Our Only Hope (III): The Gospel is All-Consuming

—Chris Krycho

In the midst of struggling to do church well spiritually and practically, we must remember the reason for the church: Christ himself. With this in mind, I'm writing a three-part series, Our Only Hope, focused on the good news that undergirds Pillar on the Rock.

• Part I: The Gospel is Necessary
• Part II: The Gospel is Sufficient
• Part III: The Gospel is All-Consuming
• Epilogue: To Pastors and Peers

The first two posts in this series addressed the ways that the good news is foundational to and sufficient for the life of the church. In this final post, I am examining how the gospel is all that the church must be about.

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The battle against postmodernism. Abortion, homosexual marriage, and "Happy Holidays." Questions on health-care reform. The justice of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Distractions.

The church is beset with distractions. Many of them are important battles that must be fought, yet in the midst of our concern with culture and politics, we can forget why we are here. The church has one primary mission: to proclaim Jesus Christ to a dark and hopeless world, and help his people know Him.

In the last several decades, the body of Christ has (rightly) recognized the need for cultural engagement. Many have argued, and continue to argue, about how to engage the culture. In the end, though, we must recognize that no amount of political activism, cultural engagement, social activism or community outreach can ever replace the straightforward proclamation of Jesus' lordship over everything and His power to save and transform every heart.

The mission of the church, we would argue, does include the equipping of its members for political, cultural and social outreach. At the same time, we fervently believe that the best equipping for that outreach is the gospel: it will meet the challenge. More importantly, we hold that no political or cultural change that we accomplish will produce the eternal fruit that proclamation of the gospel does.

We do not want the people of God to abandon the public sphere—to the contrary, we applaud the last generations' fight to help Christians recognize that they must be in this world as well as not of it. We dare not neglect the good works that God has called all believers to: caring for the helpless, resisting injustice, and calling those who abuse their position to repent.

However, we believe the church militant has always been most effective in transforming the world around it when it is most focused on making disciples. Those disciples, from every station and every nation, have often gone on to shake the secular foundations of their age. The church changes the world by changing hearts. Hearts are changed not by any earthly power but by the word of truth.

Paul wrote,

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
(Romans 1:16)

The gospel bears the power of God for salvation to all. It is not hindered by political barriers, and thrives in the midst of persecution. We should, like Paul, resolve to "know nothing... except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). Though he could have sought to persuade the Corinthians by eloquence, mundane wisdom, or even political stature as a Roman citizen, Paul came "trembling" (1 Corinthians 2:3) and proclaimed not social revolution or political transformation but a man hung on a cross to die.

We should aim not for earthly influence but eternal salvation. The church must set its eyes on its King, the bride looking with delight to the Bridegroom who has wooed her. The gospel should saturate every sermon, every song and every service project. When the church cares for nothing so much as winning the lost to Christ and helping the saints to know Him more every day, it will march forward victorious—whether influential or oppressed.