The ministry of the church and the gospel are to proclaim to sinners that they are lost and only Christ can change and transform them.

A number of churches have stated as their purpose: “The gospel is the means for healing and transforming our lives and community.” Obviously, the gospel does heal and transform lives, but does it heal and transform our communities? Is engaging the culture in this sense what the church is called to do?

Engaging the culture has become shorthand for attempting to bring change to communities by common grace programs. These programs or activities have been confused for special grace actions (perhaps without realizing how this redefinition is faulty and confusing). Special grace has as its focus redemption leading to eternal life; common grace is focused on relief from the effects of sin’s curse.

The goal of special grace is redemption, that is, the salvation of sinners from the curse and wrath of God through the meritorious and substitutionary work of Christ. The goal of common grace is relief for all people from the curse that came upon the earth because of Adam’s sin.

Some have defined the gospel as Jesus coming “to make all things new.” There is no question that Jesus does ultimately make all things new when understood in its full biblical meaning. However, are all things being made new right now? This definition of all things made new has led to confusion regarding the nature of the gospel. Another framing of this issue is something like this: The purpose of the gospel and ministry of the church are to transform the structures or sub-groups of society.

The ministry of the church and the gospel are to proclaim to sinners that they are lost and only Christ can change and transform them. The church can’t transform culture; it can help relieve the effects of the fall, but it can’t transform it in the same sense that the gospel heals and transforms sinners from lost to redeemed, genuinely made new creations.

Is the statement, “The gospel is the means for healing and transforming our lives and community,” a clear and careful framing of the issue? Stating it like this really says too much and goes beyond what the gospel does in this present age.

There is no “healing and transformation” of communities in the strict sense of what these words mean. However, what we can say is that the hearts of sinners can and are healed and transformed by God’s grace, with an expectation that there will be moral and ethical benefits that flow and impact their communities as the redeemed live out the imperatives of the gospel.

Redemption has been described as a continuum between “the already…not yet.” The “already” refers to salvation having its effects in this present age, the period between Christ’s first and second comings. Speaking of this redemption for believers, the Bible tells us that Christ “gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age” (Gal. 1:4).

The “not yet” is the age to come when Jesus returns and restores the whole of created order as it was originally intended. While there are momentary and hopeful indicators of this consummation and restoration, the fullness of restoration will not take place until Christ’s coming. Until then, and realizing the effects of the curse in this present age, we seek to relieve and lessen its painful effects. But for now, in this present age, we proclaim the gospel of redemption because “now” is the time of salvation.

But the communities themselves are not healed, transformed or redeemed in the same sense that believers receive eternal life. There will be the restoration of the created order, its healing and transformation, when Jesus returns; then all things, all which are presently groaning under the weight of the curse, will be made right (Rom. 8:18-25; I Cor. 15:24-28).

Paul instructed and encouraged Titus with the “already…not yet” pattern for his ministry: “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:11-14).

The confusion about the nature of the gospel, that the gospel heals and transforms communities in this present age, is a utopian notion that distorts and misunderstands the effects and power of the curse of sin in every aspect of culture and society.

No matter how much good work is done in communities and subsets of culture, no matter how peaceful and safe we work to make them, no matter how well educated and schooled they may be, if the people who make up the communities are not redeemed by embracing Christ as he is offered in the gospel, over time these communities will show themselves to be what they are: fallen and a part of the present evil age.

To be sure, our good efforts will have temporary and temporal effects, but we will never be able to say that these communities are redeemed, healed or transformed. However, of those within these communities who trust Christ alone for salvation, we can state confidently that they are redeemed, healed and transformed.

The gospel, then, is not a program that has as its intent to change or transform the structures of society: building better houses, providing better education, placing a chicken in every pot, etc. Believers do work to make circumstances better, but if the souls of sinners aren’t saved, they will enter eternity with clean clothes, full stomachs, and graduate degrees but without the gift of eternal life. By making “everything” the gospel its meaning is diluted and distorted and will be of no effect; its power is negated (actually, the inherent power of the gospel is never lessened; however, the power of the gospel for ministry is abated).

There is a difference between the “roots and the fruits.” The “roots” are the essentials of the gospel expressing the message of salvation: Sinners are lost and separated from their Creator-God because of Adam’s sin imputed to them. God, out of his sovereign grace and mercy, determined to initiate and provide redemption from sin by sending his one and only Son into the world to be the all sufficient Redeemer of sinners. Through the proclamation of this gospel, sinners are called to repent of their sins and believe in Christ alone for their salvation.

The “fruits” of this redemption are the evidences of true faith manifested in the lives of believers. Not only do the redeemed show in their own beliefs and actions the fruits of a new life and obedience to God and his Word, but they also express love to their neighbors, whoever those neighbors are and whatever their circumstances may be.

If the gospel is defined as “making all things new” in the present age (i.e., the “already”), and if defining ministry as “transformative” such that the structure of the kingdom is supposed to be brought to earth, why is that after we’ve worked so hard to make all things new, to heal and transform culture, is society still so broken? Why is crime still rampant? Why are banks still being robbed? Why are schools ineffective? Why are houses still falling apart? Why are families still so dysfunctional? Why are there wars between nations?

The reason there is no real change in culture or its subsets is because the hearts of sinners have not been changed by the power of God’s grace. But where hearts have been changed by grace, we do see transformation and healing. In this present age, the gospel produces genuine personal and redemptive change, not structural, societal healing. While glimpses of the “not yet” can be seen from time to time in the shadows, it has ‘not yet’ arrived (“But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently,” Romans 8:25).

We must be careful not to confuse those acts that manifest our fruits with the roots. We give a cup of cold water (a fruit) when our neighbors are in need of this, but we must also point them to Christ (roots) who alone is able to give them “the water of life springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14; 7:38). The cup of cold water by itself will not heal or transform our neighbors and communities; they will be thirsty again and their spiritual circumstances will remain the same. What they need in this present age is the water offered in Christ’s invitation: “Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Rev. 22:17).

Dr. Dominic Aquila is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America and serves as President of New Geneva Theological Seminary in Colorado Springs, Colorado