Something has been galling me of late, and that is the Social Justice Warrior gospel that is now pervasive in our modern church culture. This movement is not new, the phrase “social gospel” is usually used to describe a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that came to prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
"Those who adhered to a social gospel sought to apply Christian ethics to social problems such as poverty, slums, poor nutrition and education, alcoholism, crime, and war. These things were emphasized while the doctrines of sin, salvation, heaven and hell, and the future kingdom of God were downplayed" (got Questions?org). Let us be clear, Jesus did not come to help us get along or teach us to take care of the poor or to restore ‘social justice’. To some, this assertion is a bold stroke, since they have been told just the opposite. When we view the gospel and the mission of the church as just restoring social justice we are left with a different gospel than the Apostle Paul preached. Paul even said, "but though we or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let them be accursed (Galatians 1:8).
These are very strong words by the Apostle. He used the word accursed to be applied to those who preach and teach any other gospel than the gospel that he preached and taught. I'm writing today to proclaim that the Social Justice gospel in "another" gospel than the gospel of the Apostle Paul.
This may come as a shock to some, but Jesus did not come to heal the sick and feed the hungry. You can eliminate every single thing Jesus ever said in his life about the poor and social justice, and still you will not undermine his main message one bit. The whole of the Old testament's sacrificial system... and all the Old Testament prophets point to One who was to come to feed the hungry...to give sight to the blind, but if this is understood in the physical sense only the gospel is missed.
Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that the physical water that you drink will quench your thirst for a time, but the water that I give you will quench your thirst for eternity,see (John 4:4-26). Jesus told the crowds after he feed them that you seek me for the bread that is temporal, but Jesus claimed, I'm the bread of life, whoever partakes of this bread will live forever, see (John 6:25-59).
Jesus did heal those with physical maladies for sure, but that is all the Social Justice Warriors see, but the deeper meaning of those physical healings pointed to a spiritual healing that would come in time at the cross...His death, burial, and resurrection. I think the prophet Isaiah sums it best when he prophesied about Jesus' first coming, he said, But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).
God did not send His Son to suffer and die on a cross for social justice, no, He sent His Son to satisfy His justice so that a way could be opened for sinful man to come before Him and be in fellowship with Him for eternity.
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