Posted by
Mark McConnell on Friday, October 03, 2008 9:46:31 PM
Man, including his politics, is in the image of God. Caesar too bears God's image and inscription - meaning, he is made to be rendered unto God - though ruled by sin, and subject to futility and death. That's to say, it is not our message that man saves himself.
When we preach Christ, we are speaking of the complete and final defeat of death, of misery, of sin and injustice, everywhere. Nothing less. Meanwhile, when for now we remain subject to corruption, we proclaim that his death and life are given in the earth, changing us by faith in him.
But man is inclined to show himself as though he were God, and his actions as acts of salvation, whether he acknowledges any god or not. He confuses himself with the Redeemer, and thus with the passing of time God seems to pass away. Anything out of man is at best a flower which is here today and then fades.
For our redemption to be seen in politics, we must not preach redemption by politics. We are never the ones we're waiting for.