Hope for a Hurting World

We must never forget that the gospel brings more long-term social good than any governmental program ever developed.

—J. Mack Stiles in Marks of the Messenger: Knowing, Living and Speaking the Gospel

Old Testament Gospel

The Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt, 1854. Hunt had this framed with the quotations “Surely he hath borne our Griefs and carried our Sorrows; Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of GOD and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4) and “And the Goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a Land not inhabited.” (Leviticus 16:2)

Old Testament Gospel

(Hebrews 4:2)

Israel in ancient days
Not only had a view
Of Sinai in a blaze,
But learn’d the Gospel too;
The types and figures were a glass,
In which they saw a Saviour’s face.

The paschal sacrifice
And blood-besprinkled door,
Seen with enlighten’d eyes,
And once applied with power,
Would teach the need of other blood,
To reconcile an angry God.

The Lamb, the Dove, set forth
His perfect innocence,
Whose blood of matchless worth
Should be the soul’s defence;
For he who can for sin atone,
Must have no failings of His own.

The scape-goat on his head
The people’s trespass bore,
And to the desert led,
Was to be seen no more:
In him our surety seem’d to say,
“Behold, I bear your sins away.”

Dipt in his fellow’s blood,
The living bird went free;
The type, well understood,
Express’d the sinner’s plea;
Described a guilty soul enlarged,
And by a Saviour’s death discharged.

Jesus, I love to trace,
Throughout the sacred page,
The footsteps of Thy grace,
The same in every age!
Oh, grant that I may faithful be
To clearer light vouchsafed to me! 

—William Cowper

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More on William Cowper

• There Is a Fountain Filled With Blood
• God Moves in a Mysterious Way
  

Not Equal to the Gospel

So, is caring for others “the gospel”? Is that evangelism? No, not without the spoken message of the gospel of Jesus. The gospel message is the message that produces salvation. So we should never confuse meeting physical needs with sharing the gospel. Caring for others represents the gospel, it upholds the gospel, it points to the gospel, it’s an implication of the gospel, but it is not the gospel, and it is not equal to the gospel.

Furthermore, all actions of kindness, compassion and justice must be done with the hope to share our faith, otherwise we are not upholding the gospel. We share the good news always open to doing good, and we do good always with the hope of sharing our faith. We never divorce the two.

If we get nothing in return, it’s okay because it is the nature of love. But do not forget that seeing people come to Christ in the midst of suffering and injustice is to do the greatest good we could ever do. To misunderstand this is to be blinded by cultural, materialistic worldviews rather than to believe in the power of the gospel.

From J. Mack Stiles in Marks of the Messenger: Knowing, Living and Speaking the Gospel.