Many churches within Christendom today have become heavily involved in the Social Gospel/Social Justice Movements. Such churches major and focus on various issues and ills that plague society. They champion many causes that are cited as negative roots that are planted deeply in the fabric of society that must be dealt with and eradicated.  While by all means, as Christians we should fight injustice when it rears its head and we must reach into the social ills of society and seek to help people break the spiritual chains of circumstances and behavior that are binding them. Nothing is wrong with seeking to influence society and working within society for the better. But there is a clear weakness inherent in the Social Gospel/Social Justice Movements.

The danger is that one can become so involved in the Social Gospel/ Social Justice Movements, one forgets the Biblical Gospel of the atonement, the salvific work of Christ on the cross. Too often those involved in such movements, with good intentions, are not seeking first the Kingdom of God and His holiness/righteousness found in the transforming power of the cross. The goal of the Social Gospel/Social Justice movement, at best, is a kingdom of man with God to serve it, rather than a kingdom of God, with man to serve it. The power of God’s Kingdom is not simply the hope of bringing about reform in man, but bringing about redemption and righteousness. The goal of the Gospel of Christ is not merely improvement, but divine transformation. You can’t bring about change without the cross at the center.  The Social Gospel/Social Justice is keen about establishing a kingdom which glorifies human ideals, but seeks not a Kingdom that glorifies the atoning cross of Christ and that it is through regeneration that men are changed ethically/morally and socially. True change in humanity and society is only possible, not by presenting only lofty ideals, but it is the power of the cross which enables moral change and can guarantee social change in society. The cross is the pure spring from which flows the “goodness” (righteousness) which makes possible a better social state or order. Jesus called it, “Being born from above” (John 3).

Only when the cross is at the center of our “good works” can one find reconciliation to both God and man.  Christ is more than an ideal and more than a historical person, Christianity is more than a system, found in the Christ of the Cross is atonement for man’s sins, the cross being the center of a holy and moral universe. It is the cross which testifies of God’s holiness and that sin must be dealt with…sin being the root cause of man’s misery.  The atoning cross must not be replaced with simple human dignity and lofty ideals that seek to bring about social justice without changing the human heart from which flows the problems in the first place.  One can be enthusiastic about a message which glorifies human ideals, but fails to say anything about God’s righteousness and God’s way, about Christ and His cross as the only way to “reform” society through redemption of the individual. It is not a cultured society that is need, but a society with men and women who have experienced conversion in Christ.

Most often the enthusiasm for the Social Gospel/Social Justice dismisses the cross, and the truth that man’s woes will only find answers when the will of man yields to the obedience of the atoning Gospel of the cross.   No laws can do it, and no change of circumstances, but only Jesus Christ. The Social Gospel/Social Justice fails to focus on the individual’s need for repentance and regeneration, but focuses more on that change must come from society as a whole. It is not the individual that is guilty before a holy God, but it is the masses within society that creates moral, economic, and physical chaos. The woes of society are shifted from persons as an individual, unto society at large. The more public or societal we can make “sin” the more it is divorced from the responsibility of the individual and shifted to society as a whole. As well, the answer sought for human woes lies with the ingenuity of man, not a divine action from a proactive, God of holy-love. Yet there can be no societal change without individual change through personal repentance and regeneration, which is the work of the atoning cross. The Social Gospel dismisses theology and doesn’t see the need to proclaim a God who is holy, and who demands repentance from sin. Man, it is thought, is capable of creating his own ethic, and it need not have its source in a holy God, a God of moral order. Protest as one might, an ethic that changes the heart must have its source flow from the holy-love of God, which holy-love was on full display in the atoning cross of Christ. And to speak of judgement is forbidden, a big no-no. Yet judgment is holiness’ necessary reaction to sin in a holy God.  When a church begins to focus more on the Social Gospel/Social Justice Movements, over the power of the Christ of the cross, such a church will have lost its compass and drift into theological liberalism.

While are to be involved in society to bring about change, change doesn’t occur by becoming like society. Our theology must be Christocentric, and must be distinct from society in order to shine the Light of Christ upon its sinfulness in order to provide an avenue of change by atonement through the cross not humanistic ideals.  Let us never be ashamed of the cross of Christ, for there alone the final and public righteousness of God is revealed to fallen humanity. Moral order and civility must be anchored in the cross, and such order lies in the truth of a holy God wherein is found His supreme interest for the world which is reflected in the One who gave us the atoning cross.

Blessings,

Dr. Dan