For half a century Christian Aid has provided financial support for indigenous missionary ministries in strategic "mission field" areas of the world. Altogether, over 1000 different works of God have been assisted. They have deployed a combined total of more than 100,000 missionaries during this period. Through their labors a witness for Christ has been effectively implemented within nearly 4000 different tribes and nations. And the believers who make up our Lord’s body on this earth have moved much closer toward the fulfillment of His eternal purpose: that He would have a witness for Himself, a people for His name, among every kindred, every tongue, every tribe and every nation.

Yes, for 50 years Christian Aid has led the way in providing for the laborers which our Saviour has been sending out into His harvest fields. But we have also been in the forefront of something else which I believe may prove to be even more significant when at the climax of history our Lord reviews the triumphs and failures of His people throughout the ages.

That other strategic contribution to the cause of Christ has been the influence which Christian Aid has had regarding the way foreign missionary work is being done by evangelical, fundamentalist and Pentecostal Christians all over the earth.

Serious flaws were evident in the way we were working at the midpoint of the 20th Century. They were contrary to basic Christian principles and in many cases causing harm to our fellow believers in different parts of the planet. More than any other major ministry, Christian Aid has dared to speak out regarding these issues, and called for a reformation in the way missionary work is done.

I am humbled before God that He should have chosen me to lead this reformation. But I see a parallel in Scripture. When the fullness of time was come, we are told in Galatians 4:4-5, God sent forth His Son to redeem His people from the bondage of legalism and lead them into the liberty of grace. The specialized English term for this transition is “adoption,” from the Latin adoptio. Most of us today have no conception of what this term means in the New Testament. It signified the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. Under the old, God’s people were like little children, strictly governed by rules and regulations which they continually failed to keep. Yet the self-righteous Pharisees would kill any who advocated conduct that varied from the letter of the law. They wanted to keep everyone forever in a state of childhood subservience with strict observance of all the ceremonial and dietary laws. But God’s purpose for His people was that they should be like responsible adults, keeping the spirit of the law but not bound by every jot and tittle. That transition from spiritual childhood to becoming spiritually responsible adults was called the adoptio (English: adoption).

To lead this reformation God chose the strictest of the Pharisees, Saul of Tarsus. He was so zealous for the law that he dragged many disciples of the New Covenant into the synagogues to beat them unmercifully. Sometimes he would have them killed. What better man would there be to preach the adoption, once God revealed it to him. And also to restore God’s second promise to Abraham, that all nations should be included within God’s covenant with His people, so no one nation would have a monopoly on His promises.

In Saul of Tarsus I see a parallel with God’s call on my life. In the early years of my ministry I was preaching that every Christian young person should go to work in a foreign country. Anything less was second best. As an evangelist with both Youth for Christ and InterVarsity Fellowship (1945-47) I persuaded several thousand young people all over the U.S. and Canada to volunteer for missionary service overseas. Any who didn’t agree to go I characterized as lacking in total consecration. The command to go, I said, was binding on every young person who called himself a Christian. It was 100% GO! GO! GO! SEND! SEND! SEND!