Social Justice. This seems to be the new buzz word amongst young evangelical Christians and for good reason. God has a heart for justice and so should we. Recently though, I was chatting with a girl about social justice, and she made the comment that social justice was the Gospel! I was worried about that statement and with further dialogue she clarified that she meant that it was tied to the Gospel. This though reminded me of the importance of understanding the difference between the Gospel and social justice. What really has hit me recently is the understanding that in losing the Gospel we actually lose the heart that beats for social justice. Let me explain by looking at Isaiah 1:16-20.
Isaiah has just denounced the superficial religion and worship of Israel and out rings the call to “cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression,” and at first glance, this may appear to be a straightforward call to do social justice as God’s mission. But wait! Listen to God’s words in the following verse:
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
The real call of the passage is not just to do social justice but so much more. It is the call of salvation, the Gospel. It is a call from God to be made clean, because you have realized how full of blood your hands are. In the flow of the passage, it becomes clear that social justice is an outflow of a heart made clean by God just as superficial worship and oppression are an outflow of a sinful heart untouched by God. Social justice, just like superficial worship, is only pleasing to God when it flows from a heart made clean by God. A heart made clean by God should do social justice, but doing social justice in itself does not wash you clean in the sight of God.
William Wilberforce in his book, Real Christianity, urged his Christian readers to not only get involved in social justice but to beware the danger of becoming just like the secular social justice groups. Real Christians not only do social justice, but they have a different perspective on why they do social justice. Let us remember that social justice is done because we seek not only to reflect God, but also to call people to believe in Jesus as the only way of being washed clean. Let us make sure that we are calling people to believe in Jesus with the understanding of Isaiah:
“If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
If we leave out the Gospel, I believe that we will be wasting our efforts, because we will save people now only to see them destroyed for eternity. We will also see a generation that rises up after us without a heart made clean by God which will inevitably lead to more sin and oppression. In fact, I would argue that our primary call is always to preach the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Jesus. This is the most important call. This is what we are called to suffer and die for, and if we do this then and only then will social justice truly flow as a mighty river fed from a heart made clean by God.
5 comments:
Mike, I like your focus on the heart behind social justice. Thank you for the encouraging post! You made a powerful connection between the Gospel message and the outpouring of justice through a heart made clean by God. Amen to that
I'm glad for your post, Michael. It's always helpful to revisit the distinctions between the Gospel and social justice.
I wish I was going to the Gospel Coalition in April (plug, plug, plug).
I guess I would ask why, exactly, does social justice have to be an outflow of a heart made clean? Do the prophets really describe it that way?
More importantly, is the gospel really about personal salvation in the first instance? Doesn't the gospel of the Kingdom of God (and the shalom that that entails) have more than humans in view? For that matter, what does Paul have in mind when he talks about reconciling "all things."
I agree with you that leaving out the gospel leaves us with nothing. But I'm really asking myself if we truly have the gospel if it's primarily or first about personal salvation.
Hey Jeff
Great questions, and sorry for taking so long to respond back, but the last couple of days have been hectic. I will be the first to admit that I don't have it all figured out, but I do have a couple of thoughts in response to your questions.
I think when looking at sin (which is what the prophets were confronting) one needs to think about the root causes. I've heard that Dr. Cha encourages people to ask "why". And it's a great question. So why are people unjust? Why do people sin? And I think the answer to that is a broken relationship with God. That is the root problem so the solution must deal with that and then other things follow.
I think this can be seen really well in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve sin, and God tells Eve that "your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." Gen 3:16 The perfect relationship is now gone between Eve and Adam. They will both be perenially in a power struggle instead of living rightly and at peace with one another. Justice will be lost, because their relationship with God is broken.
So in the prophets, I think the real key is indeed an understanding that there is more to religion than forms but there is supposed to be a relationship. And that is what the people are called back to. In Isaiah 1, they are called to let God make them white as snow. But how? I think you see the answer in Ezekiel and Jeremiah when God talks about putting the law in their hearts. And you definitely see the answer as well later in Isaiah when he speaks of the suffering servant who is a ransom for the sin of the many. The prophets see people getting right with God as being essential to acting justly with their neighbors.
So I really think that the reason why personal salvation is really the Gospel in the first instance is because it deals with the fundamental problem of humans. And of course once that problem is dealt with then there is a healing of horizontal problems. Even in Romans 8, we see that creation itself will be restored. So one day, everything will be back to how God made it to be.
But the kingdom of God needs to be understood carefully, because that phrase doesn't always mean the same thing when Jesus says it. It can sometimes mean everything. Sometimes though, it means a kingdom inside this world. A kingdom which can only be entered by being born again. A kingdom which Jesus cries out about saying, "Repent for the kingdom is near."
So although I think that there will definitely be a reconciling of all things; it begins with personal salvation. The kingdom is entered through personal repentance that is made possible by the atoning work of Christ.
But secondly, I think what really seals the deal for me is that the Bible itself says that personal salvation is the most important thing. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 says, "I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins" (v3) So here we have the Bible itself telling us, make sure you keep this thing first. And what surer way to keep our path straight in this discussion than to use the Bible's own language.
I think where some people get nervous with this is that it's been abused to turn into a kind of Christianity that is a one time prayer and you are saved and your life doesn't need to change kinda thing. And that is clearly bad. The good tree produces good fruit Jesus says in Matthew 7.
A passage I've found helpful is Titus 3. In v4-7, he lays out the fact that Christ Jesus has saved us and washed us clean. He says that we have been justified by grace and given the hope of eternal life. Then in v8, Paul says, "I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works." So here we have Paul saying, in essence, focus on the Gospel in order that people will do good works.
But isn't that backwards we say? If we tell people they are saved by grace then won't they do nothing? I don't think so. A true believer who really understands the Gospel feels like they must act. I think our lack of social justice in the churches stems from the fact that we have lacked the Gospel in our churches (to some degree). What I mean by that is that we have made the Gospel into cheap grace, as Bonhoeffer would put it. The true Gospel compels people to act. When we are filled with God's love, it overflows. Period.
When we start trying to focus on people doing social justice, it means we are only engaging them on the human level. When we show people the Gospel and show them need in the world, then they act. That's what it means to be Gospel centered. It means that in every issue we bring the Gospel to bear.
Jim Elliott said, "No man is a fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." If we were to end all slavery, all poverty, and all wars around the world, but we did not save people's souls...we would have accomplished nothing. Nothing of lasting value that is. We would be saving people for a short time for eternal damnation. How is that love? No, I want my first priority to see people saved. I might not end world poverty, but if I can save people's souls for eternity...well that's worth something. Especially when God rejoices over one lost sinner going home. But that same love which compels me to care for their souls also compels me to care for them now.
I really believe that if we keep the Gospel as the forgiveness of sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the one and only way to be saved at the center - only good things will flow out of that. Streams of justice, mercy, grace, and love. Because when our vertical relationship gets fixed, then and only then can horizontal relationships get fixed.
Dr. Carson said that long after people forget what you said, they will remember what you are passionate about. It's so easy to get caught up in the strictly physical world. It's our natural instinct to think in those terms, and it makes us more popular in the world when we only deal with this world problems. That is precisely why we have to keep the Gospel central intentionally, because it won't happen secondarily. I want my kids to believe in the Gospel and social justice not just social justice. And the only way that will happen is if we keep first things first.
"When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased." C.S. Lewis
"But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."
Matthew 6:33
Thanks for listening. May God be glorified in each of our lives as we try to seek first His kingdom. May He increase, and I decrease.
Michael, thanks for your thorough response.
Even though we're probably in agreement on most things, I'm going to have to ultimately and respectfully disagree with you.
I'd love to chat sometime about your response (esp. your biblical theological assertions) in a more detailed fashion, but for now, I'll just respond by raising a related matter.
If I had the opportunity to share the gospel with a young girl sold into sexual slavery, powerless and abused for years by men decades her senior, I don't believe I would tell her that her fundamental problem is that her heart isn't right with God.
The gospel, it seems to me, wasn't issued into the kind of individualistic climate through which we now re-interpret it (cf. remnant theology, etc.). Nor would such a gospel translate well into issues where oppression, not individual guilt, are the presenting problems.
In fact, I might go so far as to say (after all, what do I know?)that the hope of the gospel isn't, first, the salvation of souls, but the shalom-bringing residence of God among his people.
I don't think that this must, in any way, diminish the splendor of individual hearts cleansed and set free.
I welcome your thoughts!
Hey Jeff
Great response! I agree that the guilt imagery is not always the best one to use with people...at least not initially. I think salvation is, even in Scripture, pictured in many different ways. I think it's so cool that God has shown it that way so that it can touch people where they are at.
And I would agree that the Gospel is the reconciliation of us to God. Paul talks about that in Ephesians 2. I'd encourage you to read that. So yes, shalom with God is key. But how does that occur? That I think is a crucial question. Because, we could potentially answer that bringing justice on earth is bringing God's shalom. But if yes, then our Christianity has descended into good works.
This is why I think that the forgiveness of sins is so important. So I don't think that the guilt/law metaphor should be exclusive, but I think that it is an integral part of the Gospel. I think without it, we lose the need for the cross which is the heart of Christianity. (again, check out Ephesians 2, where Paul says that it is by the cross that Jesus draws us near)
And one last thought, how does peace come to a community? All at once or perhaps God changes each life, and even by using changed lives? Maybe there is an initially individualistic element to salvation that isn't cultural. Something to think about.
But Jeff, thank you for your thoughts. I love this discussion, because it helps me to think through things. And I don't claim to have any absolute knowledge either, but I've seen churches lose the cross at the centre, and they always die. And I don't think a lot of those churches purposefully lost the message of the cross. That's why it's so important I think to keep the cross so central.
If you'd like to chat with me in person, drop me a line at zmmckitt@tiu.edu. Blessings brother.
Post a Comment