We are show-and-tell people. If you need proof, check your Instagram, LinkedIn, or X feed. It’s natural for people to show and tell others what they enjoy. This is not by accident; it is how God wired us as his image-bearers. God has been committed to showing and telling humanity what he is like through the apex of his creation, human beings, since he created the world. While humans have failed at the task, God has remained committed to his plan.
God’s Plan from the Beginning
In the Garden of Eden, God commissioned Adam to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). As image-bearers, God was calling them to multiply his presence through childbearing and evangelism. In the creation account, we see that God’s “plan A” is for his presence to spread throughout the earth through the apex of his creation, human beings. In Genesis 3, however, when Adam failed to resist the temptation and fell into sin, he failed to multiply God’s presence on the earth. While the decision to eat the forbidden fruit led to Adam and Eve’s removal from Eden, God did not change his plan for how his glory would spread throughout the earth. God remained committed to humans being the means of filling the earth with his glory.
People Fail
In many stories in the Bible, and in Dallas today, we see people constantly trying to make a name for themselves. The ancient city of Babel was no different. In Genesis 11, we read about humans from different nations who tried to make their name great. However, because of their pride, God came down, dispersed them across the earth, and confused their language. In the next chapter, God promised to make Abram’s name great: Abram and his descendants would be a light to the world to show what walking with God is supposed to be like. However, Abraham, like Adam and before him, failed to obey God’s command. God’s plan went unchanged, and he still used Abraham’s offspring to multiply and fill the earth.
In Exodus 19, after God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, he referred to them as a “kingdom of priests” (v. 6). The priests in the Old Testament were the mediators between God and the people. In other words, the people of Israel were to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). The rest of the world could know God through the people of Israel. In response to the initial call, Israel answered together and said, “All that the Lord says we will do” (Exodus 19:8). It did not take long for them to fail in keeping their promise, and for the rest of the Old Testament, we see Israel fail time and time again. As the Old Testament concludes, we are left asking, “Will anyone be able to fulfill the command to be fruitful and multiply?”
God the Great Evangelist
When we turn to the New Testament, the genealogy of Jesus presents him as the son of Abraham . . . the son of Adam . . . the son of God (Luke 3:23-38). God was still committed to using image-bearers to spread his glory throughout the earth. Throughout Jesus’s ministry, we see him reversing the effects of the fall, healing the sick, caring for the poor, and proclaiming the kingdom of God. Where Adam, Abraham, and Israel failed in their responsibility to fill the earth with God’s glory, Jesus succeeded. His reward? A humiliating death on a cross. But, on the third day, he rose from the dead, conquering sin and death, and 40 days later, ascended to the right hand of the Father. In the Lord Jesus, we see God acting as the Great Evangelist. Right before his ascension, Jesus promised, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Jesus is with us.
While we spend the summer thinking about living missionally through evangelism, meditate on the last words of the Great Commission. In our endeavor to evangelize the lost people in our lives, Jesus, the Great Evangelist, is with us. Without remembering that Jesus is with us by his Spirit, we will fail like Adam, Abraham, and the nation of Israel in our evangelism efforts. God is committed to his plan of covering the earth with his presence, and he is committed to his people, the body of Christ, being the ones who spread that presence.