Paul to offer man Christ's deliverance. Paul shared the radical
82 THE BIBLICAL BASIS
of his master. And if his master's graciousness led him to make gifts to others, it was the steward's business to see that the gifts were delivered. Paul was under obligation to all men, therefore, because he held the Gospel in trust for them. God had given him "srace and apostleship to bring about obedience to the faith for the sake of his name among all the nations" (Rom. 1:5). If he did not pass the Gospel on to others, he was keeping back that which belonged to them, and was thus recreant to his duty.
The missing persons bureau of a large city recently broadcasted a plea for knowledge of the whereabouts of a missing lady. Her father, from whom she had been separated years before, had died in a foreign country and left her a sizable estate. The frantic plea was for someone to locate her and give her the news of her good fortune, so that she could acquire her inheritance. Without owing her a debt in the sense of having received anything from her, whoever knew her whereabouts and had the knowledge of her legacy was under obligation to inform her of it, though he may never have seen her before. Likewise the Church, knowing of the rich inheritance left to all men by God, is under obligation to pass on the news to all. "For necessity is laid upon me," said Paul. "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Cor. 9:16). To know the Gospel, therefore, is to be obligated to mission.
The Predicament of Man
The need of man is justification for mission. Paul viewed man's need not from a human perspective, inspired by psychological and sociological analyses. His whole understanding of man was theological. Jesus Christ was for Paul the measure of man's depravity and his glory. To measure man by what Jesus was as a man is to
see how far short of God's glory man has fallen (Rom. 3:23). Yet the fact that in Jesus God became man reveals the glorious fact that man may become the dwelling place of God, the temple of His Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16 f.; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21).
1. The futility of man's life in alienation from God motivated Paul to offer man Christ's deliverance. Paul shared the radical view of man's alienation from God voiced in the Old Testament. Created as a creature to live under the sovereign will of a loving
Creator, man had sought to be independent of God and thus to be equal to Him (Gen. 3). Made in the "image" of God, man was