There is… one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all… 1 Timothy 2:5-6 (NIV)
About a hundred years ago, there was a mission conference in Scotland. It was one of the most thorough reviews of missions ever to take place, but not much came of it.
The next year, 1911, James Denney was invited to speak at the annual meeting of the Baptist Missionary Society…
Within the last 12 months, foreign missions have been more talked about in the church than at any time I can remember.
He described the appeals—the urgency of the need, the vastness of the need, and then he asked:
What has been the result? As far as I can see it is neither here nor there. An immense proportion of the people in our churches care little about the matter. There is no sensible increase either of contributions or of gifted men.
Then he came to his point:
It is not interest in missions that we want in our churches at this moment, but interest in the gospel. Apart from a new interest in the gospel, a revival of evangelical faith in Christ as the redeemer, I believe we shall look in vain for a response to these missionary appeals. But there is something in the gospel itself… which immediately creates missionary interest because it has no proper correlative but the universe. The gospel fires missions because Christ died for all.
If you believe that all roads lead to God, there is no reason for world mission. People can find their own way. But Paul says that there is one mediator between God and man. Do you believe this?