Too many church folks (note I didn’t say believers or Christians) get caught up on causes. I’m not saying all causes are bad, and I think many are well intended, and yet, I believe many are deceived by those leading their causes, or deceiving themselves. Here’s what I mean: many people point to the Crusades and say “how horrible” because atrocities committed in war (on both sides), and then say “I would never do anything like that.” And yet, we take up causes that we deem just, for equity, for politics, for fairness, for whatever else we may deem, and seek to destroy those who oppose us. What is more, we do so outside of the purview of the Gospel, forgetting that all of the things we seek are found at the foot of the cross of Christ. The Scriptures tell us our enemies are not flesh and blood, and yet we willingly go to battle against those who oppose our causes.
Yet consider the equity found in the Gospel: all are guilty under the law. All have broken God’s design for them. In short, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The penalty for breaking the law is death, first in the wearing out of our physical bodies (it will happen to everyone if the Lord tarries), and then spiritually as we cannot enter the presence of God in a defiled state. But God, rich in mercy, sent His Son to fulfill the Law, and Jesus took the form of a man, lived a life perfectly obedient to that law, and died for our crimes. He took our sin and nailed it with Himself on the cross, removing the sting of sin. He was buried and rose again 3 days later, conquering death, and proving that, for those who believe, we will rise again in Him some day. Some 500 witnesses saw him at one time, the 12 Apostles were witness, His 4 brothers went from scoffing to elders of the early church, and someone trying to stamp out His church ended up writing most of the New Testament. He is alive, sitting at the right hand of God in power, and He gave us His Holy Spirit to walk in the newness of Life.
With all of this that He has given to those who believe, why do we need to campaign for anything else? Bring people to Christ, and He will right the wrongs of the world. Stop crusading at get back to the work of the Gospel! Justice and mercy reign there, because Christ is Lord.
Romans 5:1-11
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.’
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