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Introduction

If you are an evangelical republican in the United States, you likely feel like you are living in a political and cultural twilight zone. A myriad of voices within and outside evangelicalism are either hammering your head or needling your heart for voting for Trump. Accusations take various forms: If you’re an Evangelical who votes Republican, then you must be a white, power-hungry nationalist, or you must be a heartless racist, or you must be a paranoid bigot, or you must be a hollow-headed crowd follower. It seems as if one thing isn’t possible: that you can be a big-hearted, sharp-minded, good-humored, Bible-centered Evangelical who casts a ballot for Trump and Pence.

I think it’s possible, and I have 20 reasons why.

But before I delve into each reason, I think it’s important to review five erroneous Evangelical responses to the 2020 election, the biblical response to the 2020 election, the four pillars that Evangelicals stand upon, and how Progressive ideology supplants those four pillars. The 20 reasons will be clearer if I address those topics first—even though I can just barely touch each topic for the sake of space.

In short, I contend that the Progressive ideology that has become the driving force of the Democratic party opposes, in extreme ways, biblical truth and will cause immense harm to society in measure with the power it gains. Conservative ideology that is the driving force behind the Republican party stands closer to biblical truth and is more likely to promote human flourishing in measure with the power it gains.

Summary

Five Erroneous Evangelical Responses

1. Evangelicals shouldn’t fight in a cultural or political war to win.
2. Both political parties are equally morally unacceptable and shouldn’t receive a vote.
3. Both political parties are equally morally acceptable and can be chosen on preference.
4. Trump is a godly gentleman and political messiah for Evangelicals.
5. Evangelicals just need to hush and stop making this election such a big deal.

The Biblical Response

Voting is a privilege and divine mandate based on our inherent identity as image-bearing representatives of God on earth. Both parties are not morally equivalent. Both parties will not produce a morally equal outcome in government and society. We have the responsibility to do due diligence to determine which party is better morally, philosophically, and practically, and then vote based on conviction. Even if both parties are undesirable, we must do the hard work, pray, and vote with courage and faith.

Four Pillars of Evangelicalism Vs. Progressivism

All people need and seek perspective, transcendence, hope, and purpose. Everyone automatically answers these personal questions. Their answers shape the course of their lives.

Evangelicals establish their ultimate source of perspective, transcendence, hope, and purpose on the following pillars:

1. Perspective: The Bible is the authoritative source of information for truth about God, life, and this world.
2. Transcendence: Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection holds the key to fix humanity’s problem by connecting us, through faith in Him, with the true source of life—God.
3. Hope: Each person requires a supernatural, internal, spiritual, and moral transformation from God’s Spirit to receive and benefit from the true source of life.
4. Purpose: Participants in that new life enjoy God, express God’s nature, and extend the good news of Jesus to all who haven’t heard.   

Progressive ideology supplants each of these pillars with opposing answers:

1. Perspective: An amalgam of evolutionistic, scientistic, Marxist, and pragmatistic ideas authoritatively interprets all of life.
2. Transcendence: Our connection to society and government satisfactorily and supremely connects us with something greater than ourselves.
3. Hope: A powerful government can right all the wrongs by restructuring society.
4. Purpose: One must participate in and support the government’s fight to right all those wrongs.

20 Biblical Reasons to Vote for Republicans against Democrats

The Conservative ideology driving the Republican party stands closer to the Bible than the Progressive ideology driving the Democratic party because Conservative ideology aligns more closely with the following biblical truths:

1. God authorizes certain inalienable human rights, not the government.
2. God explains human history, not Charles Darwin.
3. Human nature is essentially defined and fixed, not essentially malleable.
4. Human perfectibility depends upon God, not upon government.
5. Utopia requires God’s intervention, not governmental restructuring.
6. Good governing flows first from justice and morality, not scientistic expertise.
7. Humans are morally corrupt, not morally good or neutral.
8. Political power should be carefully stewarded, not unprincipledly wielded.
9. People believe truth for truth’s sake, not truth for mere power’s sake.
10. Moral and immoral actions explain the nature of society, not merely class struggles.
11. Peace must come through strength, not appeasement.
12. Historians must unfold the past first, not shape the future.
13. Journalists should relay the facts first, not aim for change.
14. Jurists must adjudicate based on law, not on personal preference or values.
15. Our souls belong to God, not to society.
16. Government should incentivize effort and ingenuity, not enable immoral or unwise behavior through handouts.
17. Government owes its citizens first, not foreigners or foreign nations.
18. Government should ensure justice for all, not restructure society for some.
19. Life starts in the womb, not out.
20. God condemns abuse of political power first, not personal immorality.    

Five Erroneous Evangelical Responses to the 2020 Election

Because of the emotional hostility, moral discomfort, and sheer complexity that surrounds the election in general, some Evangelicals have sought to give thoughtful and biblical responses to the election. The first three responses deal specifically with views argued by Andy Stanley, John Piper, and Tim Keller. I appreciate the ministries of each of these men and have benefited immensely from them in many ways. I revere them and am happy to recant and apologize if I have misrepresented their views. I actually hope I have misrepresented their views because I believe each of them have articulated a sub-biblical response to the 2020 election. The two other views I mention are more general and are essentially unbiblical.  

Evangelicals Shouldn’t Fight in a Cultural or Political War to Win

Andy Stanley argued that Christians should not engage in an all-out fight to win a cultural or political war for personal gain. Specifically, he was defending North Point Church’s call to suspend worship gatherings for the rest of the year to ensure they do not contribute to spreading COVID-19. He argued that it was Christlike to relinquish their right to conduct worship services in order to protect the health and safety of their surrounding community.

He based his argument on Philippians 2:6–8 where Paul enjoined believers to have the mind of Christ who did not cling to his divine identity but embraced the identity of a servant to the point of death on a cross. In other words, Jesus came to serve and not be served (Mark 10:45); Jesus did not come to fight and win a culture war for His own good. Stanley propounded that Christians don’t fight a cultural or political war to win—at least for personal gain. Christians should give up their right to fight like Jesus did and, instead, fight for the rights of others.

For his church, it seems like a noble decision so long as believers continue to meet regularly for worship in some capacity (Hebrews 10:25) even if it’s not everyone in one place. I believe that’s what they’re doing. Fantastic. Praise God! I fear, however, that Stanley’s general implication creates the wrong impression—that we should not engage in culture or political wars, or that we should do so lackadaisically. Or, at the very least, Andy Stanley left hearers with a biblically muddled and overly simplistic approach to the general 2020 cultural and political situation in the United States. Perhaps I misunderstood him. If I didn’t, I believe his argument is off.

First, Paul argued in Philippians 2:6–11 specifically that Christians should embrace an attitude of humility and look out for others needs before their own within the church community. By extension, of course, Christians should practice the same in their families, communities, and nations. But Christians should not, however, relinquish any form of noble struggle against another when that struggle is for a moral cause. Christians should engage in cultural and political wars so long as the aim of their struggle produces a better cause than the opposing party’s cause and so long as they engage that struggle with integrity, charity, justice, reason, and truth.

Second, Paul used his civic privilege, as a Roman citizen, to advance the purposes of the Gospel or at least to prevent any hindrance to the spread of the Gospel. Christians do well to follow in his footsteps—not merely for personal gain, but for Kingdom purposes. Complimentary to these Kingdom purposes are basic, divinely endowed societal qualities, worthy of every society’s pursuit, that foster human flourishing. These qualities include righteousness, peace, happiness, justice, truth, etc. Christians have the imperative from God to foster these qualities in their community at least as a secondary goal behind the spread and cultivation of the Gospel.

The current political and cultural “wars,” if you want to call them wars, involve moral matters as well as those other divinely endowed qualities that foster human flourishing. Therefore, Christians should fight in the right way in the cultural and political wars to win them because it will lead to the good of their society in general. Bad people and bad causes triumph when good people do nothing.

Both Political Parties Are Equally Morally Unacceptable and Shouldn’t Receive a Vote

Dr. John Piper argued that, for all practical purposes, both the Republican and Democratic parties are equally irredeemable and, therefore, he will likely not vote for either presidential candidate in 2020. Trump’s individual arrogance leads to death that is just as nationally and morally detrimental as the Democratic party’s tsunamic support of abortion. Piper believes that siding with King Jesus makes him side against both parties of death. That is where his faith has taken him and he does not think, necessarily, that all should go there. Praise to Piper for talking about these political matters! But by virtue of publishing his thoughts, he has engaged in persuasion with the implied aim of having other Christians take his position.

I believe he is wrong and pray he’ll reconsider his decision before election day.

First, Piper believes Trump’s personal arrogance has saturated and will continue to saturate the Republican party and his supporters should he get reelected. God hates arrogance. God judges arrogance. Arrogance leads to stupid and immoral decisions. Of course, Piper’s biblically accurate here—and his numerous Bible references support that accuracy. But Trump’s decision to act arrogantly doesn’t nullify the personal agency of those around him and those who support him. Believers like Mike Pence and Kayleigh McEnany, who work very closely with Trump, appear to walk the fine line of supporting Trump while upholding humility and other godly virtues. Egypt and Babylon and Persia would likely have suffered at a greater level from the arrogance of Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and Ahasuerus were it not for the godly, humble political involvement of Joseph, Daniel, and Esther. Surely, we’re allowed to speculate that these Old Testament figures were put in less-than-desirable moral situations where they had to choose the lesser of two evils. They made the tough decision and moved forward with faith in God. Otherwise, they would not have kept their positions.

Evangelicals should not avoid engaging in politics simply because it feels morally messy. Many Trump supporters have chosen against his arrogance and have publicly condemned it. Plus, Trump’s arrogance leads to the lesser of the evils of arrogance. He boasts in himself, but when it comes to making decisions, he’s open to the advice and opinion of others—at least according to those who work with him. That behavior actually demonstrates humility. On the flipside, the whole avalanche of the Democratic party has already activated their collective agency by deciding to fight for abortion. I find it difficult to believe that one man will influence an entire party at the same level of the entire already-abortion-approving ethos of the Democratic party.

Second, while political involvement isn’t our primary prerogative, it is still our prerogative by virtue of our divinely given identity as image bearers of the Most High. Evangelicals cannot choose to not represent heaven on earth (Genesis 1–2; Colossians 3). God has made all humans as such. As a heavenly representative, we’re called to steward our power and influence such that the ways of God unfold upon the earth. Our transformation in Christ through the Spirit helps us fulfill that identity in the current order of this world. Not to act is to abscond that mandate. Voting is a tremendous privilege and stewardship that God has given to Evangelicals living in the United States in 2020.

It is naively simplistic and, therefore, false to assume that both political parties are equally evil. We must do the hard work of study, reflection, and prayer in order to decide and act on what we believe best achieves a better vision for human flourishing according to what we read in God’s Word.

Third, God calls us to do the hard work of living by taking risks of faith for Him. Jesus told a parable in Matthew 25:14–30 that commended those who received money, invested it, and multiplied it for their master. Jesus condemned the one who received money, buried it because he didn’t want to risk losing it, and then returned it to his master with nothing else to show for it. Specifically, I take Jesus to refer to our stewardship of all within our influence to advance the Gospel. We harness our time, energy, and resources to advance the Kingdom. I believe political involvement for the sake of effecting good to be a natural implication of Jesus’s parable. By not voting, we burry what God had stewarded to us. We’re called to be shrewd and courageous upon this earth.

Pastor-theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, when reflecting upon his decision to join the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, said we must be more focused upon doing the will of God instead of not sinning. Not killing Hitler would have been morally worse than doing nothing to let him continue his destruction. Bonhoeffer was in a highly morally compromising position. But he had to do the hard thing through faith in Christ. Thankfully, in no way are we in a situation like Bonhoeffer’s. All we have to do is vote and vote we must do.

God calls us to do the hard thing, to get involved in the messiness of the world for the good of the world. Occasionally, we have to get distracted with unpleasant affairs like politics—even for months or years—in order to preserve or foster the advancement of the Gospel in the years to come. Sometimes, we have to stop praying to change a diaper. That’s because we’re human. God approves of such responsibilities because he made us as such.

At the very least, Evangelicals must determine which party will cause more good for the advancement of the Gospel and for our society. Then vote.

Both Political Parties Are Equally Morally Acceptable So Evangelicals Can Vote on Preference

Dr. Timothy Keller rightly argued in his New York Times opinion that Christians do not neatly fit within our two party political system. We’re Evangelical first. Political, second. From what I have heard, Keller prefers to withhold his own personal political viewpoints—especially when he was a pastor. He rightly saw the troubles that could come should a church align too closely with one party of the other. Also, he approaches the two parties from his typical objective, academic tone to bring out the positives of both sides to show that Christians who espouse each are not crazy or evil.

I believe Keller is flawed in his thinking on this subject.

In his New York Times opinion, it feels as if Timothy Keller is inviting a stranger (i.e., non-believers) into a very personal family discussion (i.e., the church). Like he’s trying to commend Christianity to non-believers in general by arguing for the rational and moral legitimacy of both political sides—on matters of government size, economic system, poverty alleviation. I finished the article with the impression that we arrive at our political stance in the same way we arrive at our decision to eat Mexican food over Italian. Like our political decision is based exclusively on personal taste and not even upon what’s practical, much less moral. Perhaps I’m misreading him.

If I’m not misreading him, Keller is arguing that both parties are equally morally and practically acceptable.

Keller errs by over intellectualizing politics and, therefore, dehumanizes it. The arena of politics involves taste, yes, but more so it involves pragmatics and morality because it is a human endeavor. Evangelicals have very clear stances on matters of morality. While it’s necessary to think through all the issues, at some point we have to stop and act with moral conviction. I appreciate Keller’s sensitivity to both sides. He falls in line with missionary-theologian Lesslie Newbigin who believed that churches should do their best to stay out of taking-sides when it comes to certain cultural, political issues. That stance seems prudent. But Newbigin also said there comes a time when the issues become so clear as to what’s right and wrong, what’s moral and immoral, that the church must speak and act for what’s right and moral and speak out against those who support what’s wrong and immoral.

I believe we live in a time such as that. The cultural and political climate has reached deeply beyond the realms of practicality into the realms of morality. Both parties are not morally or biblically viable. The church cannot equally applaud both parties. Churches should speak clearly and forcefully on moral matters against both parties, if necessary, where they fall short. In doing so, the church embraces her identity as a colony of heaven present in the world for the good of the world. By not working as a moral agent for the good of our nation, Evangelical churches seek to become something other than what they are.

Trump is Godly Gentleman and Political Messiah for Evangelicals

Stanley, Piper, and Keller all put forward significant, biblical truths that are important for Evangelicals to remember. From my limited perspective, I simply think they are less right than they could be.

This fourth position, however, is just flat out wrong. Some Evangelicals have gone so far as to praise Trump into the heavenlies and hang the existence of Christianity in America on this one man. The all-or-nothing mentality has trapped this group into placing Trump in the “all” bucket. First, I’m aware of little evidence that Trump understands the Gospel. I hope he is a Christ-follower, but he does not appear to be one. If not, I hope he becomes a born-again Christian. Second, God is sovereign. If Trump doesn’t get reelected, then perhaps the church in the present will flourish more than if he was reelected. We won’t know. We can only act in the present with the knowledge we have in the faith God has given us. For now, the historical verdict is still open and it appears that Trump offers more for the good of our nation and humanity in general than Biden. Evangelicals should justly labor to create the outcome that appears right to us with our hands open to receive the outcome God will give. In all cases, we submit ourselves to God in faith.

Evangelicals Just Need to Hush and Stop Making this Election Such a Big Deal  

I’m saddened by those within the Evangelical household who discourage and condescend other members for voicing their opinion—even if that opinion is inarticulate and overly simplified. These reactionaries are trying to stay out of the courageous position of putting forward their convictions while, at the same time, castigating those who are making their beliefs known. These naysayers are not working to build up their house into a biblically grounded, spiritually strong fortress, but are tossing stones through windows and walls by combating their own family. Just because one is less articulate doesn’t mean they are stupid. Instead, those who are more articulate should assist and encourage those who aren’t in a way that builds up, not in a way that tears down.

God calls Christians to speak the truth to each other in love (Ephesians 4:15). Some of the more articulate in the house are speaking truth in such a way that they are making others dull, not sharp. Evangelicals sharpen each other.

The Right Response: Evangelical First, Republican Second

I’m grateful for people like Eric Metaxas, Greg Laurie, and John Macarthur who are courageous enough to lay before the world their political convictions while remaining biblically firm enough to speak the truth in love—even when that means disapproval—to the political party they’re supporting. Backing Republicanism doesn’t mean we back all that the Republicans stand for nor that we approve of all members of the Republican party. Political parties are a means to an end—although an imperfect means. This response avoids the errors mentioned above and embraces the biblical truths which the responses above lack.

Voting is a privilege and divine mandate based on our inherent identity as image-bearing representatives of God on earth. Both parties are not morally equivalent. Both parties will not produce an equal moral outcome in government and society. We have the responsibility to do due diligence to determine which party is better morally, philosophically, and practically, and then vote based on those convictions. Even if both parties are undesirable, we must do the hard work, pray, and vote with courage and faith.

So Remind Me What It Means to Be an Evangelical

Evangelicalism in general is not an institution nor found in a person. In short, Evangelicalism is a set of beliefs and values. These beliefs and values don’t stem from human contriving or proclivities. They rest on the acts and words of God who has involved Himself in human affairs. We orient what we think, feel, say, and do based on what He has done and said. Evangelicalism is a term developed to describe those who believe and value the same things.

Evangelicals stand on four key pillars.

First, the Bible has the final authority on matters of life and faith. The Bible gives us perspective. The Bible is divinely inspired by God’s Spirit and useful for learning about God, God’s ways, and God’s will in the world (2 Timothy 3:16–17). Evangelicals read the Bible closely and interpret it carefully so that they accurately understand the Bible’s stance on what it teaches. We wrestle with but don’t argue against what the Bible teaches.

Second, the Gospel invites people to enjoy by faith the full favor and benefits of God because of Jesus’ sacrificial and substitutionary death on a cross. Jesus gives us transcendence. Jesus’ resurrection authenticates the meaning His death and, through the Spirit, unleashes all those benefits, which His death purchased, to the one who places his or her faith in Him (1 Corinthians 15; Romans 5; 8). One cannot come to know God or enjoy all His benefits in any other way. Therefore, Evangelicals embrace those benefits through the power of the Spirit and through the Word of God so they can become who they’re truly meant to be in Christ.

Third, people come into this world naturally opposed to God and good living to the extent that they need a supernatural, internal, spiritual, and moral work of God on their heart, mind, and spirit to actually know God, put their faith in Christ, enjoy the benefits of God, and do the will of God (John 3:1–16). The Spirit gives us hope. Without that internal, spiritual work through the Holy Spirit, one exists as a child of God’s wrath, enchained by Satan’s influence, bent toward corrupt desires, and spiritually dead to God (Ephesians 2:1–3). The Spirit applies the finished work of Christ on the cross to reverse the works for sin, Satan, and death. The Spirit regenerates a person so that he or she can better represent God’s presence on earth and reflect God’s nature throughout the earth (Titus).

Fourth, born-again believers aim to enjoy God’s person, express God’s nature, and extend God’s message in the Gospel. The Gospel gives us purpose. All people must hear the Gospel. Without hearing the Gospel and whole-heartedly embracing God, people will be eternally condemned after they die (Romans 2; 10). Evangelicals have the primary responsibility of spreading the Gospel where it has yet to be heard and strengthening the Gospel message, via spiritually flourishing church communities, where the Gospel message has already reached.

These four priorities lead to many implications. Yet, all of those implications stand on these four. In short, Evangelical beliefs encompass—theoretically—one’s entire framework for thinking about life and one’s entire direction in life. These pillars ground the Evangelical’s identity. These pillars, or implications of these pillars, give us a framework of biblical reasons for voting for Trump instead of Biden.

Progressive ideology provides alternative, opposing answers to each human’s need for perspective, transcendence, hope, and purpose. Progressive ideology consists of an amalgam of evolutionistic, scientistic, Marxist, and pragmatistic ideas as an authoritative guide for interpreting all of life (perspective). Our connection to society and government supremely and satisfactorily connects us with something greater than ourselves (transcendence). A powerful government can right all the wrongs by restructuring society (hope). One must participate in and support the government’s fight to right all those wrongs (purpose).

Evangelicals acknowledge that they ultimately don’t wage war against flesh and blood, but against evil, spiritual powers that are swaying peoples’ thoughts and desires against God, the ways of God, and the will of God (Ephesians 6:12)—especially those people who’re in power. So Evangelicals take it upon ourselves to wage spiritual war against every lofty opinion or argument that exalts itself against the knowledge of God—whether that opinion be religious or philosophical or cultural or political (2 Corinthians 10:3–5 ). Jesus said folly is a sin that defiles a person (Mark 7:22). Folly not only corrupts individuals, but it also corrupts societies and governments. Folly distorts reality and leads to bad decisions. Evangelicals have a mandate to expose false, godless assumptions that war against human flourishing at all levels.

In short, Evangelicals have a mandate to talk with the force of reason and biblical truth.

20 Biblical Reasons for Voting Republican instead of Democrat

In summary, the Bible opposes much of the ideology and ethos that fills Progressivism. As of 2020, Progressivism is now the dominant force driving the Democratic party. It’s not a person or institution. It’s a system of values and beliefs, like Evangelicalism. In some cases, Progressivism has infiltrated the Republican party. In those cases, however, the Republican party simply doesn’t take Progressivist ideology as practically as far as the Democratic party takes it—and that has to be sufficient to gain a tally on our voting grid.

Generally speaking, however, the Conservatism of the Republican party stands opposed to Progressivism of the Democratic party.

Below, I argue that Progressivism is made up of many false, godless assumptions that are incompatible with Evangelical beliefs and values. Of course, many of Progressivism’s points contain a partial amount of truth, but the truth is shouted so loudly against other truthful voices that that truth is wrong. Also, not all Democratic politicians and voters hold all the points below. Some Democratic politicians and voters may even eschew some of these beliefs or values, but their eschewing is largely irrelevant because those who hold influence in the Democratic party espouse in large measure the Progressive ideology and ethos. These assumptions and values have unending ripple effects throughout much of the way one views politics, does politics, and approaches policy making.

I simply wish to summarize Progressivist assumptions and how they conflict with biblical truth. Many people often hold their beliefs and values at an intuitive, visceral level without actually articulating what they are. That’s why those who hold Progressive ideology and those who hold an Evangelical ideology disagree with each other in their gut reaction without always being able to explain why. Here’s my attempt to explain why. For space’s sake, I don’t dive into details or examples. I acknowledge and accept that critique. But I say with a fair amount of confidence that all the Progressivist points I mention below have historical and philosophical ground that can be found elsewhere. I am certain I am wrong somewhere in something I say below and would be grateful to receive your feedback.

#1 God Authorizes Certain Inalienable Human Rights, Not the Government

Progressivism seeks to elbow God out of the equation of human rights. All things come from Caesar and belong to Caesar. Not God. The government, therefore, authorizes an individual’s rights. The government determines what those rights are and has the authority to revoke an individual’s rights should they interfere with the government’s greater agenda for the whole society. What the government freely gives, it can forcefully take.

Evangelicals believe what the Declaration of Independence states—that all humans are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our founders extrapolated on those rights I the Bill of Rights. Genesis 1:26–28 states that God made humans in His image for His purposes—meaning we have our being from God before we have our being from the government. Jesus testified to this truth when He said to give Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God to things that are God (Matthew 22:21). Humans owe debts to both. The United States’ founders acknowledged that. The best kind of government protects those rights belonging to each individual as endowed by their creator.

#2 God Explains Human History, Not Charles Darwin

Progressivism says to biblical position of history, “No thanks, I’ll take Darwin’s word for it.” Darwin’s theory of human history is that the strongest have adapted and overcome in the pursuit of survival which, by implication, has formed an unending journey of progress for our race. God had no hand in it. Whatever “progress” looks like in human civilization, we must pursue. In Progressivist thought, government defines what progress looks like and restructures society as much as is needed to reach that end. From Karl Marx to Franklin D. Roosevelt to the current Democratic party, we read of their definition(s) in enumerated lists of rights such as free (or affordable until its free) healthcare, housing, wages, labor, education, etc. that the government must provide to every citizen to achieve their definition of progress. Government must flex its arm as much as is needed to ensure every citizen has this equal outcome in life. That is the next stage of human evolution.

Unfortunately, history proves how this quest demands that government tramples individuals to achieve a common good. First Peter 2:13–14 summarizes that governments exist to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good. Government does not exist to parent humans their entire lives. Against Darwin, the entire Bible demonstrates that God works in human history to accomplish His will which he has clearly provided. We don’t have to guess what’s next for humans.

#3 Human Nature is Essentially Defined and Fixed, Not Essentially Malleable

Progressive thinkers like John Dewey and Woodrow Wilson argued that human nature is malleable. Humans are evolving. What we are to be is still to be decided. But human nature can be manipulated, in a beneficial way, via education or by reordering one’s environment to produce the intended outcome of character and behavior.

While humans have the capacity for immense good because they are made in God’s image, human nature is flawed in a fixed way that cannot be undone by restructuring society (Ephesians 2:1–3; 4:17–18) or one’s environment nor through education. There is not a next evolutionary step for humans to take. Our nature is essentially defined and fixed. Political philosophy and government policies should keep this in mind. Progressivism rejects this truth. They reject that government should be structured in a way that best guards against the fallen nature of humanity—at every level of society and government.

#4 Human Perfectibility Depends Upon God, Not Upon Government

Rousseau’s belief in the perfectibility of man drives Progressive ideology to aim after inflating the government in order to achieve that perfectibility. Not only are humans malleable, Progressives argue, but they are also perfectible. This conviction of perfectibility reaches beyond skills and abilities into the realms of character and morality. Perfectibility must come by inflating the government in order to fix what’s outside. Fixing what’s outside comes before fixing what’s inside.

That belief is exactly backwards according to biblical teaching (Mark 7:1–23). All humans require inward fixing by God (Titus 3:4–8) that then reforms our behavior. Until God begins the next stage of human history, government exists in the present to limit the evil that can be done by humans and set a minimum standard of behavior which all humans are required to abide by. The annals of human history testify to the New Testament’s teaching that governments in the present age exist to limit evil, not to perfect humans (Romans 13:1–7).

#5 Utopia Requires God’s Intervention, Not Governmental Restructuring

Since Progressives hold that humans are evolving toward perfection at an individual and societal level, they believe societal utopia is a realistic aim. The primary institution powerful enough to achieve this aim lies in the government. So, it should be harnessed. The primary means by which to achieve this aim lies in restructuring society so that all people have an equal outcome in life. So, it should be enacted. Utopia requires God’s intervention. God is fixing people in the present through the Gospel of Jesus Christ that will culminate in a new creation (Revelation 21–22) which will be governed by a perfect, just king (Psalm 2; Isaiah 9, 11), Jesus Christ. That is the direction of history. Utopia does await some. Government in the present cannot create Utopia. The government’s attempt at restructuring inevitably results in the benefits of the government instead of the benefit of the governed due to humanity’s fallen nature. The government’s attempt at restructuring inevitably results in being unmerciful to some to be merciful to others, which eventually culminates in the misery of all—except those in government.

#6 Good Governing Flows First from Justice and Morality, Not Scientistic Expertise

Progressives believe scientific experts hold the key ingredients for restructuring society. Specializing in a useful discipline proves more valuable than accurate conceptions of justice and righteousness—because objective conceptions of justice and righteousness don’t exist according to Progressives. That is why the administrative state of the United States government currently exists. Progressives in the early 20^th century sought to collapse our government’s separation of powers in order to unleash the expertise of bureaucrats to remold society into the form it should be. The government’s need for expertise stands in front of the need for morality and virtue—especially as it relates to power and justice—in the Progressive’s mindset.

Biblical conceptions of a wise rulers prioritize righteousness, justice, and mercy for all (Isaiah 9, 11) over political and pragmatic competence. Passage after passage in the Old Testament condemns rulers not for their practical incompetence, but for their spiritual infidelity, abuse of power, and lack of justice and mercy (Jeremiah 5; Ezekiel 34).  

#7 Humans Are Morally Corrupt, Not Morally Good or Neutral

Progressives not only believe that human nature is malleable and perfectible, but they also believe that it is generally good in nature, or at least neutral, and that bad education or a bad environment leads people to do evil. That’s why reshaping one’s environment or increasing one’s knowledge takes precedence in reforming people. One’s desires and will take a backseat in the priorities.

The Bible teaches that the human heart is fundamentally flawed which leads to bad ideas and immoral desires (Jeremiah 17:9). No amount of education and no improvement of our surroundings will ultimately fix what’s wrong inside of us. Only the Spirit of God can do that. A good education, good upbringing, and good environment can help, but they aren’t absolute. Government exists in the present age to limit evil, ensure justice, and praise those who do good (Romans 13:1–7; 1 Peter 2:13–14). Humans need a better heart first, not a better mind or environment.

14). Humans need a better heart first, not a better mind or environment.

#8 Political Power Should Be Carefully Stewarded, Not Unprincipledly Wielded

Progressives view political power as an opportunistic tool to be exploited instead of carefully stewarded. In fact, many believe healthy stewarding of political power leads to wielding it as much as is possible to rectify all societal inequalities (which stem from immoral behavior). Progressives do not like checks and balances. They do not like a separation of political powers. They collapse all political moves into one power against another—regardless of justice or righteousness. You find this attitude that is hostile to separation of powers in presidents like Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Barack Obama. Now you find it in the entire Progressive base driving the Democratic party. In general, Progressive ideology ignores the dangers of unfettered power—because they neglect the corrupt heart-problem of all people. Progressives seek to reduce checks and balances.

Since the Bible contends that the government exists to check evil in society (Romans 13:1–7; 1 Peter 2:13–14) because of the evil within people (Romans 1:18–32), it seems logical to view evil as existent within government itself and that it is desirable to have such a government with checks against itself within itself. The founders of the United States concluded as much and so rigged our government with three separate but equal powers. The Republican party upholds this truth more than the Progressive party because the Republican party affirms, more so than the Progressives, that humans are not angels.

#9 People Believe Truth for Truth’s Sake, Not Truth for Mere Power’s Sake

Because of its Darwinian view of human nature—that we’re all in an all-out pursuit of survival—the Progressive party scoffs at humanity’s acceptance of the truth for truth’s sake and claims that people believe truth for the sake of surviving or achieving more power. People don’t believe something because it’s true, but because it’s practically beneficial and empowering. Ideas persuade because they lead to more personal advantages, not because the argument is stronger or more rational than another argument. So, argument in pursuit of truth is impractical and unrealistic. Humans argue to gain more power. In Progressive ideology, arguing is not for reaching truth, but for winning more power and influence so they can unleash their will upon society.

The Bible teaches that humans are made in God’s image (Genesis 1–2), which includes the capacity to reason and recognize what is true. Humans have the capacity to believe truth and should not only believe it but act on it. Because humans have corrupted themselves, we don’t always act on the truth. Nevertheless, people still gravitate toward truth for civilization’s sake. Otherwise, civilization couldn’t exist at all because the functional use of language would collapse. Believing truth for truth’s sake finds more prominence in the Republican party because there is a deeper sense of an objective moral law from divine law giver and there is a deeper sense of an objective reality. Even if Republican’s are not Christian, but mere deists, they will be more prone to objective truth and justice and righteousness more than Progressives because Progressives reject God’s involvement in the world and, therefore, objective standards true for all humanity.

#10 Moral and Immoral Actions Explain the Nature of Society, Not Merely Class Struggles

Because power supersedes truth, society can be reduced to class struggles. Progressives believe class struggles adequately represents all one needs to know about the problem of a society. One group against another. One class fighting another. Government must strengthen the weaker class and weaken the stronger class. The actual morals of either class does not matter as much—only that the stronger class is immoral by virtue of its having more power and because it always acts in order to keep itself stronger and the weaker class weaker. Government exists to eliminate all class inequalities.

Since humans are in the image of God and since God made the world to be occupied by humans, societal outcomes sometimes come from moral/immoral as well as wise/unwise decisions. Progressive ideology removes the place of morality and wisdom from individual choice more so than Republican ideology. While oppression and class struggles certainly exist because of corrupt human nature, society itself can’t be reduced to as much. Civilization wouldn’t exist without the rewards of wise effort or good morals. Progressives ignore the choices of individuals by claiming that class differences in themselves are an evil and should be rectified even if some in the upper class enjoy the fruit of hard work and clean living while those in the lower class endure the fruit of laziness and immorality. Again, Peter said a government exists to praise what is good (1 Peter 2:14–15). A blanket socio-economic leveling of each class would inevitably punish some for doing good and eliminate for others the consequences of doing bad. Conservatism acknowledge this truth more than Progressivism.  

#11 Peace Must Come Through Strength, Not Appeasement

Because Progressives locate humanity’s chief problem externally rather than internally, they’re more prone to appease other nations to gain their good will rather than pursue a relationship built upon mutual respect and fairness. They carry their notions of class struggle to the global level and see stronger nations as having an obligation to “donate” power—economic, political, military, etc.—to weaker nations. At the global level, Progressives seek to promote equality at the expense of truth, morality, and justice in order to lift up weaker nations. Having more power automatically makes a country less just than weaker countries. Appeasement prevents the cardinal sin of power abuse.

The Bible supports peace through strength. The apostle Paul in Romans says the government “does not bear the sword in vain” (Romans 13:4). Specifically, the government uses the sword, a powerful instrument of death, to ensure the outcome peace in society. Even now as nations are more connected than ever, the general principle applies. Nations use strength, in a just manner, to foster peace among themselves. Relationships between nations must be built upon mutual respect and clear agreements. Afterward, stronger nations can extend mercy or aid. Due to the fallen nature of humanity, mercy or aid generally should follow respect, agreements, and cordiality. For a nation to retain its strength does not mean it’s unmerciful. It’s possible to be strong and merciful. Often the stronger a nation is, the more merciful it can be. The United States has proven that. Extending mercy may produce feigned, temporary cordiality, but strength ensures respect and peace. So it’s better to be strong first, then merciful. Conservatives will do this more so than Progressives.  

#12 Historians Must Unfold the Past First, Not Shape the Future

Progressives see the equalizing and leveling of power, through the means of government, as the primary goal of life, the next step in human evolution. Truth sometimes must take a backseat to these goals. But to produce these goals, the citizens of a nation must be persuaded that such goals are worthy of pursuit. Progressive historians, in the early 20^th century, took on this task of persuasion by writing history, especially American history, with the goal of persuading their readers of the Progressive agenda. These historians reinterpreted narratives to highlight class struggle, and the evils of it, to persuade their readers of the need for big government to intervene in the present day to subdue such evils. They left truth aside, finding it boring merely to unfold the past, so that they could shape the future. The same philosophy of historiography is still at work in large measure today. The more power Progressivism attains, the more it will squelch dissenting voices and empower historians who support their agenda.

The Bible affirms the benefits of telling the truth for the sake of telling the truth (Ephesians 4:15. 25; Colossians 3:9). Ideally, the truth should be told in a manner of love. But a lie kindly told does more damage than a truth harshly uttered. Lies offend God, destroy relationships, and destroy societies. While we all tell stories in order to produce some change as well as to entertain and inform, real events and words must govern the story and the lessons of it. Otherwise, you’ll lie. And that’s the problem with Progressive historiography. That’s the problem with the Progressive view of the United States history. Progressivism’s goal of change supersedes the primacy of facts.  

#13 Journalists Should Relay the Facts First, Not Aim for Change

This point matches the previous one. Progressives carry the same goal as they have in historiography into journalism. Persuading readers of the Progressive agenda takes the driver’s seat instead of relaying the facts. Progressivism leads journalists to rearrange the facts to convey the meaning they have already decided they wish to convey—even before they read the facts. The more power Progressivism attains, the more it will silence or attack dissenting journalists and those empower journalists who support the Progressive agenda.

Finding significant meaning in the facts is a product of good journalism, but manipulating the facts to produce a preconceived agenda is to lie. Meaning should bubble up from the facts. Facts shouldn’t be squeezed into meaning’s already shaped mold. That journalistic methodology produces lies. It harms society. It harms the profession of journalism. It assaults truth. Conservativism believes this truth more than Progressivism.

#14 Jurists Must Adjudicate Based on Law, Not on Personal Preference or Values

This point matches the previous two. Proponents of the Progressive agenda do not like being bound by laws when those laws do not serve the agenda. To get around those laws, they engage in interpretive gymnastics to make the law say what they prefer it to mean, what they believe that law should mean according to their values. Progressives feel this way about the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. They recast the narrative surrounding those documents so they can twist the words of the document to more accurately reflect the “spirit” of the documents which is not actually found within the actual words of the documents. In other words, they manipulate the meaning of words to match the meaning they want those words to say. That is the idea behind the “Living Document” philosophy that lies within the Progressive agenda. Practically, then, they want an interpreter of laws (a judge) to be a maker of laws (a legislator). The Progressive agenda holds this aim because it is the best method in our specific government, according to them, to produce the vision of society they want (mentioned above). Re-leveling the power structure is more noble than accurately interpreting laws. The more power Progressivism attains, the more it will empower judges who will adjudicate according to Progressivism’s preference.

The Bible’s harshest condemnation falls on those who manipulate words based on personal preference, in pursuit of a personal agenda, for the sake of personal gain—especially for religious purposes (Matthew 23; Acts 20). Generally, however, the principle also applies to those in political power. Twisting the meaning of words is a form of lying that God condemns—justice must be administered fairly to the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, regardless of the judge’s preferences or values. Conservatism holds to this biblical notion of truth more so than Progressivism. It’s not that Republicans hold this notion merely to retain power. They hold it because they see the need for common truth and common law in society.

#15 Our Soul Belongs to God, Not to Society

Progressive ideology does not like any form of religion unless that religion whole-heartedly supports its agenda for society. Otherwise, religion is just another tool used by the powerful to retain their power over the weak. That’s why Marx called it the opium of the people. The primary means to attain transcendence and meaning, according to Progressive ideology, comes in serving the agenda for restructuring society. That goal supplants one’s need for God by providing a different high calling for an honorable cause.

The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, clearly delineates how humans need a thriving relationship with God, built upon God’s Word and fueled by the Spirit of God, more than anything else in the world (1 John 5:12). Whoever has Jesus has life. Whoever does not have Jesus does not have life. The government cannot supply the kind of life Jesus supplies. Chaos ensues when government becomes the end-all, be-all. Trying to function without God is like a fish trying to survive out of water. Eventually, the fish will die. So will governments when they seek to take God’s place and ignore God’s Word. Conservatism acknowledges this reality more than the Progressivism.

#16 Government Should Incentivize Effort and Ingenuity, Not Enable Immoral or Unwise Behavior through Handouts

Since Progressives hold that one’s terrible lot in life falls more to systemic power abuses, they’re less prone to hold individuals accountable for their behavior and more prone to give handouts. Evil exists externally more so than internally. Since government can’t magically do everything by the wave of a wand, it should focus all its efforts on fixing what’s external which will likely lead to a person making better decisions and put that person on the path toward a wholesome life. Incentivizing effort and ingenuity is just another means of the powerful retaining their power over the weak. Progressives see it as a noble venture to take from the haves and give to the have nots even if each person arrived at their lot because of their own decision making—which Progressivism practically rejects.

The apostle Paul strongly acknowledges personal responsibility when he said a person shall not eat if he won’t work (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Here, Paul incentivized effort and ingenuity. He did not necessarily say a person must buy his or her own food. Sometimes, all one’s work cannot provide for all of one’s basic needs. Conservatism acknowledges this fact and still maintains the positive benefits of merciful government initiatives. But on the whole, Conservatism will be more prone to incentivize human effort and ingenuity even if it leads to inequalities in society. Conservatism leans toward accountability while Progressives lean toward enablement. Conservatism doesn’t view inequalities as an inherent evil—especially if those inequalities obviously arose from the personal decisions of the citizens. Conservatism rejects the notion that we’re unmerciful just because we don’t ascribe to the same poverty relief policies that Progressivism ascribe to.

#17 Government Owes Its Citizens First, Not Foreigners or Foreign Nations

Since the United States holds such a high level of power in the world, Progressives believe our country should do all it can to help immigrants and foreign nations—even at the expense of the economic and physical welfare of its own citizens. Our government has the obligation to let in all who wish to come and give to all who ask—hyperbolically speaking. Since leveling the distribution of power matters more than truth, personal morality, and justice, our government should avoid holding immigrants to a certain set of national values or holding foreign governments to a certain level of justice (pattern of behavior). It would be a noble and proper outcome for the United States to reduce its level of economic, military, and social power in order to raise the state of other nations—even if this pursuit comes at the expense of the safety, welfare, and happiness of the our country’s own citizens.

Paul, in 1 Timothy 5, acknowledges an order of obligation in society. Specifically, how one should provide for their nuclear family first, extended family second, etc. The general principle applies to governments—especially forms of government like the United States which is a government of the people by the people for the people. The United States government has an obligation toward the safety, welfare, and happiness of its own citizens before foreigners and other nations. That doesn’t mean our government should be ungenerous with respect to financial aid or immigrants or even visitors. But the government must engage in those noble endeavors in such a way that it does not place undue burdens on its own citizens or jeopardize their citizens’ future wellbeing. Conservatism acknowledge the need for each of the endeavors and seeks to engage in them in a healthy way, a way that is more measured and sober-minded than the Progressive agenda. Just because Conservatism doesn’t embrace whole-heartedly the Progressive view of foreign or immigration policy, it is not ruthless or harsh. Both views aim for mercy and generosity. Conservatism does it with a more biblical view of justice and righteousness.  

#18 Government Should Ensure Justice for All, Not Restructure Society for Some

The highest and noblest pursuit of the Progressive agenda falls in creating a society where all people receive an equal outcome in life. They view the inequalities of society as having arisen from unjust behavior and systemic oppression rigged against the have nots. While Progressives won’t call it injustice, they must use the government to level out wealth and power and influence among its citizens through forceful means. Progressive’s disregard of how each person gained that wealth, power, and influence. Should a person or institution who supports the Progressive agenda, however, hold power, wealth, and influence—even if it was ill-gotten—then that person or institution should be empowered and harnessed until the government is strong enough to level all parties.  

The Bible emphasizes that, before civic and criminal law, individuals are accountable for their own crimes and that individuals should be judged by the law on the merits of their actions instead of their in life (Exodus 23:6–9; Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 1:17; 16:19–20). Conservatism holds this truth more than Progressivism. Progressives believe one’s current status in life reflects problematic power structures that need rectifying rather than one’s decisions. Conservatism believes the government exists to protect rights and ensure justice while Progressives believe rights and justice has already been irredeemably perverted and will remain as much until all parties are equal.  

#19 Life Starts in the Womb, Not Out

The Progressive agenda rejects that life should be protected at the zygote, embryo, and fetus stage of a woman’s pregnancy. The zygote, embryo, and fetus is merely a part of a woman’s body which she can choose to dismember if she wants. Progressives hold that those who want to illegalize abortion do so to retain their power against the rights of women, the weaker party.

The Bible holds that all humans are endowed by God with His sacred image (Genesis 1:27), that all life is precious, and that a person is fully endowed with that image—separate from the mother’s endowment of God’s image—within the womb (Psalm 139:13–16; Jeremiah 1:5; Luke 1:41). Conservatism respects this truth more than Progressivism. Conservatism will work for the wellbeing of the mom and unwanted baby more so than Progressivism who works for the wellbeing of the mother only.

#20 God Condemns Abuse of Political Power First, Not Personal Immorality

Hypothetically, let’s say the worst of the legitimate claims against Joe Biden and Donald Trump were true. On the whole, the negatives of Trump fall more within the realm of personal immorality while the negatives of Joe Biden fall more within the realm of abuse of political power for personal gain.

The Bible holds its harshest words against those who abuse their political power for personal gain. The Bible condemns those who abuse their political power more so than those who commit private immoral acts.

Conclusion

In short, the Progressive agenda requires a new country. Progressivism wants nothing less than a new form of government, a new economic system, and a different set of values. The current state of these three realities in the United States are fundamentally flawed and need to be replaced, not improved, in order for Progressivism to achieve their vision for humanity. Conservatism, behind the Republican party, affirms and wants to amplify the good and noble aspects of our form of government, economic system, and set of values. Republicans ascribe to cultural values that are more in line with the biblical vision of human flourishing. While the Republican party is still wildly imperfect, it is better than the Democratic party that is driven by the Progressive agenda.

Therefore, Trump specifically, and Republicans, in general, should receive the vote of Evangelicals in the 2020 election.

Resources

Just about anything by the Heritage Foundation is helpful, but see especially their articles on Progressivism.

Just about anything by Ben Shapiro is helpful, but see especially his book How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps.

Just about anything by Hillsdale College is helpful, but see especially their Constitution Reader.

The Center for American Progress is a great place to find the Progressive perspective at work.

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History will continue day after day after day after day until it won’t. The gospel of Jesus not only reconciles individuals to God, but reveals God’s all-encompassing plan for the world.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, he announced the reign of God and extended the divine invite to his hearers that they may find purpose, restoration, and hope by connecting with the one who made them.

While those benefits occur now, they only faintly exist as a foretaste of the world to come in which God’s reign has removed all that once was wrong and renewed the earth so that it is perfect in peace, so that God’s glory fills the earth as the water fills the seas. Those who connect with God through Jesus in this life participate in the blessings of the coming world and will one day fully participate in them when Jesus gives his followers the same resurrection experience he had.

Perhaps, then, we can say our benefits in Jesus today are like a piece of bread that we can eat before the coming buffet—complete with all the wines, fillets, cakes, and coffee we can imagine.

What a day that will be!

But when will that day be? Does Jesus give us a clew? Kind of.

Time after time, Jesus prepared his followers for what awaited him in Jerusalem as his ministry neared the end:

“From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (Matthew 16:21, ESV)

Then Jesus and his gang arrived at Jerusalem near Passover—the most significant holiday on the Jewish calendar. Jews from all over the Roman Empire gathered to celebrate God’s prior redemption, that had happened over a millennium ago in Egypt, which also would have directed their minds and hearts forward to a time when God would restore Israel and give them full reign over all nations, especially Rome—and all of this would come through the Messiah, the Christ.

That is what Jesus’ followers believed and had hoped would happen through him as the Jewish Christ. Jesus’ disciples expected that plan to initiate when they arrived in Jerusalem. They simply wanted to give him a nudge in the right direction by pointing his attention toward the great temple of God.

The End of the World

They knew he was the Christ, but, time after time, he told them he came to die, not abolish Israel’s enemies.

During the week of his death, the week of Passover:

“Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”” (Matthew 24:1–2, ESV)

His followers wanted him to see the majestic temple, the center of God’s presence among his people, anticipating its full majesty to be restored along with the nation’s. But Jesus said no.

Then he goes on the explain how the end will turn out, which gives us a hint about how we, today, should understand the end of the world.

The end-of-the-world teaching is called the Olivet Discourse because it took place on the Mount of Olives that overlooks the grand temple just across the Kidron Valley. You can read it in Mark 13, Luke 21, and Matthew 24. Today, the Mount of Olives is primarily a graveyard.

From the very beginning, the full meaning of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse has stumped even the most learned of scholars in putting together all of the details between each of the three Gospels.

Nevertheless, two points shout the loudest:

1. Jerusalem will be overthrown and the temple destroyed (which happened in AD 70, about forty years after Jesus died and resurrected)
2. Jesus will return and close the stage of human history as we know it

And the first point functions as a kind of foretaste to the latter point. Luke turns up the volume on the first point whereas Matthew and Mark turn up the volume more so on the latter.

It’s for this reason that we find in Matthew and Mark Jesus’ statement on the universal spread of the gospel that will accompany the end of the world.

The Spread of the Gospel

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14, ESV)

In part that event had already happened by the time of Jerusalem’s destruction in AD 70. Here’s what the apostle Paul said, writing in the early sixties, to the church at Colossae:

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth . . .” (Colossians 1:3–6, ESV)

In pockets all across the Roman Empire, the gospel flourished as churches grew. However, the gospel of Jesus had not fully spread. So even after the fall of Jerusalem, the early church continued in Jesus’ commission—that:

“. . . repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:47, ESV)

Because:

“. . . there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”” (Acts 4:12, ESV)

What Jesus commissioned at the end of the Gospel of Luke, the apostles Peter, Paul, and the rest of the early church obeyed in Acts. The Christian church follows in their footsteps to this day.

God wants all people to turn to him, by turning to Jesus who is the God-man, for the forgiveness of sins, deliverance from God’s coming wrath against all evil, and the sure hope of eternal bliss with our creator who loves us.

This commission has continued for nearly nearly two thousand years.

Today most Christians believe they can fulfill this mission not by proclaiming the gospel in every nation, which has been done in the nearly two hundred nations that now exist, but by translating the Bible, and the gospel, into languages of people groups who do not have access to it.

Wycliffe Bible Translators is a leading organization on global Bible translation. They say there are about 7,000 spoken or signed languages in the world with about 2,000 of them needing a Bible translation project to begin. So about one and a half billion people don’t have access to the Bible or gospel in their language.

In light of these statistics, how should we then understand Jesus’ statement below?

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14, ESV)

First, the Olivet Discourse provides many signs that will signal the end is near, but no single or specific indicator tells us it will happen at such-and-such a time or day. We simply don’t know when it will occur. So with regards to the spread of the gospel into each language, we know that it is necessary to have happened before the end will come, but does not immediately signal that the end with come. Time may continue for a thousand years after the gospel has penetrated every people group.

Second, we stay steadfast in the work of translating the Bible, creating healthy churches, and sharing the gospel so that more and more people can sit at the Lord’s eternal banquet and experience an appetizer in the here and now.

So what led Peter and the other disciples to do what Jesus commanded? They carried out Jesus’ call for two reasons—an exalted view of Jesus and a new hope.

Since Jesus resurrected, he indeed has the power to save us and renew us making him worthy of our adoration and obedience. Since Jesus resurrected, they shed their former hopes and dreams by aligning their vision of the new world with Jesus and orienting their lives around that new hope.

But It’s Been Nearly Two Thousand Years

During Paul and Peter’s day, the early church just knew for certain that Jesus would return, perhaps even before the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem. As the decades continued, some began to doubt and others even denied he would ever return. This led both Paul and Peter to write entire epistles correcting the false ideas about the end.

One of Peter’s statements on this topic provides a fitting conclusion. It shows the development in the early church’s thinking from the time Jesus spoke to the time Peter died, about thirty to thirty-five years later.

“This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:1–13, ESV)

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Is the gospel something to be heard once, believed once, and checked off the bucket list as a “been there, believed that” kind of thing?

Or does the gospel of Jesus intersect the hours of our day, persuade the thoughts of our minds, and move the affections of our heart? I’m convinced it’s the latter based on what God says in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church, which we will observe in this post after we review what we have already seen.

In the first post on the gospel, Paul’s statement in Galatians 1:11–12 claimed that the gospel comes from God, not humans.

In the second post, John’s vision, recorded in Revelation 14:6, taught that the gospel conveys an eternal message, not one that expires or needs updating.

In the third and last post on the gospel, Matthew recorded how Jesus began his ministry, in the thirty-second verse of the fourth chapter of his gospel, displaying that the gospel announces the reign of God and invites all who hear the gospel to enter under that benign rule.

In this fourth post on the gospel, we will read how Paul believes we should respond to that message and the core content of it.

The Corinthian Church

On his second missionary journey, the Apostle Paul entered Corinth around AD 50—about twenty years after the ministry of Jesus and about three to five years prior to Paul writing his first letter to Corinth which we call 1 Corinthians. Paul probably traveled to Corinth to plant a church there due to its size, the third largest city in the Roman Empire, its cultural diversity, and its thriving commerce.

After a few years, the Corinthians sent him a letter updating him on the status of the church and asking him some questions of how to exist as a church. As it turned out, they came dangerously close to forsaking the gospel. We have the letter that Paul sent back to them in which he addressed their questions, issues, and schisms saving for last the most significant of the problems.

Always Return the Basics of the Gospel

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you . . .” (1 Corinthians 15:1a, ESV)

Before reiterating the content of the gospel, Paul reminded them of their initial reception of the gospel. How did it happen?

Paul proclaimed the gospel. They heard him announce it. Paul entered their lives and disrupted their routines and challenged their worldviews by heralding a message from God.

That message, they received. What he spoke, they didn’t ignore or dismiss. They kept listening. Paul kept speaking. Paul continued teaching. They kept learning. They embraced the gospel, which Paul faithfully delivered, as a message personally relevant to them.

In the fifteenth chapter of his letter, Paul emphasized that they had already heard what he was about to tell them. Only, they had failed to let the gospel permeate their entire reasoning, so they began holding as true something inconsistent with the message of the gospel.

Paul brought them back to the basics of the faith in order to reshape their thinking from the core message of the gospel, which would lead them away from a false idea they had begun to believe—that the final resurrection already happened.

From Paul’s statement in this verse, it seems safe to say that returning to the basics of the gospel is an important practice for Christians today. Assumed basics all to often become forgotten basics, and forgotten basics all to often because forsaken basics.

Then different basics replace forsaken basics.

God wants us to return to the good news, to remember it in our prayers and worship, and to let it continually influence our hearts, minds, and habits. The gospel has the power to dispense life in our mortal bodies and can kill what causes death in us—evil thoughts, torqued desires, false ideas about God, and destructive practices.

Jesus Uses the Gospel to Draw Us, Keep Us, and Perfect Us

“. . . which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:1b–2, ESV)

The members of the Corinthian church first heard and received the gospel which Paul proclaimed to them. The message invites individuals to connect with God, to experience his grace, receive his forgiveness, and live with power and hope. In Paul’s mind, the corruption in the world makes obvious where it is headed—to receive judgment from God since all people have forsaken God.

But note what Paul says, “. . . by which you are being saved . . . .” The gospel delivers a person by re-positioning them from under God’s anger and placing them under his love. The gospel gives each person a new name, a divine name, with the hope of not only receiving deliverance from evil and judgment, but receiving immortality, life, peace, and joy in the eternal kingdom of God.

But the Corinthians must not turn from what Paul originally proclaimed! Paul warned them that they have begun to do so, so they should stop, think, reaffirm the gospel, and enjoy its life-giving benefits. Paul wanted the Corinthians to hold fast to the word of the gospel. Yet, if they stray, if they turn to another gospel, or turn to a different hope, or pledge allegiance to contradictory truths about God and this world, then their original belief will turn out to have been in vain.

Likewise, all Christians today must not only affirm the gospel at a point in time and embrace the gospel for a part time, but continue doing so through time—letting the gospel, the word of God, have its perfect work in us.

The Core of the Gospel Message

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures . . .” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4, ESV)

Paul did not invent, or infer to the best possible explanation, what he originally spoke to the Corinthians. He received the message as divinely originated tradition to be passed along—and that’s exactly what Paul did.

What’s of first importance in that tradition?

That Christ died, was buried, and then resurrected from the dead.

Why did Jesus die? He died on our behalf. Jesus did not deserve to die. He lived spotlessly. Bleach could not have made him cleaner. But he didn’t suit the fancies of the community. He challenged their beliefs and way of life, so they killed him. From the pairs of eyes seeing Jesus naked, in pain, dying on a cross, he just looked like an innocent man receiving a criminal’s death. But in the eyes of God, the death of Jesus carried the full weight of the curse brought by our wrongdoing and the wrath our wrongdoing deserved. In our place, he suffered, that we might not have to suffer. That’s why we call the death of Jesus sacrificial and substitutionary. He satisfied the wrath of God in our place. He bore the full weight of this world’s curse.

Jesus died, but did not stay dead. He resurrected from the dead, leaving his grave clothes nicely positioned on the slab of rock as he left the tomb. In the pairs of eyes that initially saw his new body, they simply experienced a normal man, with scars in his hands, who somehow arose from a very obvious death. In God’s eyes, Jesus conquered death, the works of evil, and the power of the curse. This victory of Jesus, Jesus now extends to others by way of invitation that all may share in his victory and live with the hope of the new world, live in communion with God, and live triumphantly over the desires that used to enslave them.

That’s the core content of the gospel Paul proclaimed. It’s good news about the works of God. God invites all to participate in that work that has already begun and will one day be complete through Jesus Christ, the lion from the tribe of Judah.

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Without any formal training, providence gave me a season of work in the arena of commercial construction. I immediately had to swim in the waters of jargon, abbreviations, measurements, specifications, etc. So, almost daily, I had to investigate the meaning of terms, like plenum rated, and acronyms like MEP and AHJ.

One day, as I was standing near my desk, I reviewed a document stating we needed to send such-and-such drawings to the AHJ. I asked our consultant, who had served for decades as a construction architect for hospitals, “Did we get these to the AHJ?”

After a bit of discussion, he asked, “Aaron, do you know what an AHJ is?”

“No,” I said. Perhaps, I thought, the initials represent some engineering company.

“Aaron, AHJ simply means the authority having jurisdiction.” It doesn’t refer to a specific company. It refers to the company overseeing that certain sphere of the project.

Since I was also attending seminary when I heard this, I instantly thought of the New Testament passage, Matthew 28:18, in which Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Matthew develops the theme of God’s authoritative rule channeled via the person Jesus Christ.

Matthew also contains the third text for exploring the meaning of the gospel.

In the first article, on Galatians 1:11–12, we learned that the gospel comes from God. In the second article, on Revelation 14:6–7, we learned that the gospel conveys an eternal message.

In this third article on the gospel, we’ll look at Matthew 4:23 and learn that the gospel proclaims the rule of God. In other words, the gospel claims that God functions as the AHJ of our planet.

Matthew wrote four simple statements summarizing what Jesus did at the beginning of his earthly ministry.

“And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” (Matthew 4:23, ESV)

A punchy verse packing a lot of truth.

The Sand on Jesus’ Feet

Jesus based most of his ministry in Galilee, near the Sea of Galilee (a freshwater lake). This region contained at least two hundred villages and cities, filled with Jews and Jewish synagogues, who relied on the abundant water—especially the heavy dew to irrigate the crops—and the supply of fish. Galilee’s elevation also made it the highest region in Israel.

Jesus did not travel throughout Galilee to make a profit, explore ancient ruins, or get cultured because he felt embarrassed having grown up in the small village, Nazareth. Jesus did not tell his followers to send out an invite so people would come to him in Capernaum.

He traveled to teach.

He traveled to proclaim.

He traveled to heal.

Yet, cosmic meaning hides in Matthew’s simple line, “And he went throughout all Galilee….”

God comes to us.

In Jesus, God got his feet dirty.

God got his feet dirty because he wanted to come to us. That kind of God we would not invent. Most of our invented gods project human likeness—tendencies, emotions, desires, virtues, and vices. The gods of human imagination necessarily contain human characteristics even though they also contain inhuman ones.

I think it’s fitting for anyone learning the gospel, or having already believed it, to spend time considering this radical truth.

In Jesus, God has come to us.

Matthew continues explaining why.

The Curriculum of Jesus’ Teaching

Jesus taught in the synagogues of the region. The Jewish synagogue developed at some point between the fifth and third centuries BC. Many Jews revolved their routine of life around the activities of the synagogue. It housed worship and teaching. It fostered community. It preserved identity. Born a Jew, Jesus occupied the Jewish milieu of his time making the synagogue integral to his life and mission.

Matthew wrote, “…teaching in their synagogues….”

The time of teaching in the synagogue consisted of teachers reading a portion or multiple portions from the Hebrew Bible, perhaps Genesis, the Psalms, or Isaiah. The Hebrew Bible contained texts considered to be the word of God to his people. By the time of Jesus, the Jewish canon just about solidified into the documents Christians and Jews now hold authoritative today.

Jesus might have received invitations to speak. Other times, he might have stood to offer comments on the passage.

When Jesus spoke, people listened.

The scriptures that Jesus exposited explained how the Jews came to be, why the Jews came to be, and what God had in store for the Jews. The scriptures conveyed what God is like, what God likes, and what God dislikes. They taught how to live and how to think.

Jesus stood next to the stone bench holding up the scripture scroll; he read from it before the people—perhaps only a few dozen sat around him. He sometimes may have had to translate the text from Hebrew to Aramaic. Then he explained its meaning—why it was important for them to know and how it was significant for their lives during his day.

What has Jesus’ teaching in the synagogues to do with the gospel? It means that the gospel did not appear at random in history nor did it appear disconnected from any human culture.

The gospel appeared in history because it was promised beforehand. God prepared the Jews to receive the gospel. In doing so, God had prepared the world to receive the gospel.

The gospel message of Christianity lodges itself in human history. It’s historical. God acted in history. People saw Jesus, touched Jesus, witnessed his bloody death on a wood cross, and felt the fleshly holes in his palms after he resurrected.

The gospel is based on empirical evidence. Humans living two thousand years ago saw, touched, tasted, smelled, and heard with the sensory capacity we do today. God revealed himself to their senses.

The four Gospels, written about Jesus, connect Jesus’ story with the story of the Jews and simply put forth what people experienced. The gospel message contains earthly content and divine meaning.

God is Back

Why did Matthew write that Jesus taught in the synagogues and proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom? Aren’t they the same thing?

Not quite.

While Jesus may have proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom during a bit of his teaching in the synagogue, the proclaiming added to the teaching.

Matthew says kingdom, in this verse, to represent the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. Jesus proclaimed the good news of God’s reign. He invited people to participate in it.

The scriptures from which Jesus taught heralded the return of God to his people, to restore them and deliver them. The scriptures heralded the return of God to establish his kingdom on earth.

Here’s an image from Isaiah written about seven hundred years prior to Jesus:

“It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:2–4, ESV)

When Jesus traveled through the villages of Galilee, he proclaimed the good news that God has come. God’s kingdom is at hand.

Evidence of the Kingdom

Lastly, Matthew wrote that Jesus healed every disease and affliction. Elsewhere in the Gospels, the writers tell us Jesus had compassion on the crowds so he healed them. Yet, more meaning lies behind the healings.

In the Isaiah passage quoted in the previous section, the outcome of God’s teaching is that people will turn their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.

God made them farmers. Farming reflects that God will return the world to the ideal state. Humans will use the world as God intended, will relate to each other as God intended, and will connect with God as God intended. God will restore all.

Jesus healed as a sign that the restoration has arrived. In Jesus, God began the work of restoring the world—healing what’s wrong with it.

God did not make the world because he enjoys death and decay and wants those harsh rulers to reign. He made the world for life, health, peace, and joy. He made humans to flourish.

The gospel of the kingdom, the announcement of God’s return, the proclamation of God’s rule puts forward the invitation from God to flourish—to find life, to discover love, and to live with purpose and hope.

That’s why it’s good news that God is the AHJ of this world.

But for each of us to flourish, something radical must happen for us and to us. And that’s what’s at the core of the gospel invitation, which will be the content of our next passage.

Bibliography

1. The Lexham Hebrew Bible, 2012
2. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, 2016
3. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 2003
4. The Lexham Theological Wordbook, 2014
5. The Lexham Bible Dictionary, 2016
6. Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger, Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th Edition, 2012
7. William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, 2000
8. D. A. Carson, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew
   –Mark, 2010
9. R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, 2007

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How can the Christian gospel have any relevance in today’s world? It’s ancient and seemingly cryptic and speaks of a higher power we can’t physically see. Modern medicine, light bulbs, air planes, sedans, and cell phones foster such a widespread level of human flourishing—it could make one wonder if we even need a gospel of good news.

Then life happens. And we learn that, yes, perhaps there’s “more” to life than what our eyes see. At least we hope so.

We learn that “more” through the spiritual lens of the biblical gospel. That message eternally abides and universally transforms because it extends from a divine source.

The second statement of the gospel worth knowing comes from the strangest book of the Bible.

The Roman government grew tired of John gathering passersby to listen to him proclaim the message of Jesus Christ. So Rome exiled this agitator to an island called Patmos in the Aegean Sea. This likely occurred while Domitian reigned as emperor in the AD 90s.—sixty years after Jesus resurrected.

Domitian didn’t favor Christians. While on this island, John received a vision from Jesus and penned the last book of the biblical canon: Revelation. The book unveils a new layer about the person of Jesus Christ and his plan for our world.

In Revelation, the noun gospel appears only once. We can learn a good deal from John’s use of it. He wrote,

“Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” (Revelation 14:6–7 ESV)

The Gospel Conveys an Eternal Message

Did you notice the adjective John used to describe the gospel? Angels carried a message that is eternal. The gospel doesn’t expire or spoil. A new model will never replace the old message. The gospel conveys the core communication which the divine wants you and me to know. The gospel comes from God and has God as its source. Therefore, it’s eternal.

The gospel holds as much significance to people today as it did to its hearers five hundred years ago and fifteen hundred years ago. People come from God. The Bible does not represent an aloof deity unconcerned about autonomous humanity. God’s involved and will never be uninvolved in our world. He has his fingers in every detail. He wants us to know who he is.

He’s communicated an eternal gospel to some that they may take it to all.

The Gospel Directs People to God

The fundamental direction to which the gospel calls our attention is God himself. The gospel directs people to the true God. It points to him. God will not allow deception to characterize his person. He has communicated all he wants us to know through the gospel.

Most of the time, from nature, and some of the time, from ignorance, we imagine a different God from the one we come to know through the gospel. I’m convinced that Jesus seems too good to be true, for many. For others, I’m persuaded they shun him without actually understanding him.

We read the content of the eternal gospel in the verse following: fear God and give him glory. In other words, God wants us to act and think like he exists. No marriage lasts, or can be deemed a relationship, if one member refuses to acknowledge the other. God wants a relationship. A relationship requires relating from both parties.

Our race has stepped away from God, but God steps toward us in the message of the gospel. God became flesh in Jesus that humans may approach God. The gospel restores the relationship. God has opened the line of communication through the gospel.

The Gospel Calls for a Universal Response

The messengers of God proclaim that eternal gospel to all inhabits of the world. God’s timeless message contains a universal scope. God does not care about language, nationality, or location. God wants all to know him.

Now, God delivers the message through people. As we read in this verse, God will wrap up our current stage of history by blasting the message forth through angles unhindered by gravity or terrain or weather.

That God wants all to hear reveals the value he has placed upon each individual. Every person, with a distinct face and voice and hair and finger prints, God deems worthy of eternal love. He doesn’t view people as cogs in the machine nor count some expendable for the greater good nor compare with arbitrary credentials nor play favorites within a divine political regime.

Every single individual, God knows, God sees, God loves, God values, God wants to come to know him. People hold prejudices. People play favorites. People judge arbitrarily. People love conditionally. People discriminate. God doesn’t.

Jesus has shown this to be true through his gospel.

Bibliography

1. The Lexham Hebrew Bible, 2012
2. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, 2016
3. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 2003
4. The Lexham Theological Wordbook, 2014
5. The Lexham Bible Dictionary, 2016
6. Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger, Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th Edition, 2012
7. William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, 2000
8. G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary, 1999
9. Alan F. Johnson, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition), 2006

Below, I explore the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome to share its relevance for our world today.

You Receive Your Purpose in Life Rather Than Create It

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,” (Romans 1:1, ESV)

Your purpose in life derives externally and separate from your brilliance, emotions, and genes. No one can concoct their true purpose no matter their mental capacity nor discover it no matter how deeply they plumb the depths of their souls. Furthermore, the society does not confer it upon an individual.

All of these aid us in fulfilling our purpose, but our purpose does not come from them. It comes from God.

The Christian messenger, Paul the Apostle, wrote the verse above as the introduction of his letter to the church in Rome while he lodged in the city of Corinth sometime between AD 55 and 58.

Paul calls himself a servant of Christ Jesus asserting that Jesus still lived despite Jesus’ crucifixion over twenty years earlier. Paul believed Jesus resurrected from the dead. The book of Acts, written by Luke, contains the account of Paul’s encounter with resurrected Jesus. Paul wanted to destroy the church. Jesus made him part of it and told him to grow it.

That’s why Paul says he was “called to be an apostle.” An apostle simply delivers the message from the sender. Jesus sent Paul to proclaim his message. Paul discovered his purpose by receiving it rather than creating it from his own genius or searching for it within himself.

God set Paul apart to deliver the message of God’s gospel. Paul did not set himself apart. Paul’s parents did not set him apart. Paul’s Jewish club didn’t set him apart. Paul’s talents did not set him apart. God set him apart for a specific purpose. God does the same for you.

All people want to feel special. Some people believe they’re special without any need of being told so. Most of us rely on all sorts of scales and measurements to prove to ourselves, and others, we’re unique and special. We add zeros to our bank accounts, speed away in flashy cars, use selfies to show off our abs, run faster than anyone else, code better than anyone else, or put forward our model partner to convey we’re special. All great stuff, but poor purpose dispensers.

Self-comparison leaves us empty and impels us to strive for more lest we come up short on achieving our self-contrived purpose. There’s a better source for finding purpose: the gospel.

Gospel simply refers to good news for public announcement. That’s the meaning of the Greek word euangelion. God wants his message about Jesus Christ to be announced to those who haven’t heard it. That’s what Paul did to build the church. God’s news differs from the news you and I read on CNN or Fox News. It’s news with a call to respond like a wedding save the date.

However, God’s gospel differs from a save the date. With a save the date, you mark your calendar and maybe call your friends to congratulate them. But they don’t send you a filet mignon sampler in the mail for you to have a foretaste of their big day. God’s gospel not only extends a call, but a promise to benefit the hearer upon his or her immediate reception of the message. How?

The gospel invites you to connect with God immediately, in a real relationship, and receive from God His joy, peace, forgiveness, wisdom, hope, and . . . purpose for your life.

The Message of Jesus Can Breakdown Personal Prejudices

“For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.” (Romans 1:9–10, ESV)

The gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to subdue, even squelch, personal prejudice.

Romans 1:9–10 reveals Paul’s intent to travel to the church in Rome as well as his motive for doing so. That desire stemmed from Paul’s service in the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He proclaimed the gospel. He taught others the bone and marrow of the gospel message and he taught them how to live by the power of the gospel.

Before becoming a Christian, Paul was a Jewish Pharisee. This religious sect not only divided themselves from many non-Jews, but also many Jews whom they believed didn’t live up to their interpretation of the Torah, the Jewish law from Moses.

Paul became a Christian about fifteen to twenty years before writing his letter to the Roman church. Paul said he eagerly wants to join them that they may benefit from him and he from them. He prayed for them consistently as you can see above. Most of whom he prayed for, populating the Roman church, did not have the Jewish badge.

When Paul believed the gospel of Jesus and lived by its power, it broke down common societal prejudices. But it not only broke down prejudices, it impelled Paul to serve and love against those he formerly those prejudices.

Paul assumed God sees what we do in this life and has an interest in it. Paul first said, “For God is my witness.” In verse eight, Paul told the Roman church how often he gives thanks for their faith in Jesus and, by extension, the uncommon lifestyle that accompanied it. To emphasize his consistent praying, he argues that God is a kind of legal witness to these prayers.

God did not create the world in a natural, metaphysical cocoon, with no intent to be involve Himself in every minute detail. He sustains all intentionally. He cares.

God not only sees what we do and has an interest in it, He intends for us to do certain things while avoiding others. Paul said he serves God with his whole spirit. Paul simply means that he fully engaged himself in his service to God with as much effort as he could give.

The Greek word Paul uses for serve comes from the cultic sphere of life that could also mean “worship.” The Greek word is used in religious contexts rather than master-employee or master-slave contexts. Paul assumes that God has revealed how we can serve Him. Paul assumes God has revealed how we can delight Him. Paul assumes that God likes particular actions and attitudes and not others.

People cannot do whatever they want and claim they’re serving God without first learning what it is God wants. Doctors don’t apply local anesthesia to your right foot to prepare for surgery on your left hand. Doctors first learn learn from you what’s hurting or needs correction, then they act. Likewise, in our relationship with God, we first learn who he is and what he likes by what he has communicated to us about himself.

He’s communicated to us through the gospel of Jesus. Paul’s faith evidenced itself via broken down personal prejudices. God liked that.

God Provided the Gospel to Benefit Us

“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, ESV)

Those who hear and believe the Gospel of Jesus can benefit from it.

Romans 1:16 launches Paul into the most sustained theological treatise we have from him. It lasts from Romans 1:16 through Romans 11:36. In it, Paul unfolds the meaning and relevance of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The benefits of the gospel outweigh the social pressures it may create. Paul said he’s not ashamed of the gospel. When Paul proclaimed the gospel in the ancient world—whether to Jews, Greeks, or Romans—he put himself at risk of persecution, injury, oppression, or even death. He told Jews, “We now know God through the message of a crucified Jewish peasant.” He told Greeks, “Only through the crucified Jew from Nazareth can you find true wisdom.” He told Romans, “There is one Lord, Jesus Christ, whose kingdom will soon rule over all—not Caesar.”

Paul didn’t say this to get rich, to start a riot against pagan cultic systems, to impose pressures on a corrupt government, to achieve fame from his debating prowess, or to start a separatist movement in desert caves.
Paul wanted people to hear the gospel because it is good news from God for them. People can benefit from it. People can connect with God through it. Paul let this desire to benefit others impel him despite the risks of publicly announcing a controversial.

The gospel might bring shame because it always brings to light evil perpetuated by humans. He names what’s wrong with the world. According to the gospel, each person stands at fault. Environment didn’t create evil. Poverty didn’t begin evil. Power didn’t conjure up evil.

Moral evil begins in each person’s heart. What leads an eighth-grader to punch another in the face leads a dictator to extinguish an entire class of people based on race or wealth. What leads a thirteen year old to watch pornography also leads frat-guys to gang rape a drunken co-ed.

But we don’t have to stand condemned before a holy God or travel the world to find paradise or inject chemicals to discover peace. The gospel clarifies the issue and offers the solution.

The gospel channels unique, divine power to the one who believes it. Paul said the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Humans stand in need of salvation. We need salvation form our own evil devices, salvation from God’s just wrath against wrongdoers, salvation from the wicked acts of others, salvation from deceptive schemes of thought, salvation from this world’s natural disasters, and salvation from our ultimate enemy, death.

The world’s evil does not bind the power of God. God created the world. The first humans turned astray preventing the full blessing of God from permeating the earth. While God’s partial blessing remains, corruption also festers—from hurricanes to the abuse of power. Through the gospel, God reverses the effects of corruption beginning by giving us new hearts and ending with a world that has his full blessing as he intended.

Through the gospel, God is making all things new. Through the gospel, you can be made new because God pledges to do so to the one who seeks him through the message of the gospel. Simply believe it.

The gospel channels God’s message to every human being. God does not discriminate on language, race, or nationality. He gave the gospel that all may hear it, understand it, believe it, and receive hope from it.

God does not use online marketing to the upper-middle class and above. He doesn’t send invites to only those with a college degree. He doesn’t look at your hair style or where you live. Through the particular message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God makes himself universally available.

Your past doesn’t keep God from freely extending to you his message of hope and life. God knows death pervades, but he wants new life to sprout all over the world through the gospel.

The gospel derives from, fits within, and continues the grand story of God’s goal for the world. The events and message of Jesus Christ do not appear randomly in the vicissitudes of human history. God began the story with Adam, promised the blessing to Abraham, gave the law to Moses, promised a priest-king to David, and actuated all of his promises through Jesus Christ.

The story of the Hebrew Testament, the Old Testament, prepares the world for the story of Jesus Christ. All of God’s promises find their yes in Jesus. Most of these promises, Jesus inaugurated, but he won’t finalize them until the end of human history which will come at a cataclysmic event in which all will see the power of God and understand that Jesus is Lord of all.

God wants humans to be, without hindrance, those whom they were meant to be—individuals made in His image who love each other and have a thriving relationship with the one who made them. It takes God’s message and God’s power for humans to receive this purpose and live it.

God Likes Certain Attitudes and Behaviors, But Hates Others

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Romans 1:18, ESV)

God distinguishes between good and evil. Not all behavior is good; not all is bad. God’s judgment resides outside the bounds of culture or human opinion. The gospel comes to us as good news of God’s grace, forgiveness, love, and hope because we all stand under his wrath. Paul assumes God is a personal God who has moral standards for how humans should act and think, and Paul assumed that this God applies these moral standards to the world—approving and praising the good while judging and condemning the bad.

God does this to humans and not to orangutans, tiger sharks, or golden retrievers because He made humans in his image to reflect his nature. By doing what God wouldn’t do, we wrong Him, defame Him, offend Him, belittle Him, and injure Him. God deeply cares about what we do.

I’m sure for most, this makes no sense because it doesn’t match our experience. Men don’t go to jail for lusting after another man’s bikini-clad wife and women don’t go to jail for coveting another woman’s flashy ride. But God would not have those thoughts nor commit deeds from lust or covetousness because those attitudes and behaviors don’t come from love. God is love and does what is loving. He made us to do the same. When we don’t, we commit a crime against God.

For these crimes, God holds us accountable responding by removing from us the life He gave to us and the good things we could receive while living the life He gave to us. People don’t create themselves nor conjure their own purpose for living. Death reminds everyone that we, ultimately, will never be the captain of our fate or the master of our soul.

Paul calls this kind of judgment, for wronging God, God’s wrath. It’s punishment. Just because you haven’t felt wrath against another—perhaps due to your exemption from the heinous, unjust crimes of criminals—doesn’t mean wrath isn’t real and that God doesn’t act from it.

The love of God directed his wrath to fall on the head of His perfect son that we, who are all guilty, might not receive it. Those who embrace the Son, through the gospel, step out from under the wrath of God into His unfettered love. But below, we’ll see what happens and why to those who don’t receive Jesus.

God actively opposes moral evil committed by people. Without Jesus, all people tip-toe on a thin sheet of ice that could break at any moment. We know it as death. Only Jesus can reverse death. We can’t reverse death on our own. No one cheats death. Only God’s grace and love, suspending the full release of his wrath, allows people to enjoy the bounty this world produces.

Yet, even though this lush earth sometimes hides the wrath of God against wrongdoing—whether it be to others, ourselves, or against Him—corruption and corrosion binds itself intrinsically to this world. That corrosion comes from the partial removal of God’s life-giving blessing.

That the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven signifies God dimming the full expression of the light of His beneficent presence. We know death. We know murder and hatred and greed. We know tsunamis and hurricanes and earthquakes. The world does not exist as God originally made it. God does not intend for it to eternally abide this way. So Jesus came to reconcile the world to God. Now God is revealing his salvation while also revealing his wrath.

So we experience not only the side of God that blesses, but also the side of God that curses.

God partially enacts judgment against people who commit evil and will one day fully judge those who do evil. We see the side of God that curses because of the wrath of his judgment that he partially reveals in the present world. While we don’t understand, completely, the cosmic meaning of all earthly events, we do know that God chooses to execute partial retribution against wrongdoing.

He does this that those who see it may stop whatever wrongdoing they commit, fostering death, and turn to him, the author of life.

We have the ability to label moral evil as unrighteousness and ungodliness. Paul assumes we’re able to place our finger on tangible actions and label them as ungodliness and unrighteousness. We can label falsehood, rape, theft, envy, lust, and pride as moral evils. God hates these acts no matter what culture or time period in which they surface.

No culture stands equal to another. Some civilizations hold more superiority than others. But all have moral evil in common. Some more, others less.

We can label evil practices done by individuals as well as systemic evil that pervades a society. In other words, unique perspectives do not determine whether evil is evil or good is good. Good and evil exist whether everyone recognizes it. However, most of us can and do whether we admit or not.

By doing what isn’t morally upright or in accordance with God’s intention, we personally squelch the presence and existence of the personal God who made us and loves us. In this verse, Paul said that the evil, which people perform, masks the truth. While this truth refers to God and God’s nature, it also refers to moral truth. Moral truth transcends cultural values. Just because a culture or people accept adultery as good doesn’t mean God does.

When people commit wrongdoing, they suppress God’s truth about himself and his intent for this world according to Paul. Evil deceives and blinds us from reality. Our false desires make us see reality as we want it to be rather than as it is.

All have been consigned under the propensity to commit moral evil. All have the inclination, and act on this inclination, to do ungodly and unrighteous deeds. All stand guilty before God by the guilt of our first ancestors, who disobeyed God, and because of the guilt from perpetuating that evil doing..

For many, inherited guilt is difficult to understand. More so, inherited consequences. But it’s like the children of Adolf Eichmann. He helped lead Hitler’s extermination of the Jews and was captured by Israeli agents and eventually executed. Eichmann had children, one young, when Israel found him guilty and hanged him. For Eichmann’s evil, the children inherited a fatherless life and the stigma of the deeds his father committed.

The difference between that illustration and our situation is that all have continued the evil done by our parents—while it may differ in expression from person to person, it continues in our nature, with our minds, through our lips, and by our hands.

The Gospel counteracts and overcomes the works of evil and satisfies God’s own judgment against it.

As we read in Romans 1:16, the gospel reveals the righteousness of God to all who receive it. God’s righteousness defeats the works of evil mentioned in Romans 1:18. This righteousness God gives to us for receiving Jesus because Jesus received the punishment we deserve—which he didn’t deserve.

Not only this, God gives us a new nature that gives us the power to conquer our evil and do good. While evil tendencies remain in us, God’s power can conquer them and we can confess this evil to God knowing that he can forgive and restore us.

One day, Christians will receive a new nature and a new body untainted, in any way, by the inclination to do evil or live in a world affected by it.

God Sometimes Punishes Us By Letting Us Get What We Want

“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” (Romans 1:28, ESV)

When we actively reject God, God actively rejects us. God does not coerce us to love him and do what he wants. When we reject God by doing evil and ignoring his ways, he lets us go. He lets us run free. He lets the wind of our desires carry us off the foundation of his truth.

When we reject God’s ways, the immediate judgment we receive is getting what we want.

Sometimes, the worst that happens to us comes to us when we get what we want. We think it will be better. We think we will have more money, feel better, be happier, enjoy more security, or earn more respect. But the attainment of that goal leaves us dissatisfied and hungrier for something more.

Similarly, God lets us loose to do the evil we want. Often that evil puts chains around us preventing us from escaping. By turning to Jesus, he’ll break the chains, let you lose, give you a new heart, redirect your life, and give a taste of what you’re truly looking for.

We can see God’s first judgment against evil—that judgment is we want what shouldn’t be wanted and ignore what’s true about God and this world.

The first glimpse of the evidence of evil in ourselves and in others lies in wanting what we shouldn’t want, refusing to believe what’s evidently true, and neglecting the existence of an involved God.

According to Paul, when we reject God, we believe what’s incorrect and engage false pursuits—like an all-cookie diet to lose weight.

The Gospel reveals that God actively pursues us even as we reject him. As we see in Romans 1:16, even though the natural state of humanity inclines away from the true God toward what’s evil—even as some good persists—God pursues us through the message of the Gospel because he loves us.
It’s God’s love that expels our evil inclinations, opens our eyes to His grace, and attracts our hearts to him.

We see glimpses of the power of love—especially in moms and dads toward their sons and daughters. This selfness and sacrificial love can be so moving to see—how much more when we actually experience it from the God of the cosmos.

The gospel reverses the affects of sinful corruption by teaching us what God is like, how to think about the world, and how to desire what is good.

When we embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, it first benefits us by changing the way we see God as well as the way we see the world. It changes our thinking. Thinking that used to corrupt us falls under the weighty truth of the gospel.

Then we grow by letting God’s truth permeate our minds, transform our desires, and alter our habits so that our lives more closely become reflections of God and his nature. We begin new lives aimed at imaging him. That new life begins, is sustained by, and has as its end a thriving relationship with the living God our father through his eternal son Jesus Christ.

Bibliography

1) The Lexham Hebrew Bible, 2012.
2) The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, 2016
3) Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 2003.
4) The Lexham Theological Wordbook, 2014.
5) The Lexham Bible Dictionary, 2016.
6) G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, 2007
7) Kurt Aland, Barbara Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger, Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th Edition, 2012
8) William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, 2000.
9) Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans, 2018