Foundational Ideas: The Gospel Affects Everything

As sin affected everything, so the Gospel will restore everything. God makes all things new. In the midst of our depravity, there was quite literally nothing we could do to save ourselves from continued descent. Only Christ, who came to redeem sinners, offers any hope. But we must not be so short sighted as to think that Christ’s only job was to rescue sinners.   No doubt that was a massive part of what he came to do, but he came to usher in his kingdom. There will be a day, because of his ongoing redemptive work that he will wipe every tear from every eye, when there will be no more crying, no more pain, and no more sorrow. He will restore what needed restoration.

We are called to participate in God’s redemptive work today. We should bloom where we are planted. When we love others, when we work for cultural renewal, when we promote a biblical worldview, we serve to improve the world around us. As believers, Christ’s work for us was much broader than we could ever have imagined. For further information, anything by Chuck Colson would be appropriate, though I also liked Matt Chandler’s book “TheExplicit Gospel” for understanding this Kingdom vision.