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New Birth: The Fuel of Missions · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reform thinking. It's good.
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To be here. We have a a really significant
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topic on the table today. We're looking at a piece of
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writing that frankly challenges a lot of the modern assumptions
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about what Christian missions actually look like.
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It certainly does. It just, you know, it cuts right
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through the noise of strategies and logistics and goes straight
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to the heart of the matter. It asks the question what is the
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engine under the hood? And the article we're going to
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be unpacking is titled New Birth.
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The Fuel of Missions is written by Jonathan Master.
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And for those who might not be familiar with him, Jonathan
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Master is the president of Greenville Presbyterian
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Theological Seminary. So he's someone who thinks very
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seriously about the intersection of, you know, theology and
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practice. He isn't writing from an ivory
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tower. He's writing about how this high
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level doctrine actually hits the pavement.
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And that's exactly what this article feels like.
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It's a bridge between a high theological concept, the
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doctrine of regeneration, and the very practical, on the
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ground work of sending people out to share the gospel.
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Which is a necessary bridge to build.
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I mean, so often we keep those two things in separate silos.
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We have systematic theology over here and missiology over there.
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Masters just smashing that wall down.
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So let's start with the hook here.
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When most people you know, what do you think of missions?
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What comes to mind if I say missionary?
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What's the immediate mental image?
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For most, it's probably action or geography.
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Usually it's a map, right? It's geography.
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It's a plane ticket. It's the act of going somewhere.
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Or doing something, digging a well, building a school,
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preaching A sermon. It's very, very action oriented
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in our minds. But Master flips that
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immediately. Yeah, he argues that missions
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isn't primarily about going or doing.
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Yeah, it starts with being. Specifically, being born again.
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And that is the whole game right there.
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The thesis here is fascinating. He calls the doctrine of the new
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birth The Fountainhead. That is the keyword, The
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Fountainhead. It's such a perfect analogy.
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And everything else, the going, the preaching, the endurance, it
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all flows from that single source.
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Yeah, and if you get that wrong, or if you ignore it, the entire
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missionary enterprise collapses. It might look busy on the
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outside, but it has no steam. It's a car without an engine.
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I mean, you can push it downhill for a little while, but it is
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not driving anywhere under its own power.
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So for this deep dive, we're going to walk through this
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argument step by step. We're going to look at what the
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new birth actually is, how it defines A missionary's identity,
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the the terrifying possibility of an unconverted minister,
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which is a story we absolutely have to get to, and then the
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specific methods that logically follow this doctrine.
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It's a logical progression. That's what I really appreciate
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about masters writing. It's not a collection of
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thoughts, it's a chain of logic. If A is true, then B must follow
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all. Right, let's start at the
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beginning then. Section 1, The Fountainhead.
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We need to define our terms. When Master talks about new
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birth or regeneration, what are we actually talking about?
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He's drawing on a just a wealth of biblical imagery here.
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He describes it as a change from the inside out.
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This isn't just, you know, turning over a new leaf or
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deciding to be a better person. It's not behavioral
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modification. No, not at all.
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It is a supernatural act. Master points out that this is
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brought about by God's Holy Spirit and by His Word.
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It is God doing the work, not us.
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He brings us straight to Jesus's words in John chapter 3.
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He has to verse 3. Unless one is born again, he
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cannot see the Kingdom of God. That is such a categorical
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statement, there's no wiggle. Room there it is absolute.
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There's no seeing the Kingdom, let alone working for the
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Kingdom, without this fundamental God wrought change.
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I want to go back to that word fountainhead that master uses.
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It is such a specific image. A fountainhead.
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Is the spring the actual source where begins right?
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And think about the implication of that analogy.
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If you are downstream, the quality of the water, the very
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existence of the water, depends entirely on The Fountainhead.
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If the source dries up. The river dries up if the source
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is polluted, the river is polluted.
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It's that simple. So masters arguing that
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missions, all of it is the stream.
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Correct missions is the stream that flows out of the reality of
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the new birth. If you try to have the stream
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without the source, you are just digging a dry ditch.
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It might look like a riverbed, but there's no life in it.
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That puts a tremendous amount of weight on this one doctrine.
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It's not just one item on a theological checklist.
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No, it's the prerequisite for everything, and Master connects
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this directly to identity. He takes us right over to 1st
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John Chapter 5. Everyone who has been born of
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God overcomes the world. And verse one as well, Everyone
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who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.
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This creates a family dynamic. It's a whole new identity.
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Master points out that Christians share an inheritance.
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The text mentions Christ as our elder brother.
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Which is a beautiful biblical way to view it.
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If we are born of God, we are adopted into the family.
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We share the status of the Son. That is our core identity.
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So a missionary isn't just an employee of an agency or a
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social worker with a Bible. They are a child of God going
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out to find other potential children of God.
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But here is where the rubber meets the road Master issues a
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pretty stark warning here about syncretism.
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Yes, this is where the identity argument gets applied to real
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world, often messy mission field issues.
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And for you listening, syncretism is essentially
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blending different religions or beliefs together.
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Right. It's saying we can follow Jesus,
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but we can also keep worshipping these local gods, or we can mix
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the gospel with these cultural idols.
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It's a compromise. And master says absolutely not.
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He says that this new identity being born of God is completely
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undermined. If we allow that, his argument
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is again logic based. You cannot share inheritance
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with Christ and fail to own His name exclusively.
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You can't be part of the family and deny the head of the.
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Family precisely. If the new birth is real, if it
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has actually happened, it creates an allegiance that is
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exclusive. It overcomes the world.
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It does not accommodate the world's false worship.
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So any mission movement that down plays the exclusivity of
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Christ or allows for the worship of false gods alongside Jesus.
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Has forgotten the doctrine of the new birth.
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They've polluted The Fountainhead.
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It seems like we often want to make the gospel easier to
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swallow, you know, so we might soften those edges.
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But Master is saying that denies the very nature of who we now
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are in Christ. It denies the spiritual DNA of
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the new birth. It's a fundamental
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contradiction. Now this leads us into probably
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the most jarring section of the article.
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For me, and I think for a lot of people in ministry, it will be.
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We are talking about the danger of the unconverted minister.
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It's a historical reality that I think we often prefer to forget.
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Master tells the story of Thomas Chalmers.
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Can you, can you walk us through that?
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Thomas Chalmers was a very famous Scottish minister in the
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19th century, a huge figure, and the key detail here is that he
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was already ordained, he was already preaching every Sunday.
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He was, by all professional standards, a minister of the
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Gospel. He had the job, he had the
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title, he had the. Pulpit, but by his own admission
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later in life, he had not been born again at that time.
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That is just terrifying. It should be.
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He was doing the work of the ministry without the spiritual
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life that is supposed to fuel it.
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He was a professional clergyman, but he was, in his own words,
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spiritually dead. And eventually he was converted.
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He was, and it revolutionized everything about his ministry,
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his preaching, his passion. Everything changed.
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But Master uses this anecdote to force Acela Moment, a moment of
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pause for the reader, for all of us.
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He challenges us to consider our own state.
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It's a direct call to self examination and it's not just
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for missionaries on the field. It's for pastors, elders, church
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leaders, donors. Just because you're involved in
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the work does not guarantee you're born again.
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It is possible to preach the gospel without a living
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knowledge of Christ. That's the phrase Master uses,
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and it is a chilling thought. You can deliver the mail without
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ever reading the letter. You can be a tour guide who
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points the way to a city you have never actually visited
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yourself. So what is the remedy?
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Master doesn't just leave us in the terror of that thought.
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No. He points immediately to the
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urgency and the availability of salvation.
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He quotes 6 Corinthians 6.2. Now is the acceptable time.
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Now is the day of salvation. And John 6.37.
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Whoever comes to me, I will not cast out.
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That's the balance, isn't it? The warning is severe.
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You must be born again. And that italics is in the text
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you must. It is not optional, it's a
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divine command. But the invitation is wide open.
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The door is open right now. It is, the text emphasizes, that
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there is a day of judgement coming.
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It puts the stakes in perspective.
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This is why Missions is not hobby because eternity is real
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and for the missionary themselves, their own soul is on
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the line. Master is basically saying,
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before you go to save the world, make absolutely certain that you
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know the Savior. This focus on the internal state
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of the missionary. This leads directly into the
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next logical point, which is the question of character and
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qualification. Which is section three of our
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discussion. The Who?
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Master makes a clear link between the new birth and
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sanctification. Again, you can see the
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theological flow. New birth is the starting line.
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It is the moment of life. Sanctification is the process of
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growing up. It's the growth in holiness that
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naturally necessarily follows a true spiritual birth.
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You don't stay a baby forever. Spot on.
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If there is life, there will be growth, and Master argues that
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because the new birth is The Fountainhead of sanctification,
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character matters immensely. You cannot separate the message
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from the messenger's life. He brings up a biblical model
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for this Acts 13. The first missionary journey,
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Paul and Barnabas. I mean, these are the heavy
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hitters. This is the prototype.
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They are and notice the process. The Holy Spirit set them apart.
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The text says. Set apart for me Barnabas and
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Saul for the work to which I have called them.
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Master points out that these weren't random volunteers who
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just raised their hands. Right.
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They were not men of questionable character.
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They were not untrained novices. They were leaders in the church
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at Antioch. They were proven.
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They were qualified. The Spirit chose qualified men.
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I think this touches on a nerve in modern missions.
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Master discusses the tendency to well to lower the bar.
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It's a very common temptation and you can almost understand it
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from a human perspective. We look at the world, we see the
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billions of unreached people and we think we just need bodies, we
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need boots on the ground. Anyone will do?
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It's the warm body theory of recruitment.
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Precisely. And we can have these very high
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standards for a pastor in an established church back home,
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you know, seminary degrees, years of vetting, character
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exams. But for the missionary, going to
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the frontier, to the hardest places.
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Oh, you have a passport and a pulse?
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Go ahead. And Master pushes back hard on
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that. He argues we must not lower
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standards. In fact, if you really think
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about it, the work of evangelism and church planting in a hostile
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or unreached context probably requires more character, more
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maturity, not less. Of course, because they don't
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have the support structure of an established church all around
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them, right? They are out there on the edge.
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If the character is not there, if the new birth reality has not
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produced deep sanctification, they will crumble.
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Or worse, much worse, they will disqualify the message by their
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behavior and bring shame on the name of Christ.
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So the argument is simple. High stakes require high
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standards. And those standards are rooted
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in the reality of the new birth and the growth that flows from
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it. OK.
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So we have established the identity and the qualifications
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The Who. Now let's talk about the how.
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Section 4 focuses on methods and Master highlights 2,
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specifically prayer and preaching.
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And again, I really want you, the listener, to catch the logic
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here. He doesn't just pick these two
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out of a hat because they sound spiritual.
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They are the necessary consequences of the doctrine of
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the new birth. Let's start with prayer.
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Why does the new birth necessitate prayer as a primary
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method? Because of the nature of the
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work. If the new birth is a
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supernatural work. If it is the Spirit of God
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raising a dead soul to life, then can a human being
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manufacture that? No, I can't wake up a dead.
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Person precisely. You can argue with someone, you
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can persuade them, you can use emotional appeals, but you
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cannot impart spiritual life. Only God can do that.
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So if we can't do it. Then we must ask the one who
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can. That is why we pray.
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That is why prayer is not an optional add on to missions.
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It is the main work. Master says we must give heaven
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no rest. It has a striking phrase.
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It implies a desperate dependence.
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If we really believe that missions is about the new birth,
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then we realize we are utterly helpless without the Holy
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Spirit. He's careful to say that
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organizations and plans and goals are fine.
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They. Are they're necessary tools?
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But, he says, never at the expense of dependence on the
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Spirit. And it is so easy to rely on the
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strategy, isn't it? If we just have the right five
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year plan, if we get the funding, the revival will
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happen. That's the corporate mindset
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creeping into the church, but the Spirit blows where He wills.
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We cannot control him, we cannot schedule him, but we can plead
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with Him. So prayer is the active
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acknowledgement of our inability in God's sovereign power?
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Yes. It's the engine room of
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missions. Now what about preaching?
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Why is that the other non negotiable method?
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This goes back to the mechanism that God himself has chosen.
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How does the Spirit bring about the new birth?
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How does he perform this miracle?
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Through the word. Through the proclamation of the
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Word, Romans 10, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the
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word of Christ. So master calls this the primacy
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of preaching. He says it is non negotiable.
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If you remove the clear proclamation of the Word of God,
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you have removed the very tool, the very scalpel the Spirit uses
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to create life. It brings to mind that quote
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from the article. It is through the proclamation
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of God's Word that dead souls are brought to life.
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And this is where Master draws a very hard line.
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He says there is no room for compromise here.
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Missions that are truly committed to the new birth must
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be committed to preaching. That directly challenges some
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modern approaches that might focus entirely on social justice
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or humanitarian aid, hoping that the gospel is just kind of
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caught by observation. Look, humanitarian aid is good.
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It's wonderful. Christians should be the
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kindest, most helpful people on the planet.
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But if the goal is the new birth which brings eternal life, then
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the Word must be spoken. People are not born again by
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watching us dig a well. They are born again by hearing
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the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Spirit applying that word to
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their dead hearts. So if we strip away preaching,
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we are stripping away the power. We are stripping away the seed.
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You can water the ground and fertilize it all day long, but
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if you never plant the seed of the Word, nothing eternal grows.
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We've covered The Who, the how and the what.
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Now we get to the why, Section 5, the fuel and the motivation.
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This brings us right back to the title of the article.
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This is the engine itself. Master quotes John Layton
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Wilson. It's a really beautiful passage.
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He talks about the spontaneous feeling of every regenerate
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heart. That word spontaneous is so
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important. It suggests that mission is not
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something that has to be forced upon a Christian from the
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outside like a heavy. Burden.
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It bubbles up from within. Right.
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Wilson asks. When a heart feels the freshness
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of atoning blood, when you realize what's been done for
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you, what is the first question it asks?
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Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
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And the answer comes from heaven.
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Go into all the world. This is what he calls the
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motivation loop. It is the doctrine of
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regeneration is not just a dry theological fact to be filed
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away. It is the fuel.
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Think about it. When you realize you were
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spiritually dead and now you are alive, when you realize you were
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guilty and condemned, and now you are washed clean in the
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blood of Christ, what is the natural spontaneous reaction?
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Gratitude. Overwhelming love.
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A desire to tell someone else. Precisely.
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You don't share the gospel because you are trying to earn
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points with God. You share it because you are so
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overwhelmed by what He has already done for you that you
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can't keep it in. So if a church or a person lacks
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missionary zeal. It might be a symptom.
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It might be because they have lost sight of the wonder of
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their own new birth. They've forgotten what they were
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safe from and what they were safe for.
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The fuel tank is running low. Master gets very, very serious
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here about the alternative. He brings up the Broad Rd.
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The Broad Road to destruction from Matthew 7.
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It is a grim reminder, he says. Many are on the broad road to
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destruction. And this is the urgency.
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This is why it all matters. If the new birth is the only way
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to see the Kingdom of God, then those without it are perishing,
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and we know people who are on that road.
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He warns that if we forget regeneration, we forget Christ.
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And that is the ultimate danger. We might go out in God's name,
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but if we are not carrying the message of reconciliation, which
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requires A biblical understanding of conversion, we
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are offering a placebo to dying people.
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We are offering a false hope. He specifically says we must
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refuse missions that are devoid of real Trinitarian theology.
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Because the Trinity is involved in salvation, the Mother elects,
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the Son pays the price, the Spirit applies the work.
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If you lose the theology, you lose the gospel itself.
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But the article doesn't end on that grim note.
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It ends on a note of confidence. It does.
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It doesn't end in despair with the state of the world.
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It ends in confidence in the power of God.
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We point people to the Lamb of God.
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John 1.29 John the Baptist cry. Behold the Lamb of God who takes
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away the sin of the world. That's our message.
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Why can we be confident in just proclaiming that message?
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Because we know the Spirit works, we know that when we are
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faithful to point to Christ and preach His word, the Spirit of
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God does miraculous things. We can't do the miracle.
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But we know the one who can, and that takes all the pressure off
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of us to be the saviors. We are just the messengers.
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We're the Heralds. We're the witnesses.
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Precisely. So let's try to pull this all
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together. We have covered a lot of ground
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here. Walking through Masters argument
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we have. Yes, his argument is that the
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new birth isn't just a part of missions, it's the centerpiece.
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It defines the missionary, a child of God.
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He qualifies the leader, someone with proven character and
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genuine spiritual life. It necessitates the methods,
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prayer because we need the Spirit's power, and preaching
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because the Spirit uses the Word.
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And it fuels the going, the spontaneous gratitude of a saved
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soul. It's a complete integrated
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ecosystem. You cannot remove one part
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without breaking the whole thing.
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It really challenges the way we evaluate mission organizations,
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doesn't it? We tend to look at numbers,
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efficiency, budget, size, you know, metrics.
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But Master would ask a more fundamental question.
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Is the fuel there? Is the doctrine of the new birth
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central to everything they do? Because if it's not, the
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machinery might be running, but is it going anywhere of eternal
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significance? And that is the question I want
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to leave our listeners with today.
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It's a bit of a provocative thought, but it comes right out
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of this article. Based on everything we've
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discussed. The necessity of being born
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again, the danger of the Broad Rd.
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What happens to a mission organization or a church, or
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even an individual ministry that runs out of this fuel?
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But keeps the machinery running. Exactly.
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The budget is there, the staff is there, the flights are
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booked, the programs are running.
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But the central, desperate reliance on the supernatural new
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birth is gone. They might be building
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something. But are they building the
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Kingdom of God, or are they just building a really impressive
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religious NGO? That is the scary question.
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It is without the new birth as the central aim and fuel.
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We are just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic with it.
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We are introducing people to the lifeboat.
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That's a powerful place to land Jonathan Masters article new
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birth the fuel of missions. It is definitely worth your time
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to read. Absolutely.
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Thank you for walking through this with us.
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It's been a very clarifying discussion.
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My pleasure, it is a vital topic.
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And to our listener, thank you for joining us on this deep
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dive. We hope it challenges you to
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think deeper about why we do what we do.
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Until next time.