Posted by
Jason Cunningham on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 6:57:36 PM
Barack Obama believes that some right-wing evangelists have “hijacked” Christianity. Maybe so – every group in every area of life has a few bad apples who do the wrong thing. But in focusing on the social-justice issues of the Bible, Obama and other Liberal Christians are themselves missing the point of our faith.
Paul wrote to the young Timothy that “this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (I Tim. 1:15). That one verse is the Bible – and Jesus’s mission – in a nutshell: The primary reason that Jesus came to Earth was to redeem us from our sin and thus restore us to a right relationship with God. This is the whole aim of the Bible, which is a love letter from God telling us that we’ve fallen but that He’s willing to help us up, and telling us how He does that.
The social-justice form of Christianity, with its focus on feeding the hungry, helping the needy, etc., does many a good work, but it makes the fundamental error of putting the focus on a response to Christian faith instead of on the saving faith itself. For that is what Christianity is truly about – a personal, redeeming, transforming relationship with Jesus, the God and Creator of the universe. Feeding the hungry and helping the poor is certainly a right response to such a relationship – but it is nevertheless simply a response to the relationship, not the relationship itself; and only one of many possible responses, at that. For the Bible also teaches that making wise use of our time, money and other resources is a proper response to knowing Christ, but does that make resource-management the chief aim of Christianity? Of course not.
Matthew chapter 26 contains the story of a woman who uses a whole bottle of expensive perfume to anoint the feet of Jesus. The disciples are aghast, saying the perfume could have been sold for much money, which, in turn, could have been given to help many poor people. How does Jesus respond? By saying, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.”
Note that the “good work” mentioned here isn’t simply a good deed, but an act of worship toward Jesus. In other words, Jesus is telling us that although simple “good deeds” are good, and befitting a follower of Christ, we must keep our priorities in the proper order, and that means making Jesus, and our relationship with Him, No. 1. Everything else should then flow out of that.
Lastly, and at the risk of sounding judgmental, I must also give voice to my educated guess that there are a fair number who are Liberal Christians because it’s convenient for them. Liberal Christianity enables them to “be religious” without having to take a stand against those unbiblical things that secular mainstream society finds so appealing: abortion on demand, same-sex relationships, religion-free schools, the “do what feels good” mentality. To each his own, right? Liberal Christianity also allows them to believe that they can do the “proper” number of good deeds that will “satisfy” God while living the rest of their lives (and making many major decisions) against the clear word of Scripture.
In the end, Liberal Christianity serves only to emasculate the Bible – turning it into nothing more than a secular-humanist manifesto – and give people a watered-down Gospel that’s easy to swallow – all the humanitarianism of Christ, none of His troublesome theology.