Dallas and I spent three days this week reviewing with partners the Wycliffe Global Alliance Philosophy of Bible Translation.

Bible translation takes place in a context—the mission of God. It is not a stand-alone activity. There are lots of ways to approach this and it’s hard to be concise. What follows are my notes from the consultation.

The chief end of God’s creation is to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. (Isa. 43:7). God created us to live in fellowship and harmony with him but we broke that fellowship because we made choices inconsistent with his will. So we were figuratively ‘dead’ because of our choice to ignore God. But God, in his grace, gave us back our lives when he offered Christ as a ransom to save us from an empty life restoring us to the harmony the characterizes a right relationship with him. The ransom was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose value. It was paid by the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as our ransom long before the world began. Through Christ we have come to trust in God and His promises. He did this so we would praise and glorify him; so He can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. We are God’s masterpiece. And, when we believed in Christ, he identified us as his own by giving us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. So you have been born again, your relationship with God restored. But you have been restored to a new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. And that word is the Good News: our reconciliation and restoration to fellowship with God. (‭1 Peter‬ ‭1‬:‭18-21, 23-25‬ NLT) (‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭5, 7, 10‬ NLT) (‭Ephesians‬ ‭1‬:‭13-14‬ NLT)