Justice is a Witness

The False Divide Between Proclamation and Action

There is a long and tortuous history of the war between what is often called the Social Gospel and the Evangelical Gospel. On the one hand, it is said, the Social Gospel argues that God’s kingdom is about improving society. Therefore, our mission as Christians is to do as much as we can to improve the conditions around us.

The Evangelical Gospel, on the other hand, is about personal transformation: each of us need to be reconciled to God, through Christ. Therefore, our mission as Christians is to share the gospel through evangelism.

This dichotomy is relatively new to Christian history, and it began around the turn of the 20^th century (you can read more about this in chapter 6 of “The Light in Our Eyes”, titled “Escape”). In Zechariah’s famous proclamation of the gospel in Luke 1 (the “Benedictus”), the good news about Jesus is meant to be proclaimed. It’s the sun that rises on us (1:78)! But Zechariah also states that the climax of this gospel is this: Jesus the Messiah – the “just and righteous king” – will “guide our feet into the path of peace” (Luke 1:79). The “path of peace” is a very specific Old Testament way of speaking about the ways we embody and extend justice toward others.

In other words: if we’re not extending justice to our neighbors in our lives, Jesus isn’t finished with us. Which also means: proclaiming the gospel without also living a life of justice is only a half-testimony to the work of Jesus…maybe even a hypocritical one.

But do these two missional projects – proclamation of the gospel and acts of justice - fit together? The Apostle Paul uses a word to describe his evangelism that I believe is incredibly helpful toward unlocking this whole conversation:

“And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” – 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Paul uses a key word here that I would love to use to replace the word “actions” or “deeds” or “social improvement” in every single conversation we have when we talk about our mission: demonstrations. We can debate until we’re blue in the face about what’s more important in sharing the gospel: verbal proclamation or acts of justice. But Paul uses a word – demonstrations - that shows us there is a vital bridge between these two things. Interestingly in Paul’s case, he says that (at least in his ministry to the Corinthians)…these demonstrations were more important than his persuasive words! These demonstrations were not a replacement to those words, of course – the good news is, first of all, news…but they were evidence that the good news being proclaimed was true. The kingdom of God really was at hand, bringing healing to the nations.

How did Paul proclaim the gospel? With words, obviously. But he also notes that one of the chief ways he “proclaimed” the gospel was by demonstrating it.

So here is my thesis: sharing the gospel with words, and demonstrating Jesus’ Just Kingship to our neighbors, are not two separate and parallel projects. They are two strings, twined intricately together to form a rope.

Doing justice is a vital demonstration of the gospel.

We see this even more clearly in the life and ministry of Jesus. Notice the way Jesus tells his own disciples to preach the gospel to the villages around them: “Preach as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand. ' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.” (Matthew 10:7-8).

Now…one way to read this would be:

“Hey, go tell people about me. Also, as a second thing I want you to do of slightly less importance, kind of a side project really just because I gave you all that Spirit juice…also try to help people with their problems. Those are the two separate things I want you to be about.”

Personally, I don’t think that’s the natural reading of Jesus’ words. I think the natural reading is this: “Preach to people about the kingdom with words and demonstrations.” These are not two things we need to ‘balance’ out with one another, because they are all part of the same project.

So why do we tend to give such a tortured reading to Jesus’ words, here?

It’s simple, really: that’s the gospel of escape, creeping into our interpretation of scripture. If Jesus’ message is “escape the earth to go to heaven”, then doing justice cannot be part of the gospel. No matter how much we try to make these two fit together, they simply won’t. How could doing justice ever fit into a story that tells us our bodies and our earthly lives don’t matter?

It can’t.

So, we’ve reasoned: “Jesus also cares about justice even though it has nothing to do with our true mission. So we should do that, too. But not too much!” It’s not the most compelling vision, is it? There’s no real logic behind it.

But if the gospel is about Jesus’ renewal of all things as our true prophet, priest and king…then justice is integral to our proclamation of the gospel. These things are woven together: Jesus is renewing all things. That’s why He invites each of us to personal renewal through his life, atoning death, and resurrection.

So to my more progressive friends, I would say:

• Why would you join Jesus in renewing society without ever inviting individuals to receive Jesus’ personal renewal for themselves? What good is that?

And to my conservative friends, I would ask:

• Why would you invite Jesus to personal renewal without ever joining him in the renewal of all things? What good is that?

Now…what does all this mean for our witness to our dechurched friends and neighbors?

Everything.

As author and playwright Dorothy Sayers once put it: “How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?” To which I would say: “He (or she) can’t!” And…we shouldn’t ask them to be interested in a religion which is uninterested in renewing all things through Jesus.

But here’s the positive way of saying this: I believe that once we start embracing justice as part of our gospel witness, there are literally millions of people waiting to see this. People are hungry for a gospel that matters.

What does that look like? How does that work?

Let me offer three ways I’ve seen this happen:

1. Justice as a witness for.

My first time seeing this was in Jackson, Mississippi. I was helping to repair houses in an at-risk neighborhood through Redeemer Presbyterian Church. One day, I was asked to go on a prayer walk to meet the neighbors. There, I saw something I’d never seen: people smiled when we said Redeemer’s name. That was true for people who’d joined the church, of course. But it was also true of people who hadn’t joined. That’s because each of these folks saw the way Jesus was renewing their neighborhood…and it was a witness to the truth of the gospel.

The justice exercised by this church was a witness to the fact that Jesus’ kingdom was for them. It would be cruel to preach a gospel that had no room for bringing healing to this neighborhood. It would be fruitless to bring renewal to a neighborhood without ever inviting someone to personal renewal, in Jesus.

This gospel-preaching church did both, beautifully.

2. Justice as a witness against.

This is maybe a neglected category, but sometimes, doing justice can be a witness against those who don’t know Jesus...especially when done in love, humility and a non-retaliatory spirit of service. In the same way the Old Testament law was a witness “against” the people of Israel in order to be a schoolmaster to lead them to Christ…so our own acts of justice can be a witness against our unjust neighbors, in order to lead them to Christ.

In his book, “Cities of God”, Rodney Stark argues that Christians practicing everyday justice toward the poor was an integral reason for the massive spread of Christian faith in the early west. The church simply cared for people in a way that wasn’t possible through any other institution. But you don’t need to take Stark’s word for it. Here’s 4^th century King Julian, complaining about the church:

‘the impious Galileans [Christians], in addition to their own, support ours, [and] it is shameful that our poor should be wanting our aid.’

He goes on, later:

‘Why then do we think that this is sufficient and do not observe how the kindness of Christians to strangers, their care for the burial of their dead, and the sobriety of their lifestyle has done the most to advance their cause?’

The church’s justice was a witness against the Roman Empire’s injustice. And this drew millions and millions of people from all over the world into the church.

3. Justice as a witness alongside.

When I doing campus ministry at the University of Missouri, I would take our freshman out once or twice a month to serve at a local retirement home. Interestingly, a few students without a Christian background began to join us. These students weren’t coming to Bible study. For the first year, they never came to hear preaching at large group. Rather, they saw the gospel at work…and decided to join us.

After a year of this, two of these students started coming to large group, then Bible study, and one of them became a baptized member of a church for the first time.

It was interesting to see their stories play out: they joined us in Jesus’ mission of renewal before they ever experienced their own personal renewal in Jesus. They came alongside us to work, before they ever joined us face to face. When it comes to reaching dechurched friends, this is actually the easiest starting point, counterintuitive as it may seem.

Not an intense conversation about dechurching.

Just a simple invitation to join Jesus in what he’s up to, through you:

• Would you like to help us rake someone’s yard this week?

• Would you like to join us in serving at the homeless shelter?

• Would you consider working for this organization – started by someone at our church - committed to our city’s good?

Surprising as it may seem, I’ve seen that doing justice alongside our dechurched neighbors can often be the first step back toward Jesus. It’s the thing that often causes them to say, “Hey. Maybe there’s something to this, after all.” This may sound surprising to many of us…but it really shouldn’t be. It’s only because of our late history that we feel this way. The testimony of the global, historic church is all in on witness.

And that means the church is all in on proclaiming and demonstrating the gospel, by living it out in simple acts of service.