Mary Slessor – An Unconventional Missionary
She took seriously the Foreign Mission secretary’s advice that she spend as much time as possible with the local women in order to learn their language, Efik. But she was surprised to see that none of the women had yet joined the church. “Something more must be done for the women here if we are to raise the men,”[5] she said. Throughout her life, reaching the women was one of her main commitments.
Mary Slessor became a legend in her time and continued to influence a generation of missionaries. Her name is still remembered in admiration both in her native Scotland (her image appeared on a 1997 Clydesdale Bank £10 note) and on her mission field of Nigeria.
Part of her notoriety has been due to her nonconformity. She ventured by herself where men feared to tread, called equally to task tribal chiefs and mission boards, and adopted African dress and customs at a time when many missionaries still considered Victorian mores irrevocably tied to the gospel message.
Blunt and headstrong, she received and dispensed much criticism. Sporting a short haircut that most Victorian women would have considered a misfortune, she defied European beliefs on propriety, expediency, and efficiency. At a time when many prospective missionaries listed poor time management as one of their capital weaknesses, she learned to walk at her own pace, realizing that “Christ was never in a hurry.”[1]
She was only forty-four when the British government, recognizing her achievements in establishing a working relationship with a people most Europeans considered unreachable, appointed her vice-consul over the native court. With this title, she became the first woman magistrate in the world. Fourteen years later, she became vice-president of the Ikot Obong native court. As such, she stood up for justice and for the rights of the underserved, especially women.
Today, she is mostly remembered for her rescue and care of twin babies who, in the local culture, were left to die. Her first commitment, however, was always firmly to the gospel.
Early Life in Dundee
Mary Slessor was born on 2 December 1848 in Gilcomston, a suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, the second of seven children. When her father Robert, a shoemaker, lost his job due to alcoholism, the family moved to Dundee to look for work. Mary’s mother, a weaver, taught her daughters the same trade. At age eleven, Mary went to work in a textile mill where she became the family’s main breadwinner.
A bright young girl, she read books and furthered her education on her own. Eager to be a good Christian, she found discouragement in The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul by Philip Doddridge, a famous book at that time. When a friend asked her why she was cast down, Mary answered, “I can’t meditate, and Doddridge says it is necessary for the soul. If I try to meditate my mind just goes a’ roads.” Her friend told her not to worry. “Go and work, for that’s what God means us to do.”[2]
Mary definitely worked hard. In spite of her hard work in the factory and her studies at home, she was active in the local Presbyterian church, volunteering to teach children at a church-sponsored mission.
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The Trinity Matters for Every Christian
Fathers of the faith came up against the same flavors of heresy that we do today, and to battle against these false doctrines they opened Scripture and wrote creeds to help ordinary believers understand. Thanks be to God, he has preserved these creeds, and confessions in more recent history, for us today. While the creeds don’t carry the authority of Scripture, they communicate and summarize the essential truths of Scripture. I recommend getting to know the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed, which were specifically created to summarize the teaching of Scripture and condemn trinitarian heresies.
Have you ever found yourself trying to explain the Trinity to a child? Or perhaps even a teen or adult who has never heard of the concept? I have three little ones, one of whom is a four-year-old bubbling with questions. Here is an example of a recent bedtime conversation we had:
“Mommy, what is the Trinity?”
“The Trinity is God. Three Persons, one God.”
His face scrunched up. “How can God be three Persons but one God?”
This is where I should be able to tell you I gave the most perfect, theologically sound answer to my child and tell you how you can do the same.
I did no such thing.
“Um… well… he just is.”
“But how did Jesus come to earth and the Father remain in heaven?”
“Well, I… um…”
“How is God a Father and a Son?”
Many Christians struggle with how to give a sound explanation of the Trinity.
As I grappled and hummed, my four-year-old kept listing off question after question—none for which I had an answer. I was tempted to use one of those explanations I had heard in church growing up: God is like an egg, God is like the three forms of water, God is like a flower… but I knew that all those fell flat because, in one way or another, they all promoted a trinitarian heresy.
For years, I’ve prided myself on my passion for theology and biblical literacy, and my shelves sagged with heavy academic books. But as I tucked my child in that night, I was humbled by my lack of a basic understanding of the Trinity.
I have a feeling I’m not alone. You don’t have to be a mother to be faced with the dilemma of explaining the Trinity. You could be a Sunday school teacher (for any age) being asked to further explain, or reclining at a family meal where the conversation of religion comes up. Or maybe you’ve stood in your doorway with someone evangelizing to you about their religion that seems to mirror Christianity but smells of tritheism. Or perhaps you’re alone studying your Bible and wondering how God can possibly be three Persons and one God. Let’s open our Bibles and get to know the Trinity together. But first, in case you’re still not fully convinced you need to know this, let’s dive into why the Trinity matters.
Our theology of the Trinity affects our fundamental understanding of what Christianity means.
Because of how convoluted and confusing this doctrine can appear, we may be tempted to push it to the side. We loop it in with doctrines such as the end times and say, “It’s something we just won’t be able to grasp this side of heaven.” But the doctrine of the Trinity is essential to Christian theology. When we get the Trinity wrong, we get all of Christianity wrong. That’s what makes first-order Christian doctrines so vital to our faith: Everything that we believe is rooted in them, and once you alter those ground-level doctrines it changes how the entire tree grows. The Trinity is no different.
If we don’t emphasize the oneness of the Trinity correctly, we move towards tritheism—the worship of three gods rather than one. This breaks the first commandment (Exod. 20:2–3) and goes against God’s clear revelation of him: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one,” (Deut. 6:4; cf. Mark 12:29; John 17:3; Rom. 3:30). But if we blend them too much together, we get another heresy that goes against the clear revelation of the three distinct Persons (Gen. 1:1–27; Matt. 3:13–17; John 1:1–5).
Getting the Trinity wrong likewise skews the gospel message by which we are saved. Did one of our gods die for our sins after the greater god told him to? Or did the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, die in our place because of a covenant made in eternity past between the three perfect, eternal Persons of the Godhead? Does a lower, lesser god indwell us, or does God himself indwell us through the Third Person of the Trinity? These questions matter, and they change the whole of our salvation when answered wrongly.
Even if we aren’t the ones falling for these false doctrines, we need to be prepared to give the right answer to those who ask (1 Pet. 3:15). These people might come into your classroom, bump into you at church, sit in your small group, or knock on your front door. Will you give them biblical truth? Will you be able to defend what you believe?
Inconspicuous Trinity “drifts” can still be found around us.
The examples I gave above are a bit on the further end of the spectrum, and likely you won’t encounter them to that extreme in your church, books, podcasts, blogs, or social media feed. But that doesn’t mean the Trinity isn’t still skewed in evangelical theology.
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The One Who Loves
The Mosaic Law is not contrary to the gospel. In fact, the Mosaic Covenant is an exfoliation of the Covenant of Grace. However, John 9 helps us to understand the division when the Pharisees say to the now healed blind man, “You are his [Jesus] disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” Moses is being set over against Jesus.
Think of the story of the man born blind (John 9). It’s well known and well thought of. It’s one of those stories that take work to read because we must disabuse ourselves of contemporary concern for those with disabilities. For example, there were no Seeing Eye dogs, Braille books or reading machines. This man was a beggar whose hope of social advance, marriage, or even a job was a pipe dream. He was an unnoticed beggar. He was alone.
For example, notice the man’s neighbors after he is healed. The man is obviously making a stir and those who have lived closest to him say, “Isn’t this the man who sat and begged?” And some said yes but many of those same neighbors said, “No, he just looks like him.” And all the while the man who was blind said, “I am the man.” That’s amazing. How unnoticed he must have felt for all those years. Not only was he blind but they had been blind to him.
So, they brought the man to the Pharisees, and things got worse. But before saying more about the blind man and the Pharisees we must understand that the text. Like all of John’s Gospel, this text reaches back to his Prologue (John 1:1-18). For example, in those early verses John writes that the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Christ. Now, the Mosaic Law is not contrary to the gospel.
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The Unrepenting Repenter
If a man turns from sin without turning to God, he will find his sin has only changed its name and is hidden behind his pride. Now it will be harder to rout for its subterfuge. You have loved others but not God. And you have loved yourself most of all. Lot’s wife left the city of sin at the insistence of an angel and for the love of her family, but turned back. She had left her heart. “Remember Lot’s wife.” (Gen. 19:12-26; Lk. 17:32)
The believer in Christ is a lifelong repenter. He begins with repentance and continues in repentance. (Rom. 8:12-13) David sinned giant sins but fell without a stone at the mere finger of the prophet because he was a repenter at heart (2 Sam. 12:7-13). Peter denied Christ three times but suffered three times the remorse until he repented with bitter tears (Mt. 26:75). Every Christian is called a repenter, but he must be a repenting repenter. The Bible assumes the repentant nature of all true believers in its instruction on church discipline. A man unwilling to repent at the loving rebuke of the church can be considered nothing more than “a heathen and a tax collector.” (Mt. 18:15-17)
What is Repentance?
Repentance is a change of mind regarding sin and God, an inward turning from sin to God, which is known by its fruit—obedience. (Mt. 3:8; Acts 26:20; Lk. 13:5-9) It is hating what you once loved and loving what you once hated, exchanging irresistible sin for an irresistible Christ. The true repenter is cast on God. Faith is his only option. When he fully knows that sin utterly fails him, God takes him up. (Mt. 9:13b) He will have faith or he will have despair; conviction will either deliver him or devour him.
The religious man often deceives himself in his repentance. The believer may sin the worst of sins, it is true; but to remain in the love of sin, or to be comfortable in the atmosphere of sin, is a deadly sign, for only repenters inhabit heaven. The deceived repenter would be a worse sinner if he could, but society holds him back. He can tolerate and even enjoy other worldly professing Christians and pastors well enough, but does not desire holy fellowship or the fervent warmth of holy worship. If he is intolerant of a worship service fifteen minutes “too long,” how will he feel after fifteen million years into the eternal worship service of heaven? He aspires to a heaven of lighthearted ease and recreation—an extended vacation; but a heaven of holiness would be hell to such a man. Yet God is holy, and God is in heaven. He cannot be blamed for sending the unholy man to hell despite his most articulate profession (Heb. 12:14).
What are the Substitutes for True Repentance?
1. You may reform in the actions without repenting in the heart. (Ps. 5 1: 16-17; Joel 2:13) This is a great deception, for the love of sin remains. (I Jn. 2:15-17; Acts 8:9-24) At this the Pharisees were experts. (Mk. 7:1-23) The heart of a man is his problem. A man may appear perfect in his actions but be damned for his heart. His actions are at best self-serving and hypocritical. What comes from a bad heart is never good. “Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.” (Jas. 3:11-12)
2. You may experience the emotion of repentance without the effect of it. Here is a kind of amnesia. You see the awful specter of sin in the mirror and flinch out of horror yet immediately forget what kind of person you saw (Jas. 1:23-24). It is true, repentance includes sincere emotion, an affection for God and a disaffection for sin. Torrents of sorrow may flood the repenter’s heart, and properly so (Jas. 4:8-10). But there is such a thing as a temporary emotion in the mere semblance of repentance; this emotion has very weak legs and cannot carry the behavior in the long walk of obedience. Your sorrow may even be prolonged. Yet if it does not arrive at repentance, it is of the world and is a living death—and maybe more (2 Cor. 7: 10). It is an old deceiver. Judas had such remorse but “went and hanged himself.” (Mt. 27:3-5)
3. You may confess the words of a true repenter and never repent. (Mt. 21:28-32; 1 Jn. 2:4, 4:20) Confession by itself is not repentance. Confession moves the lips; repentance moves the heart. Naming an act as evil before God is not the same as leaving it.
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