With the supreme court ruling today on the President’s health care reform there are many who may either be elated or dismayed. For the Christian, I would like to offer some perspective. I’ll write below the words of Dr. John Piper in his marvelous book on the Gospel and racism, Bloodlines. This quote comes from the end of chapter five when Dr. Piper begins to transition the discussion from systemic racism versus personal responsibility and how the Gospel transcends each of these arguments. So, I don’t believe Dr. Piper wrote these words with this issue of health care in mind at all, but they speak to the issue of the day for Christians. So, read and take comfort dear Christian. Our King rules and that rule will break into a global kingdom some day. Until then take heart. King Jesus has overcome the world!
“Because the gospel of Jesus is not an ideology or a philosophy or a methodology or a therapy but a supernatural in-breaking of God into our lives, I am concerned at how many Christians do not bring it to bear personally, critically, and explosively on the political right and left. It seems to me that too many Christians gravitate to right-wing Republican politics or left-wing Democratic politics because they see some parallel between a political plank and a part of the gospel. It’s like saying that the party that uses candles must be the true one because they’re shaped so much like sticks of gospel dynamite. The gospel was meant to explode with saving power in the lives of politicians and social activists, not help them decorate their social agenda. Jesus did not come into the world to endorse anybody’s platform. He doesn’t fit in. He created the world. He holds it in being by his powerful word. He will return someday to judge the living and the dead. And he came the first time to die so that left-wing activists and right-wing talk-show hosts would be broken in pieces for their sin and put back together by the power of grace. He came so that from that day on Jesus himself would be the supreme treasure and authority in our lives. He came so that we would become radically devoted to the glory of God.” John Piper, Bloodlines
