Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
—John 12:24

Not usually one to turn to the comic books for spiritual guidance, I recently finished reading Who Needs a Superhero? by a pastor friend of mine, Mike Brewer. His book tackles the intersection of the Gospel and the comic book in a way that is gentle and wise.

One of the featured superheroes is Will Eisner’s The Spirit. Originally an intrepid reporter (weren’t they all in the 1940s?), The Spirit started life as Denny Colt. Running afoul of a real mad scientist, Colt finds himself very much dead and buried in the family vault. But the end is not written, for the very means of his death is also the means of his rebirth. Made alive again by the very thing that killed him, Colt decides he has an opportunity that no one gets—the chance to live a reborn life dedicated to righting wrong completely free of the trappings of being tagged and labeled by the world. And so his quest begins, this legally-dead man taking on the scum of the earth, now more alive than he ever was.

Paul writes:

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
—Galatians 6:14

In our modern age composed of so much hustling and fighting to get to the top of the heap, the cross speaks of dying to self. Satan can easily put down a man who lives to himself, but a dead man cannot be opposed. When we die at the cross, we are given the opportunity to be unhindered. It is the way we were meant to be. God knows that we can more fully live if we have died to “the elemental spirits of the world.”

Not everyone takes the opportunity to die at the cross and be freed from the power of the world. Far too many die in their sins, mummified and bound. I hear infinitely more messages calling out to us to live for ourselves and only one that says,

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
—Romans 8:13

Today, let us come to the cross that we might die and by the Spirit of the Lord be made alive again.

Blessings.

The social gospel is not new. There have always been those who gravitated to the more man-centered part of the message of Jesus. With the rise of the Emerging church and a mini-backlash against those who seem to espouse only a moral gospel, the social gospel has come back into focus.

A few of the more left and centrist leaders in Evangelicalism have been pushing to counter the moralists. Men like Jim Wallis, Tom Sine, and Tony Campolo are increasingly speaking to the disconnect that has formed within the ranks of Christians between what we believe and endorse and what we actually get out and do.

Let me say that I wholeheartedly believe we need to be not only working for moral righteousness, but also social righteousness as well.

The “as well” there is key. As much as we need to hear the messages of Wallis, Sine, and Campolo, we cannot forget that Christianity is not one gospel or the other, it is The Gospel. Strip any pieces off of it an attempt to stand them on their own and you have a corrupted message or action. The Lord does not intend for us to be hearers only. Nor does He wish for us to simply do for doing sake.

In addressing some recent statements made by Bono of the band U2—a huge proponent of the social gospel—Jared over at The Thinklings nails this dichotomy perfectly (and references Bonhoeffer in the process, always an astute decision) in “No Ethos Without the Theos“:

Kingdom behavior cannot create kingdom hearts. It is the other way around. For the former approach puts the focus on man, while the latter gives the glory to God. This is more, I suspect than many of Bono’s acolytes would be willing to accept. Bono says, “To me, faith in Jesus Christ that is not aligned with social justice, that is not aligned with the poor — it’s nothing.” But the reverse— “Social justice that is not aligned with faith in Jesus Christ is nothing”—is just as true, is in fact truer. Why is it not preached except by those accused of bigotry and judgmentalism and putting conditions on the Gospel? Because most of us, Christians included, want the glory without the cross.

The evangelical, conservative church is not exempt from this error either. I think the Church makes the same mistake, despite its explicit acceptance of the exclusivity of Jesus. The Church reduces the Jesus ethic to pious sentimentalities, as well, equating “doing good” with “being good,” decontextualizing the teachings of Jesus until they become little more than baptized proverbs. Discipleship is about self-improvement, taking up one’s cross is about staying positive through a rough time, etc. We are just as guilty, because we are drunk on self-help and our own potential and discovering the champion in ourselves. We too want the glory without the cross. Bonhoeffer had a phrase for that: cheap grace.

No sentimentality without (the) sacrifice.
No justice without holiness.
No right behavior without righteous character.
No ethos without theos.

Kingdom actions without kingdom character are rubbish.

To this I say, “Amen.” We can’t filter out the parts of the Gospel that stick in our throats. The Gospel is always true—all of it. We are the ones that must be bent to it, not the other way around. There are not two gospels, only one. Folks who advocate for a piece of it are wrongly dividing the Gospel.

Once again, the reality of the Christian walk is found only in the balance.