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God’s Sovereign Sending and Human Rebellion in Centrifugal Mission

In the heart of every believer lies a question of purpose. We search for meaning in our careers, our relationships, and our personal ambitions, often feeling a pull toward something more significant than ourselves. The Bible reveals that this “something more” is not a self-discovered path but a divine commission. It is an invitation to participate in the grand, dynamic movement of God’s redemptive purpose for the world. This purpose is not static or contained; it is an explosive, outward force, a centrifugal sending that radiates from the very center of God’s being to the farthest reaches of creation. Understanding this centrifugal nature of mission is crucial for grasping our individual role. It frames our lives not as a journey of self-fulfillment but as a response to the sovereign call of a sending God. Yet, this divine initiative meets a powerful, opposing force: human rebellion. This post will explore the profound dynamic between God’s sovereign, centrifugal sending and humanity’s persistent rebellion, clarifying our call to be agents of His outward-moving grace in a world that often resists it.

 

The Unstoppable Force: Centrifugal Sending as God’s Dynamic Nature

At its core, a biblical theology of mission is the study of God’s sovereign, redemptive purpose. The term missio Dei, or “mission of God,” powerfully captures this reality: mission does not begin with us, but with God. He is the source, the initiator, and the sustainer of all redemptive activity. A key characteristic of this divine mission is its centrifugal nature. Like a spinning wheel flinging water outward, God’s mission is an outward, dynamic movement propelled from His very being toward the periphery of creation.

This concept is foundational. It means that God is not a distant, passive deity waiting for humanity to seek Him. He is a proactive, sovereign Ruler whose authority and love are constantly in motion, extending His rule and blessing to all corners of the earth. Theologians often connect this to the doctrines of God’s decrees and providence. Before time began, God, in His sovereign wisdom, decreed a plan of redemption. Throughout history, His providential hand has been ordering and orchestrating events to bring this plan to fruition. Mission, therefore, is not an afterthought or a divine reaction; it is the outworking of God’s eternal, pre-ordained purpose. It is the historical expression of His will to reconcile all things to Himself.

This centrifugal impulse is the very essence of God’s missionary nature. He is a “sending God” by definition. The Father sends the Son. The Father and Son send the Holy Spirit. The Triune God sends His people into the world. This is not a series of disconnected events but a single, unified, outward-moving current of divine grace. It is a movement that is inherently expansive, crossing every conceivable boundary—geographic, cultural, ethnic, and social—to reach all people. As Christopher J.H. Wright so aptly states, the mission of God is to reclaim all of creation for Himself, and He does so by sending His representatives to extend His rule and blessing.1 This understanding shatters any anthropocentric (human centered) view of mission. We are not the architects; we are the invited participants in a divine project of cosmic renewal.

 

God as Ruler: The Sovereign Commission in the Old Testament

The centrifugal sending of God is not a New Testament innovation; it is woven into the fabric of the entire biblical narrative, beginning in the opening chapters of Genesis. The foundational moment of this outward movement is found in God’s call to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3: “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 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. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.‘”

This passage is the Magna Carta of mission. Notice the centrifugal elements. First, there is the command to “Go.” Abram is called to leave his center of comfort and familiarity and move outward toward an unknown destination. This “going” is a direct response to a divine commission. Second, there is the promise of blessing that is explicitly intended to flow outward. The blessing is not for Abram alone; its ultimate purpose is universal—”all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” God’s covenant with Abraham establishes a missionary trajectory for all of salvation history. It is a sovereign decree that sets in motion a plan to extend His redemptive grace to every nation, tribe, people, and language.

Here we see God as the sovereign Ruler who commissions an agent to extend His rule. Abram is not volunteering for a global outreach program; he is responding to a royal summons from the King of the universe. His obedience becomes the channel through which God’s centrifugal blessing begins to flow. This pattern repeats throughout the Old Testament. Joseph is sent to Egypt to preserve his people. Moses is sent to Pharaoh to liberate Israel. Jonah is sent to Nineveh to proclaim a message of judgment and mercy. Each of these commissions is a sovereign act of God, propelling His redemptive purpose outward from the center of His covenant people toward the nations. The Old Testament, therefore, is not a story of a tribal deity but the account of the one true God, the Ruler of all, who is relentlessly working to extend His blessing to the ends of the earth.

 

God as the Ultimate Sent One: The Centrifugal Focal Point in Christ

If the Old Testament lays the foundation for centrifugal mission, the New Testament reveals its ultimate expression in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christ is the focal point of God’s outward movement. He is the ultimate emissary, the one who crosses the greatest boundary of all—the infinite chasm between a holy God and sinful humanity. The incarnation is the supreme act of centrifugal sending. As John 3:16 declares, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” The Father sent the Son from the glory of heaven into the brokenness of our world.

Jesus’ entire life and ministry were a model of boundary-crossing, outward-moving mission. He crossed the boundary between divinity and humanity, between Jew and Gentile, between clean and unclean, between sinner and saint. He went to the marginalized, the outcasts, and the lost. His was a centrifugal ministry, constantly moving from the center of religious life in Jerusalem to the peripheries of society in Galilee and beyond. He came as God the Ruler, but He exercised His authority through service and sacrifice, establishing a new kind of kingdom—a kingdom that advances not through coercion but through self-giving love.

The climax of this centrifugal mission is found in the Great Commission. In Matthew 28:18-20, the risen Jesus declares, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” This passage is the definitive mandate for centrifugal mission in the church age.

Notice the structure. It begins with a statement of supreme authority: “All authority… has been given to me.” This is the foundation of our mission. We do not go in our own strength or with our own agenda; we go under the delegated authority of the sovereign Ruler Himself. Because He has all authority, He has the right to command us to “go.” The command “go” is not merely a suggestion; it is an imperative that flows directly from His lordship. The scope is explicitly centrifugal: “all nations” (panta ta ethne). The mission is to extend the rule and blessing of Christ to every people group on the planet. And the promise is one of His abiding presence: “I am with you always.” The one who sends us also goes with us, empowering us for the task. As David Bosch explains, this commission is not just a task but a participation in the ongoing authority and presence of the living Christ.2

 

God as Empowerer: The Spirit’s Propulsion in Acts and Beyond

The story of centrifugal mission does not end with Jesus’ ascension. In fact, He told His disciples it was better for Him to leave so that He could send the Holy Spirit (John 16:7). The Holy Spirit is the divine agent of centrifugal propulsion. He is the power source of the mission, the one who takes the finished work of Christ and applies it to the hearts of individuals and communities across the globe. He is the one who ensures the outward movement continues with unstoppable force.

Acts 1:8 provides the strategic blueprint for this Spirit-empowered expansion: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This verse outlines a sequential, centrifugal progression. The mission begins at home (“in Jerusalem“), expands to the surrounding areas (“in all Judea and Samaria“), and ultimately reaches the entire world (“to the ends of the earth“). This is not merely a geographical plan; it is a principle of outward movement. The Spirit propels the church from its center to the periphery, constantly pushing the boundaries of the gospel’s reach.

Throughout the book of Acts, we see the Spirit as the active agent of this centrifugal force. He guides Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch, taking the gospel across racial and cultural lines (Acts 8). He anoints Peter to preach to Cornelius, breaking open the door to the Gentile world (Acts 10). He calls Paul and Barnabas and sets them apart for their pioneering missionary journey to Asia Minor and beyond (Acts 13). He directs Paul’s steps, closing and opening doors of ministry, and sustaining him through persecution and hardship. The Spirit is the “Goer” who empowers the “sent ones.” He is the one who convicts, regenerates, and seals believers, ensuring that the mission’s advance is not dependent on human ingenuity or strength but on divine power.

For the individual believer today, this is a profound source of comfort and confidence. Our call to participate in centrifugal mission is not a call to rely on our own limited resources. It is a call to depend on the unlimited power of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who gives us the words to speak, the courage to stand, and the love to reach out to those who are different from us. He is the one who breaks down the cultural and social barriers that we could never overcome on our own. The Spirit is the guarantee that God’s centrifugal mission will not fail, and our participation in it is empowered by His very presence.

 

The Immovable Object: Human Rebellion Against the Sovereign Commission

If God’s centrifugal sending is the unstoppable force of divine grace, then human rebellion is the immovable object of defiant autonomy. The Bible presents a clear and consistent picture of humanity’s response to God’s sovereign initiatives: resistance. From the Garden of Eden to the present day, the story of humanity is a story of rebellion against God’s rule and rejection of His commissions. This rebellion is not just a passive disagreement; it is an active, willful assertion of autonomy in the face of divine authority.

This rebellion is rooted in the original sin of wanting to be our own god. In Genesis 3, the temptation was to “be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). This is the essence of the rebellious heart: a desire to determine our own moral standard, to be the sovereign of our own lives, and to resist submission to any external authority, especially God’s. This foundational rebellion manifests in various ways in response to God’s centrifugal mission.

One primary form is simple defiance. When God issues a command to “go,” the rebellious heart says, “I will stay.” This is a rejection of the Great Commission itself, a declaration that Jesus does not have the authority to tell us what to do with our lives. It is an act of treason against the King. This defiance can be overt, in the form of open hostility toward Christianity, or it can be subtle, in the form of a life lived in complete indifference to God’s global purpose.

Another form of rebellion is self-centeredness. The centrifugal mission of God is inherently outward-focused, calling us to move beyond our own comfort, preferences, and cultural bubbles. The rebellious heart, by contrast, is inward-focused. It prioritizes personal peace, prosperity, and preservation over the risky demands of cross-cultural outreach. It asks, “What’s in it for me?” rather than “How can I be a blessing to others?” This self-centeredness is a direct contradiction of the Abrahamic covenant, which was designed to be a channel of blessing to others. When we hoard our blessings for ourselves, we are rebelling against the very purpose for which we were blessed.

Fear is another powerful driver of rebellion. God’s call to “go” is always a call into the unknown, a call to leave the security of the familiar. This can trigger a deep-seated fear of displacement, of cultural alienation, of physical danger, or of financial instability. The story of Jonah is a classic example. He was called to go to Nineveh, a great and terrifying city, but he fled in the opposite direction. His rebellion was fueled by fear and prejudice. In the same way, many believers today resist God’s call to go to the “hard places” or to engage with people who are different from them because they are afraid. They choose the safety of the shore over the adventure of the sea, and in doing so, they rebel against the sovereign call of God.

 

The Idolatry of Place and the Rejection of Boundary-Crossing

A specific and subtle form of rebellion against centrifugal mission is what can be called the “idolatry of place.” This is an unhealthy attachment to a specific location, culture, or way of life that hinders our willingness to participate in God’s outward-moving mission. While there is nothing wrong with loving one’s home or culture, it becomes idolatrous when that love becomes a barrier to obeying God’s call to go.

This idolatry was a major struggle for the early Jewish Christians. They were deeply attached to Jerusalem, the temple, and the cultural traditions of Judaism. The idea that the gospel might be for the Gentiles on equal terms with the Jews was a radical and difficult concept. It required them to cross boundaries they had been taught to maintain. Peter’s vision in Acts 10, where he is told to “kill and eat” unclean animals, is a direct confrontation with this idolatry of place and culture. God had to supernationally convince him that the gospel was meant to centrifugally burst the boundaries of Judaism and reach the Gentile world.

Today, this idolatry of place can take many forms. It can be an attachment to our comfortable suburban lifestyle that makes us unwilling to consider living in an inner-city neighborhood or moving overseas. It can be a cultural pride that looks down on other nations or ethnic groups and resists the idea that we have anything to learn from them. It can be a preference for a “homogenous unit principle,” where we only want to worship and minister with people who are just like us. All of these are forms of rebellion against the boundary-crossing, centrifugal nature of God’s mission. They are attempts to contain the gospel within our cultural comfort zones, when God’s intent is for it to flow outward to every culture on earth.

This rebellion also manifests as a doubt in divine authority. Some may question the validity of the Great Commission, arguing that it was only for the original apostles or that “making disciples of all nations” is a metaphor for social reform rather than cross-cultural evangelism. This skepticism is a way of undermining the authority of the commission and, therefore, relieving ourselves of the responsibility to obey it. It is a sophisticated form of rebellion that uses intellectual arguments to justify disobedience.

 

Our Individual Calling: Responding to the Sovereign Commission

In light of this great cosmic drama between God’s sovereign sending and humanity’s rebellious resistance, what is our individual calling? The answer is clear and profound: we are called to align ourselves with God’s centrifugal mission and to be agents of His outward-moving grace. We are called to be the ones who say “yes” to the sovereign commission, who choose obedience over rebellion, and who participate in the extension of His rule and blessing to the ends of the earth.

This calling is not just for a select few “professional missionaries.” It is for every follower of Jesus. The Great Commission was given to all disciples, and its authority extends to every generation. Our participation may look different depending on our gifts, context, and stage of life, but the call to be involved in God’s outward movement is universal.

 

So, how do we live this out as individuals?

First, we must cultivate a centrifugal mindset. We need to reorient our thinking from an inward focus to an outward focus. This means regularly praying for the nations, for missionaries, and for unreached people groups. It means learning about global missions and the challenges facing the church around the world. It means seeing our daily lives—our jobs, our hobbies, our relationships—as platforms for mission, opportunities to intersect with people who need to hear the gospel. We must ask God to give us His heart for the world, a heart that is constantly moving outward in love and concern.

Second, we must practice the discipline of “going.” This may not mean moving to a foreign country, but it does mean being willing to cross the boundaries in our own context. It might mean building a friendship with a neighbor from a different culture. It might mean volunteering with a ministry that serves the poor and marginalized in our city. It might mean using our vacation time to go on a short-term mission trip. It might mean being open to God calling us to a new career or a new location. The key is a posture of readiness to go, a willingness to leave our comfort zones for the sake of the gospel.

Third, we must leverage our resources for centrifugal mission. Our time, our talents, and our treasure are all gifts from God, and they are meant to be used for His purposes. We can support missionaries and mission organizations financially. We can use our professional skills to serve mission agencies or to train believers in other parts of the world. We can use our social media platforms to share the gospel and advocate for the persecuted church. Every resource we have is a tool that can be used to advance God’s outward-moving mission.

Finally, we must live as sent people. The apostle Peter reminds us that we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). Our very identity as believers is that of a sent people. We have been called out of darkness so that we can be sent back into the darkness as bearers of the light. Our lives should be a living testimony to the reconciling power of the gospel, a constant demonstration of the outward-moving love of the God who sent us.

 

Conclusion: Joining the Unstoppable Force

The story of God’s mission is a story of an unstoppable, centrifugal force of divine love colliding with the resistant, rebellious heart of humanity. It is a story of a sovereign Ruler who continually sends His agents to extend His rule and blessing to a world that is determined to go its own way. In this cosmic drama, we have a choice to make. We can either align ourselves with the rebellion, clinging to our autonomy, our comfort, and our idols, or we can surrender to the sovereign commission and join the unstoppable force.

To join the unstoppable force is to enter into the greatest adventure imaginable. It is to have our lives caught up in something far larger than ourselves, something that has eternal significance. It is to be part of God’s grand plan to reclaim His creation and to gather a people from every nation, tribe, people, and language to worship His Son. This is not a burden to be endured but a privilege to be embraced.

The call to centrifugal mission is a call to be like Abraham, who “went, even though he did not know where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). It is a call to be like the disciples, who left everything to follow Jesus. It is a call to be like Paul, who considered his life worth nothing except for the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. It is a call to be like the countless ordinary believers throughout history who have said “yes” to God’s sovereign commission and have been used by Him to advance His kingdom in ways they could never have imagined.

This is our calling as individuals. It is not the church’s mission; it is God’s mission, and we are invited to participate. It is not a program to be implemented; it is a Person to be proclaimed. It is not a strategy to be executed; it is a Spirit to be followed. As we go about our daily lives, may we be constantly aware of the centrifugal pull of God’s mission. May we be willing to cross boundaries, to leave our comfort zones, and to risk everything for the sake of the gospel. And may we find our greatest joy and fulfillment not in pursuing our own small kingdoms, but in participating in the advance of the great and glorious Kingdom of the God who is, and always will be, a sending God.

 

Sources

  1. Wright, Christopher J. H. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. IVP Academic, 2006.

  2. Bosch, David J. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. 2nd ed., American Society of Missiology, Orbis Books, 2011.

  3. Stott, John R. W. Christian Mission in the Modern World. IVP Academic, 2015.

  4. Piper, John. Let the Nations Be Glad!: The Supremacy of God in Missions. 3rd ed., Baker Academic, 2010.

  5. Kaiser, Walter C. Jr. Mission in the Old Testament: Israel as a Light to the Nations. Baker Academic, 2012.

  6. Bevans, Stephen B. and Roger P. Schroeder. Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today. Orbis Books, 2004.

  7. Hirsch, Alan. The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church. Brazos Press, 2006.

  8. Winter, Ralph D. and Steven C. Hawthorne, editors. Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader. 4th ed., William Carey Library, 2009.

  9. Van Engen, Charles E. Mission on the Way: Issues in Mission Theology. Baker Book House, 1996.

  10. The Holy Bible, New International Version. Zondervan, 2011.

 

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