There is the recent phenomenon of the social gospel taking root in many evangelical churhes across the country. The basic premise of the social gospel is that as Christians, we simply need to be about doing good deeds, helping the poor and fighting for social justice. Preaching the gospel is not necessary and even prohibited in some cases. The reason? For fear of offending someone. The idea that people think is that somehow our actions will speak louder than words and accomplish God’s will any way. However is this biblical? The bible says that if a sinner is going to be saved it must be through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8,9). And as Paul says in Rom. 10:14 “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? ” It is through the preaching of the gospel. It is hard to believe that many churches across our country have abandoned their commission and have been ashamed of the gospel which is the power of salvation to those who believe.
But then on the other side of things there are churches that are strong in preaching the gospel. In fact these churches are impeccable when it comes to getting our gospel tracts, having witness teams and maybe even open air preachers. But they care not for the need of the poor and neglect the needs of those even in their own church. This too is an extreme which is unbiblical and is a failure in many churches. The reality is if we really are committed to a gospel centered life and church we will want to have a right balance between the two.
In this recent video I watched on Gospel Coalition, I was blessed to hear, DA Carson, John Piper and Tim Keller, discuss this balance and the need to have a gospel centered mercy ministry. In fact what really blessed me out of the whole deal was the way John Piper described how evangelism is rooted in our desire to alleviate the suffering of other people. The suffering he was referring to was the eternal suffering they will experience in Hell apart form God if they do not repent and believe the gospel!
