Contempla a Dios, Sovereign Grace

Our Obligation to the Unreached

Article by 

David Platt

Author, Radical and Radical Together

Well over one hundred years ago, a single missionary named Lottie Moon, serving in China, began writing letters challenging the church back here to send and support more workers to go there. After her death on the field, her challenge was heeded in the formalization of an offering in her name. Even if you’re not a Southern Baptist who has given to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, her life is a reminder of why we must give to send and support missionaries serving among unreached peoples in unreached places.

But my aim is to show you not simply why we must give, but also why we must go . . . however, whenever, and wherever God leads. I use the word mustin light of Romans 1:14, where Paul speaks of his eagerness to preach the gospel:

I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.

Did you hear that? Paul said he is obligated to preach the gospel to all peoples. Literally, he owes the gospel to all peoples — to Greeks, to barbarians, and to the people of Rome. What a remarkable statement. Apparently, Paul’s ownership of the gospel creates an obligation with the gospel. Because he knows this good news of what God has done in Christ, he must spread this good news of what God has done in Christ. 

This is what I’m praying might become a reality in our hearts: that you and I might realize that we must do everything we can to get the gospel to people who’ve never heard it. That we would realize that our ownership of the gospel creates an obligation with the gospel. That we would see that saved people this side of heaven owe the gospel to lost people (and peoples) this side of hell. 

Saved people this side of heaven owe the gospel to lost people (and peoples) this side of hell.

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So why does the Book of Romans tell us we must go to the unreached? Here, briefly stated, are four reasons:

1. Because their knowledge of God is only enough to damn them to hell forever.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)

2. Because the gospel of God is powerful enough to save them for heaven.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)

3. Because the plan of God warrants the sacrifices of his people.

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (Romans 10:13–14)

4. Because the Son of God deserves the praises of all peoples.

. . . to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations . . . (Romans 1:5)

We can’t keep this gospel to ourselves. It is the greatest news in all the world: People can be made right with God, forever, through faith in Jesus Christ. Everybody has got to hear this. They must hear this! After all, that’s why Paul is writing the book of Romans in the first place. In Romans 15:20 he says,

And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation.

Paul wanted the church at Rome to help him get to Spain so he could preach the gospel to the unreached there (Romans 15:24). He’s saying (really shouting) in the Book of Romans, “I owe, we owe, Christ to the nations, so let’s go and make him known!” We must do this. This is not an option.

This is an obligation.

He Will Hold Me Fast - Keith and Kristyn Getty

Come Behold The Wondrous Mystery - Matt Papa

"A Vision for the Lost" - William Booth

I saw a dark and stormy ocean. Over it the black clouds hung heavily; through them every now and then vivid winds moaned, and the waves rose and foamed, towered and broke, only to rise and foam, tower and break again.

In that ocean I thought I say myriads of poor human beings plunging and floating, shouting and shrieking, cursing and struggling and drowning; and as they cursed and screamed they rose and shrieked again, and them some sank to rise no more.

And I saw out of this dark angry ocean, a mighty rock that rose up with its summit towering high above the black clouds that overhung the stormy sea. And all around the base of this great rock I saw a vast platform, I saw with delight a number of the poor struggling drowning wretches continually climbing out of the angry ocean. And I saw that a few of those who were already safe on the platform were helping the poor creatures still in the angry waters to reach the place of safety.

On looking more closely I found a number of those who had been rescued, industriously working and scheming by ladders, ropes, boats and other means more effective, to deliver the poor strugglers out of the sea. Here and there were some who actually jumped into the water, regardless of the consequences in their passion to “rescue the perishing.” And I hardly know which gladdened me the most—the sight of the poor drowning people climbing onto the rocks reaching a place of safety, or the devotion and self-sacrifice of those whose whole being was wrapped up in the effort for their deliverance.

As I looked on, I saw that the occupants of that platform were quite a mixed company. That is, they were divided into different “sets” or classes, and they occupied themselves with different pleasures and employments. But only a very few of them seemed to make it their business to get the people out of the sea.

But what puzzled me most was the fact that though all of them had been rescued at one time or another from the ocean, nearly everyone seemed to have forgotten all about it. Anyway, it seemed the memory of its darkness and danger no longer troubled them at all. And what seemed equally strange and perplexing to me was that these people did not even seem to have a care—that is any agonizing care—about the poor perishing ones who were struggling and drowning right before their very eyes . . . many of whom were their own husbands and wives, brothers and sisters and even their own children.

(William Booth, A Vision for the Lost, as quoted in The Vine Projectby Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, pages 55-56, Matthias Media)