From Growing Up in the Social Gospel Movement of the 60's to Today's Woke Social Justice Movement

From what does Jesus save me? 

This was made clear in the birth announcement which the angel Gabriel proclaimed to Joseph. 

• “He will save His people from their sins” (cf. Matthew 1:21). 
• It was necessary for the angel to point this out, 
• for the Jews looked for a political redeemer to save them from the power of the Romans.
• Yet that was not Jesus’ work. 

He came to deliver His people from their sins. 

• He would deliver them not merely from earthly powers but from spiritual powers, 
• which held them in bondage to sin and to death.

There is still a need to emphasize this today in light of the preaching of what is called the Social Gospel. 

• It preaches Jesus as the Savior of society life. 
• It teaches that Jesus is the Man who came to free men from racial discrimination and inequality. 
• He is the Man who broke down the barrier of hostility between Jews and Samaritans 
• when He spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well. 

The Social Gospel teaches that Christ came to deliver men, 

• not from their sin but from their misery. 
• He came to help the sick and the oppressed, 
• the poor and the hungry. 

While it is true that Jesus also saves me from the misery of sin, 

• He could do so only after He had delivered me from my sin. 
• For the cause of my misery is sin. 
• Only when sin is removed can the misery of life be removed. 
• Thus the first purpose of Jesus’ work was to deliver me from my sins.

I must be careful not to lose sight of the first purpose of Jesus’ saving work. 

• My prayers for deliverance from the misery of life are often more passionate than my prayers for deliverance from my sins. 
• When I experience illness or wasting disease, 
• we pray with great fervor for deliverance from them. 

Yet how often is my prayer for the forgiveness of sins not just a “one-liner” at the end of my prayer? 

• I, too, can easily overlook the great need for salvation from sin, 
• and focus my faith on Jesus as the One who redeems me from my misery. 

Christ saves me from both, my sins and my misery, 

• but in the first place He saves me from my sins.

Adapted Excerpt From Van Delden's Only By True Faith