“Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” – Karl Barth
One day in my Old Testament class at Western Seminary a few years ago, one of the students mentioned that he had been in Israel listening to a Jewish scholar. The scholar was speaking about salvation and how the point of Scripture was modern-day Israel as the place to which all of the world will come in order to learn, from the Jews, how to love God, love neighbor, and work for Kingdom good on earth. My fellow student mentioned that this really shook him for a few weeks. I found that to be very interesting because it gets back to the division in our view between orthodoxy and orthopraxy—faith and works. This Jewish scholar had the good works part down, but he was missing the most important part, the very heart of the Gospel—Jesus!
One cannot love God and neighbor and do authentic Kingdom work apart from being born-again by the Holy Spirit through Jesus. This is because apart from Jesus, all humanity is dead in sins and trespasses. That’s why we must get the order correct—the ordo salutis (order of salvation)—we must be reconciled to God the Father through God the Son. THAT is the primary thing. Only after that has happened can we truly love God, love neighbor, and work for God’s shalom and justice (Kingdom) on earth.
“There is none righteous, no, not one.” – The Apostle Paul, Romans 3:10
We the Church must get the Gospel right! This is of the utmost importance and is the foundation for all we believe, do, and hope for. I hope and pray we don’t end up with a generation of pastors, scholars, and seminary profs who diminish the holiness of God and the substitutionary atonement of Jesus and choose to focus exclusively on working for justice and doing Kingdom work. We need both.
We must be those who endeavor to remain faithful to our Lord and to His Word. I am a huge proponent of having a more holistic view of the Gospel, including everything that God has told us in His Word that is near His heart. As stated previously, I believe we have truncated the Gospel to merely how to go to Heaven when we die. But that’s not the fullness of the Gospel. At the same time, we must be faithful to believe and proclaim even those aspects of it that seem to have fallen out of favor.
What’s interesting is that a gospel that only preaches social justice, good works, and love for people is a gospel that can actually be accomplished apart from God—and that is a false gospel. Paul tells us clearly what the Gospel is in 1 Corinthians 15—he talks about Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection according to the Scriptures. That’s the Gospel, the Good News. By necessity, the Gospel produces fruit and results in good works. But God forbid we would ever substitute the heart of the Gospel for anything else. If we do that, we no longer have any right to call ourselves the Church.
Additionally, the Scripture is clear that the Gospel is offensive to the unregenerate person. The Gospel crushes our pride and humbles us, and due to our sin nature, we don't want to be humbled and admit we need the Saviour. If we preach a gospel that is palatable to the unregenerate, and calls for no self-sacrifice, discomfort, and self-denial, we’re not preaching the true Gospel. The true Gospel is offensive to an unbelieving world, and the only way that the impenitent heart can be softened to receive it is by the sovereign work of God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is God, King, and Lord. If we, His Church, are to faithfully proclaim His Gospel and Kingdom, we must tell people the truth—they must come under the Lordship of Jesus. And that doesn’t happen unless they are born-again by His sovereign work. The Bible could not be clearer on that.
“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others…not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison
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