Social Justice: Liberalism, Biblical or not that Simple?

This series of blog articles will provide theological and pastoral clarity with regards to the very emotionally charged and often confusing social justice conversation pervasive of late. There are a few introductory points I would like to make at the start of this series:

First, I am not against social justice nor its importance nor its place in the Christian sphere of conversation. However, what I see is that we are seeking to approach a right thing in various wrong ways. To seek justice (a right thing) in a wrong way is, frankly, wrong. With the clarifications in this blog series, I would like to change the conversation about justice (which is right) to be done in a right way.

Second, if you read this and find yourself affirming your belief that social justice does not matter or is nothing more than the error of liberals, you are misreading me, and I am not in your corner.

Third, if you are reading this and think that I am saying that social justice does not matter or is not in the Bible or is not important, you are not understanding what I am saying. I am seeking to talk about social justice in a way that does not redefine the church, its mission, the gospel, the Kingdom and many other important biblical convictions. My hope is that those of you who are passionate about social justice would do so well and in a manner consistent with the whole counsel of God.

With these orientational comments, I invite you to consider the following theological points on social justice.

We Cannot Redefine or Add to the Gospel to Promote Social Justice

Often in conversations about social justice, we hear things said like, “the gospel is social” or “social justice is the gospel.” If you look at gospel summaries in various places in scripture, it becomes clear that the gospel is not about our acts of justice or any other human acts. Rather, the gospel is about God’s historic works in Christ which fulfilled God’s just requirements through Christ’s active and passive obedience (1 Corinthians 15:1-6; Ephesians 2:1-10). The gospel is about God’s justice being measured out on Christ, the just one, in the face of our injustice. The gospel is not about God redeeming the world through empowering us to human-horizontal reconciliation, but the gospel is about a vertical reconciliation with sinners and God (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). The gospel of God’s works in Christ for us effects and causes us to love our neighbor in areas concerning justice, but that does not mean that the gospel is social or that social justice is a part or an element of the gospel. The gospel is not the good news about what the gospel empowers us to do in the world, the gospel is the good news about what God has done to reconcile us to Himself in His Son’s works irrespective of our works. The gospel is not the good news about what the gospel empowers us to do in the world, the gospel is the good news about what God has done to reconcile us to Himself in His Son’s works irrespective of our works (Romans 3:21-25). Does the gospel produce horizontal effects that are social? Yes, of course. Is any part of the gospel an act or an element of social justice amongst humans? Absolutely not. Any discussion about our works being any part of the gospel is nothing less than denying or adding to the gospel (Galatians 5:1-5). As we talk about the need for social justice (and it is needed), there is no need to redefine the gospel to include any element of the gospel’s consequences or effects. We can talk about social justice without making it a part of the gospel. The gospel is God’s works in Christ not any works of ours (Romans 1:2-4); social justice is our works that are empowered by the gospel.

If you hear by chance comments like, “I have been preaching a truncated gospel” or “you are preaching a truncated gospel” what is usually meant is that the preacher has not been speaking about social justice in their ministry. But not preaching about social justice is not preaching a truncated gospel! The gospel is Christ for us in history, not us doing justice or promoting justice in the present! What we should be saying is that we have been preaching the gospel without preaching the law of God as it pertains to our neighbor.

We Cannot Apply the Typological Kingdom of God to the Church in the World

Often in conversation about social justice various passages from the prophets are quoted as the biblical reason for us to as a church engage as the church in the restoration of justice in society. The problem here is that the theocracy of Israel was a place that shadowed the ultimate Kingdom of God in the new heavens and the new earth. The fact that there was no separation between secular and sacred in the typological Kingdom and that the religious and political and educational spheres of life were all part of the consecrated Kingdom of God is not directly and exactly applicable to the church in secular society (Hebrews 8). What this means is we cannot see the foretaste of the final Kingdom of God to be the moral reality or necessity of the church in the world. So, if we see God’s prophets calling for social reform in the theocracy, we must be consistent and not pick and choose the elements of theocracy that suit us. Meaning that in the theocratic Kingdom which foretasted the new heavens and earth, we were called to slaughter and kill the pagan peoples that were in the land and surrounded the land and to remove any and all elements of paganism. We were called to execute idolaters and to incarcerate rival nations and at times subject them to forced labor. If we are going to see the prophetic call to theocratic Israel to remove institutional injustice to be the reason for the church to seek to remove it from the society we live in, we must be consistent in the demands of the theocracy. To be clear, America is not theocratic Israel and is not subject to sacred mandates imposed on the typological Kingdom and likewise that the church is not a new theocracy that is commissioned to impose the Kingdom of Israel’s sacred demands on the surrounding society. The typological theocratic Kingdom of God in Israel is not a buffet table where we choose the mandates of the Kingdom that suit us (Hebrews 8:5; Mark 7:13; Galatians 4:10). To be clear, America is not theocratic Israel and is not subject to sacred mandates imposed on the typological Kingdom and likewise that the church is not a new theocracy that is commissioned to impose the Kingdom of Israel’s sacred demands on the surrounding society (Hebrews 12:21-24). We do not charge and demand justice in societal institutions with justice proof texts from Amos any more than we seek to kill Muslims and Buddhists and destroy their temples for their idolatry which corrupts society by using proof texts from Jeremiah. In church history, for example, in times such as the crusades many atrocities were committed as people sought to impose the typological theocracy in Israel in the world in which the church existed (1095-1291 AD). Having stated all this, do we care for justice and do we as redeemed people seek to love our neighbor? Yes, yes, yes. But quoting passages about the foretaste of the earthly typological Kingdom of God as the exegetical basis for such agendas is an absolute manipulation and hijacking of the prophets and is utterly confused about the nature of the earthly Israelite Kingdom.

It’s apparent that those who use the commands of the theocracy on earth are using those texts for good reasons, not violent ones however, it is still tainted with confusion about what the Israelite theocracy really pointed to. And it is exactly this logic that leads many Americans to believe that it is the church’s job to hijack American policies and institutions for Jesus. The church in America is not the theocratic typological Israel and as Christians, we need to have this conversation in a manner which is sensitive to the history of redemption.

We Cannot State That the Denial of Justice Is Essentially a Gospel Issue

The doing of justice is a gospel related issue but it is not essentially a gospel issue. The doing of justice is a law issue pertaining to the need to love our neighbor as ourselves. The call to do justice is the call to do something according to God’s holy law. When we are denying justice to someone collectively or individually, we are violating the law of God to love our neighbor in light of God’s character. Gospel issues are not law issues and law issues are not gospel issues even though they are related. For a deeper understanding of this concept, please see my series: Is the Law Distinct from the Gospel?. A gospel issue is someone denying something essential to the work of Christ (Galatians 1:6-10); a law issue is someone denying something essential to the law of Christ (James 2:9-11). Now does the gospel of Christ effect the way we see and love neighbor? Yes! If we do not see and treat are neighbor as God calls us to, are we totally overlooking a real and necessary consequence of the gospel? Yes! However, to simply vaguely say that the doing or lack of justice is a gospel issue is confusing. Gospel issues are making the doing of social justice a part of the good news of the gospel; gospel related issues are due to not seeing the gospel affect the way we keep the law. Social justice is a gospel related issue as it is an implication of the gospel, but it is in reality a law issue and a transgression of God’s moral law. The more we vaguely throw the term gospel around as we talk of social justice the more we subtly muddle the gospel and diminish the law of God. We cannot make gospel, law and law, gospel as we seek to promote the necessity of social justice.

We Cannot Confuse the Great Commission with the Great Commandment

This may be stated another way: we do not need to redefine the mission of the church to be serious about social justice. The frequent erroneous thought is that God has officially commissioned the church for the cause of creating justice in the context and culture it exists in. The marching orders of the church are not to go into all the world and establish justice in society but to proclaim the Christo-centric realities of a new resurrected society and to teach these new creations in Christ to live the totality of their life in its fullness because of and in and through Christ (Ephesians 4:1-15). In the gospel of Matthew’s terms, this is the call to sacraments and proclamation (Matthew 28:18-20). In John’s terms it is the ongoing Christ-centered care of the sheep (John 21:15-19). When the church does the great commission, acts of justice should follow and accompany this commission however it does not mean that the mission of the church is the mission of societal justice. When the church does the great commission, acts of justice should follow and accompany this commission however it does not mean that the mission of the church is the mission of societal justice. The great commission should always lead us to the great command but that does not mean that the great commission is the great command.The great commission should always lead us to the great command but that does not mean that the great commission is the great command. It is similar to the logical fallacy of saying that because good works always accompany faith that salvation is essentially faith and good works. Accompaniment does not necessarily define the essence of what something is. It is the church’s job to bring every people out of every tribe, tongue and nation into union with Christ through the means of grace. It is not the church’s job to subdue every nation with the great commandment of Christ. The keys we have been given by the King are about forgiveness of sins (John 20:23), vertical reconciliation (Colossians 1:21-22), ransom (Revelation 5), propitiation (Romans 3:25), redemption (Colossians 1:14), justification (Romans 4:4-6), and adoption (Galatians 4:4-6); they are not the keys about the redemption of non-redeemed elements of society. We cannot deny the great commandment as we do the great commission, but we cannot turn the great commission into the great commandment (simply to call for the need for the great commandment as it pertains to justice). The promotion of salvation and union with Christ is the essential and only church mandate even though loving our neighbor is a vital part that accompanies that call. Liberalism which is theologically godless is the inevitable and proven end and ultimate outcome to muddling the great commission with the great commandment.