Would Christ have had to die for the social justice gospel to be true?

By John Hendryx - Posted at Monergism:

So-called "progressive Christians" are all progressive and no Christian.

The "social justice gospel" is all social justice and no gospel.

"Nationalist Evangelicals" are all nationalist and no evangel.

What do these movements have in common. They all fail to take into account the seriousness of the human condition. The missing element is regeneration: They are all law and no gospel. Human effort without new life. Take away their politics and social causes and they would have nothing to talk about and their movements would collapse in a week.

Those in Christ, who are theological conservatives, on the other hand, by grace, recognize that man cannot extract himself from the morass he is in. He cannot save himself - his will is inflexibly and hopelessly corrupt. No amount of human wisdom or good works can save himself or others. The quick fixes offered by these other groups do nothing to change the nature of fallen man. With all our technological advances, man's heart remains wicked.

Thus, unless the Holy Spirit open his blind eyes, unplugs his deaf ears and turns his heart of stone to a heart of flesh mankind is irretrievably lost, depraved and unable to fix himself. But when the Spirit does a work of grace in a person, they behold their own wickedness, that they are part of the problem and no more deserving of God's favor than another. That before God they are "undone" and justly deserve God's wrath but then rejoice when God extends His undeserved grace in Christ toward them instead and even adopts them as His children. Then when God takes the log out of our eye, we are humbled, changed and finally in a position to liberate the captives, give sight to the blind, help the helpless and do good in all spheres of life. Without new life in Christ, all of these political machinations are but the exertions of fallen human will, and building one's own house, not God's house -- not according to His eternal blueprint as revealed in the gospel.

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