A bowl of soup and some new shoes?

Through some bizarre link following the other day, I ended up on Amazon.com reading reviews of Rob Bell’s “Jesus Wants To Save Christians.” Now, unless you are either unsaved, or saved but want to raise your blood pressure, I would strongly suggest you just stay away from Rob Bell stuff – unless you are a Pastor and want to be able to warn your flock. Rob Bell is a heretic – lets just get that out of the way.

Anyway, while I was there, I stumbled on this quote: “Social justice IS the message of salvation.” Now, on the surface, this sounds nice. Most people care about the poor, sick and needy – Christians HAVE to care (the Holy Spirit ensures that Christians WILL care – it is not up to the Christian). But is this the gospel? Did Jesus come down from Heaven, take on human form, live a perfect sinless life, allow Himself to be brutally beaten and suffer a horrible and excruciating death, raise Himself from the dead three days later and then ascend to Heaven so that we could have a full tummy? Did the God of Heaven become a man and submit Himself to unimaginable pain and suffering so we could have nice clothes? Did Almighty God, maker of Heaven and Earth, sustainer of all things – allow Himself to be murdered so to save us from hunger and nakedness?

Did Jesus die to make sure we all had a bowl of soup and some new shoes?

If you think He did, then you might want to re-read the New Testament (even better, the entire Bible). The Bible speaks of Jesus as the one “who delivers us from the wrath to come”  (1Th 1:10). Jesus said “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost"  (Luk 19:10) & “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many"  (Mat 20:28).

I’ve mentioned it before – caring for the poor and sick IS important… but it can NOT be a Christians primary concern! Jesus did not tell us to go into all the world and pass out sandwiches and blankets – but to go and make disciples. I keep pointing this out: How often do we have Jesus taking care of the poor in the Gospels? Only a few times – it was important, but it was NOT Jesus’ primary focus. Think about the fact that the rest of the New Testament does not emphasize Jesus life, but rather His person and His work on the cross  and His resurrection. Not His teaching, not His miracles and not His treatment of the poor and sick.

The fact is, Donald Trump is NOT poor. As far as I know, he is healthy… and as far as I know, he is not saved. Unless he repents and trusts Jesus, he will go to hell when he dies. If he suddenly got advanced cancer and lost all his money – his eternal destiny would remain UNCHANGED! A homeless man who is dying of pneumonia who is also unsaved has the same eternal destiny as the Sultan of Brunei – and your treatment of either man will not change YOUR eternal destiny. It’s about their sin, its about YOUR sin. God is not going to check financial statements or records of charitable contributions. My pastor said “Quality of quantity of service does not earn Gods favor.” Feeding the poor may make you feel better (and it IS an important thing to do!), but it wont get you to heaven!

Your treatment of the less fortunate is not your problem – your problem is that you have broken Gods laws. Repeatedly. You have lied, you have stolen, you have been ungrateful, you have hated people – go through the 10 Commandments and be honest with yourself. Pay special attention to the first 4 Commandments – those will show you how you have treated God Himself! You have broken Gods laws countless times – you are guilty before God. You are a sinner. Not in some abstract sense – in a very REAL sense, you are a criminal in Gods sight, and God would be just in sentencing you to hell for your crimes. But God is “ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Neh 9:17).”

If you just humble yourself and agree with God that you are NOT good, that you deserve His judgment and condemnation and ask Him for his mercy – He WILL forgive you. You need to trust that you CAN’T earn Gods favor, and trust that Jesus earned it FOR YOU – and then you go and take care of the poor and sick, and here’s the key, in order to get a chance to TELL THEM about Jesus – about who He is and what He did, and about their problem… their REAL problem. Because when they die, whether they were in Armani or rags, whether they were hungry or full, whether they were a body builder or died of aids – none of that will matter.

Thanks for readin!

-Rob