We live in scary times. We have plenty of things to be troubled about in our world: inflation and economic uncertainties; dictators in China, Russia, and other places, with intents on world domination; political polarization at home and a divided government; and a constant barrage of information and social media that results in a 24-7 anxiousness. Where is the salvation of our world? As we should, Christians seek to have a voice in our world because we have so much to say. But our culture is suspicious of, and at times even hostile to, Christianity. One of the problems is that non-Christians have seen just enough of Christianity that they think they know what it is and have already dismissed it. “North America is a place where people have absorbed just enough Christianity to inoculate them against the contagion of the real thing.”[1] In the face of all this, how do Christians respond?
This is the last of three blogs. The first two addressed the tendency of some Christians to think that politics is the primary means to “save America” so that “America can save the world.” While Christian involvement in political matters is a responsibility of Christians, nowhere does the New Testament teach that politics is the salvation of the world. What God has done and is doing in Jesus Christ is the salvation of the world, and God knows what He is doing.
Neither politics nor America is the hope of the world; the church saved by and submitting to Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. As Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon contend, the primary political task of the church is not to transform the world but be the church: “the most creative social strategy we have to offer is the church. Here we show the world a manner of life the world can never achieve through social coercion or governmental action.”[2] As Jonathan Leeman writes, “the church’s most powerful political word is the gospel. And the church’s most powerful political testimony is being the church.”[3] Because this is the case, Leeman urges us to “switch our primary political loyalties to our local churches.”[4] As Timothy Keller writes, “when the church, in the interests of acquiring political power, aligns too much with the current age’s secular left or right, it is sapped of both spiritual power and credibility with non-Christians. We see ‘the political captivity of the faithful.’”[5]
So, in light of living in a hostile culture that does not believe in moral absolutes and is suspicious of Christianity, and in light of political polarization and the need to think clearly and responsibly about involvement in politics, how should Christians respond? I think we should respond the way the early church did in the midst of a hostile culture—loving sacrificially and boldly living out and proclaiming the Good News of the love of God expressed so fully in Jesus Christ. This is a missional response, and this type of response is outlined in Timothy Keller’s short booklet, How to Reach the West Again: Six Essential Elements of a Missionary Encounter. I would encourage you to read this short book, but here I will provide an outline of Keller’s thoughts.
WE SHOULD QUESTION THE WORLD’S ANSWERS
The early Christians did more than give evidence for the truth of Christianity. They also radically critiqued the dominant culture and showed how it failed to deliver all that it claimed. They questioned people’s answers before answering people’s questions. Today, the current secular view of life (without God) has a lot to answer for. It offers freedom and individuality but fails to deliver on its promises. The secular worldview results in relationships that are “transactional” (what’s in it for me?), identities that are liquid and fragile, and supposed sources of fulfillment that are disappointing. The secular viewpoint is shallow and does not lead to human flourishing but to loneliness, enslaving addictions, hostility, and fear.
WE HAVE REALLY GOOD NEWS FOR HUMAN BEINGS
The shallow secular worldview is like a bad suit—it just doesn’t fit human beings. But God knows what does fit human beings—he created us, and he created us to flourish. Keller mentions some ways the Good News of Jesus provides the right “suit” for humanity:
- A meaning in life that suffering can’t take away, but which suffering can even deepen
- A satisfaction that isn’t based on circumstances
- A freedom that doesn’t reduce community and relationships to thin transactions (A word our world needs to hear is the word “covenant”)
- An identity that isn’t fragile or based on our performance
- A way to both deal with guilt and forgive others without residual bitterness or shame (Two other words our world needs to hear are “forgiveness” and “reconciliation”)
- A basis for seeking justice that does not turn us into oppressors ourselves
- A way to face not only the future, but death itself with poise and peace
- An explanation for the transcendent beauty and love we experience
WE HAVE A CATEGORY DEFYING SOCIAL VISION
God’s action in the world is the reconciliation of all things through the humility and love he has shown in Jesus Christ. He has created a reconciling, humble, and loving community called the church of Jesus Christ. Thus, the church is the alternative to what the world offers. As Jon Tyson had noted, when the world looks at the church, it should say “I want that (the church), not this (secular world).” In Destroyer of the Gods, Larry Hurtado explains why in the first few centuries the people in the pagan (secular) Roman world converted to Christianity, even though it was the most persecuted of all religions. “Hurtado suggests that part of the answer was the Christian social project—a unique kind of human community that defied categories then and still does today.”[6] The early church’s social vision (which should be our vision) was:
- Multi-racial and multi-ethnic (translated “Get out of your racial, ethnic, and political comfort zones, Christians”)
- Highly committed to caring for the poor and marginalized
- Non-retaliatory, marked by a commitment to forgiveness
- Strongly and practically against abortion and infanticide
- Revolutionizing the sex ethic (God brings back the union of sex and love, body and spirit, commitment and family)
WE CAN HAVE A FAITHFUL PRESENCE IN PUBLIC AND IN POLITICS
As Keller notes, “Christians do not withdraw from culture, but they do not compromise and they do not try to dominate. They simply enter every field trying to be salt and light, trying to serve, and yet at the same time being true to their Christian faith.”[7] As many Christian writers have pointed out, Christians today are like the Jews exiled in Babylon. This is a different culture, and we are “resident aliens.” God told the Jews in exile what they should be doing while in Babylon in Jeremiah 29:7: “Work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.” We need to be faithfully present in the public sphere in a way that attracts people, not repels them. That means that if a political candidate we support does not exhibit Christian character (whether on the right of the left), we call them out. That also means that Christians should be an example of civility to this world, rather than another angry tribe. As Keller points out, civility involves humility, patience, and lack of self-righteousness.
ALWAYS BE FULL OF GRACE
As we respond to this world (whether culturally, politically, and in our everyday lives), we cannot lose the “very core” of our faith: grace! Keller mentions the various awakenings and revivals that have occurred in Christian history, such as the Reformation, the Great Awakenings in the 1700’s and 1800’s, and even the powerful success of the Billy Graham crusades. At the heart of each of these great revivals was the rediscovery of the gospel of grace. The gospel is so powerful because it is exactly what we humans want and need so desperately: to know we are loved to our core; to have Someone strong enough to confront us with what’s wrong with us and be liberated by that acknowledgment; to begin to learn how to live with grace, love, security, freedom, and meaning; to be part of a real “family” of people that love me for who I am and will be with me through thick and thin. That message of grace is the power and the wisdom of God.
ENCOURAGEMENT
Keller ends his booklet with many things Christians should be encouraged by, and one of the most encouraging is the explosive growth of non-Western Christianity. “At the very least, 70% of all Christians today live outside the West.”[8] The gospel of Jesus Christ is not failing in the world; Jesus is alive and moving. Christians in these non-Western nations (such as in Africa, Central and South America, Korea and China) have had to take a first-century, missional approach to their cultures, and the Gospel is bearing fruit. As Paul would say, “the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace” (Col. 1:6).
[1] Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2014), 4.
[2] Hauerwas and Willimon, 83.
[3] Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2018), 146.
[4] Leeman, 131.
[5] Timothy Keller, How to Reach the West Again: Six Essential Elements of a Missionary Encounter (New York: Redeemer City to City, 2020), 11.
[6] Keller, 25, citing Larry Hurtado, Destroyer of the Gods (Baylor, 2017).
[7] Keller, 47.
[8] Keller, 54.