Biblical Hebrew or exegesis, isn’t it interesting that the NIV, which is the main-stay English translation of UBF in North America, does not use the word families? Is it merely a coincidence that this arguably most-popular text in UBF avoids the word “family,” preferring to use “people”? Considering the accounts of Chris, big bear, myself, and others of how families in UBF have sometimes been neglected, abused, and disregarded, it begs the questions:
- Does our choice of Bible translation affect the way we interpret certain passages?
- Could the choice of Bible translation contribute to the pressure felt by many present and former UBFers to “…sacrifice family on the altar of UBF campus mission”?
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[Admin note: Don’t like talking about UBF so much? Then let’s talk about the gospel! Here is another article submitted to us regarding Christian life and how the gospel of Jesus impacts our life.] I entered UBF when I was seventeen years old. I had just finished a disastrous break-up with a high school girlfriend that had left me with overwhelming guilt and shame because of the impurity of our relationship. I was disgusted with my life-dominating sin problems, and I earnestly prayed for God’s help to change.In what I believe was an answer to this prayer, God led me to 1:1 Bible study in UBF. My Bible teacher helped me to confront my sin in repentance and receive forgiveness. I entered a very in-depth program of Bible study, testimony writing, evangelism, outreach, prayer, attending meetings, and so on. It kept me busy so that I had no time to sin. Testimony writing gave me opportunities to examine myself and see where I had sinned.
Bible teachers trained me in various ways to help me grow. When I exhibited pride, I was given the name “Humble.” When I struggled with lust, I was given a purity ring and encouraged to wear it as a reminder to be pure. These things are not bad necessarily, but the result was bad: I began to assess my spiritual condition according to how well-managed my sin was. Once I was told that my connection to God is like a pipe through which His love flows, and sin blocks up the pipe. I became so preoccupied with unblocking the pipe, I never stopped to realize that there was no water flowing through it anyway.
Nowadays, the Holy Spirit is leading me to realize that my Christian life is more than just overcoming my brokenness. It is about Jesus, who bore my brokenness on the cross and rose again to set me free to love him and others. All the training, repentance testimonies, and self-inspection couldn’t bring real freedom. It could only manage my sin—ensuring it didn’t get out of control. But Jesus, beautiful Jesus, and His precious holy blood transfuses my heart with a rich and eternal flow that emancipates, enlivens, empowers, enriches, and establishes me secure in His love forever! (That alliteration is for you, Ben!)
How about you? Has your focus been on managing sin or receiving real freedom in Jesus to love God and others?
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I joined UBF in September, 2002 when I was seventeen years old. After serving the Lord for nearly 10 years, God led me to say farewell in August, 2012. God has allowed me in the past six months to learn a lot about myself and the myriads of ways in which UBF was an instrument to bring both overflowing blessings and profound pain. I wanted to share a few of the truths that have been learned in and out of UBF. It goes without saying that this is an incomplete list.
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Acts 20:35 says, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” This principle was beautifully illustrated by God’s people in UBF. I was the joyful recipient of many generous gifts: gifts of people diligently praying for me; gifts of my pastor personally taking time to teach me God’s word for hours each week; gifts of delicious meals; and also thoughtful—and frequently unexpected—presents (“Underwear? Oh, um, thanks!”)
When I was struggling and in the darkest days of shame and despair, my pastor gave his home for me to live with his family for several months. When I was struggling to support my young family as a student, he and others gave generous gifts to supply our need. Through each gift, prayer, Bible study, and encouragement, this message clearly resounded: giving is a blessing. The surpassing blessedness of giving became evident. I saw the blessedness of living a life of giving. Upon leaving UBF and watching other Christians in other churches, I began to appreciate this lesson as I saw that not all Christians have so joyfully learned this lesson. I’m thankful that through the giving hearts of the generous people in UBF, God helped to learn joy and blessedness of giving.
Being regimented is different than being disciplined
In UBF, I tried my best to faithfully attend devotions and prayer at 6 am. I did my best to faithfully reflect and write a testimony on each Sunday passage, evangelize on campus, prepare and teach the Bible to my Bible students, attend the required meetings, and attend and serve the Sunday service. It seemed that I was very disciplined and devoted in my spiritual life. However, after leaving UBF—after I was no longer required to attend meetings, serve students, write testimonies, and go fishing—I almost completely stopped reading my Bible or spending time in prayer. To my surprise, I wasn’t so disciplined after all!
I have come to realize that, in actual fact, I was regimented, not disciplined. I had responded well to externally-imposed regiments like devotions, testimony-writing, and Bible study, but I had not actually become disciplined in my inner person. Indeed, perhaps it was because I was so regimented that my true undisciplined self was able to remain hidden. Were the externally-imposed things such as daily bread and Bible study wrong or bad? By all means no, and truly they helped me a great deal. But while helping me, these things also hindered me from seeing the true condition of my personal relationship with Jesus. And most dangerously, they oh-so-subtly and implicitly planted the notion that by continuing to do these things—and lo, by doing them more and more—my inner person will somehow be changed.
What truths have you learned?
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