My day job exposes me to a great deal of literature and communication from “activist” Christians—folks who are very (VERY) heavily concerned with social injustices, sex trafficking, poverty alleviation, and other causes (which, y’know, we should be concerned about). However, whenever I read books coming from this group, or written by people trying to appeal to them, I get a little squeamish about the language used, which usually sounds something like this:
We’re to be world-changers, partnering with God in redeeming this broken world and building his kingdom.
But if that’s true… why doesn’t it ring true to what the Bible says?
Kevin DeYoung helpfully puts words to my awkward feelings about this in Why We Love the Church. There, he writes:
We need to be careful about our language. I think I know what people mean when they talk about redeeming the culture or partnering with God in His redemption of the world, but we should really pick another word. Redemption has already been accomplished on the cross. We are not co-redeemers of anything. We are called to serve, bear witness, proclaim, love, do good to everyone, and adorn the gospel with good deeds, but we are not partners in God’s work of redemption.
Similarly, there is no language in Scripture about Christians building the kingdom. The New Testament, in talking about the kingdom, uses words like enter, seek, announce, see, receive, look, come into, and inherit. Do a word search and see for yourself. We are given the kingdom and brought into the kingdom. We testify about it, pray for it to come, and by faith, it belongs to us. But in the New Testament, we are never the ones who bring the kingdom. We receive it, enter it, and are given it as a gift. It is our inheritance. It’s no coincidence that “entering” and “inheriting” are two of the common verbs associated with the Promised Land in the Old Testament (see Deut. 4:1; 6:18; 16:20). The kingdom grows to be sure, and no doubt God causes it to grow by employing means (like Christians), but we are never told to create, expand, or usher in the kingdom just as the Israelites were not commanded to establish Canaan. Pray for the kingdom, yes, but not build it. (49)
This, I think, is something we need to remember.
When I see people running around trying to be world-changers, all I see are people running themselves into the ground. Before too long, they’re completely frazzled; burnt out. It’s a burden that’s too much for them to bear.
Fortunately, God’s never asked us to be world-changers. Instead, he encourages us to enter into Jesus’ rest, and be thankful for what has been provided today. To trust him with the needs of tomorrow. And to do the work he calls us to—which, yes, does include social action—not in order to build our inheritance, but as those secure in the goodness of its Builder.
Photo credit: justinbaeder via photopin cc
Historic Reformed theology has always recognized that the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man go hand in hand, and that applies not only to evangelism, but every other endeavour. It is true that ultimately, God is the one who builds His Kingdom. But who can deny that He uses the Church to accomplish this? The idea of “Kingdom Building” is consistent with what Evangelical Protestantism has proclaimed throughout history, yet it seems that a lot of pietism-influenced “New Calvinists” want to throw that out and make the Kingdom of God a purely internal affair.
No one is denying this.
No wonder the Church in America is so powerless. We are called to be the “salt” of the world. Jesus said if the salt is useless it is to be thrown out and walked on. This attitude of letting God do everything is no excuse for Christians not to do the work of God. Reread the Great Commission mandate given by Christ and then deny we are not to build the Kingdom of God on earth.
YES. Great post.