Justification and Mission

Some thoughts about the connection between justification and acts of justice/mission. To accept and believe in justification but to not "make disciples as you go" (the grammatical sense of Jesus' words in the Great Commission in Matthew 28), or not participate in social justice actions like crisis pregnancy ministry, homeless ministry, etc, is to divide God, particularly Christ, in half.

God chose Israel to be a "kingdom of priests" and a "light to the nations." The Church, because we are saved by faith like Abraham, enters into the same purpose, being a "Kingdom of priests" and a "light to the nations." The very purpose of their/our being chosen was to be a light for the surrounding nations, to lead them to God, in whom is their salvation and life. That's the whole point. Our justification ,and the working out of it in our lives (our progressive sanctification), are distinct but inextricably connected. God continues to work that out in our lives as long as we cooperate and don't stifle the Holy Spirit's leading in our lives to purify us and progressively sanctify us.

The working out of our justification means the manifestation of the implications of justification. One of the primary, if not THE primary implication(s) of justification is becoming a channel of holiness and reconciliation, a channel of God's righteousness to other people. Salvation is imputed righteousness, God's perfect righteousness earned in Christ's life imputed to us freely by faith. Sanctification is imparted righteousness, God's righteous acts done through us by the Holy Spirit that attracts other people to God. It's not about shaming people and guilting them into serving the homeless and doing evangelism, but it's about pointing out that the purpose of salvation is not to be holy in ourselves and live separate from the world. The point of our salvation is for us to be holy before God for the purpose of being holy unto other people, and to live separately, or more properly "differently," while IN the world. The purpose of God choosing people to save is so that they will then be active lights to other people to direct them to the God that saved them.

If a lightbulb said to its maker, "I will shine my light on everything around me...just not that person because I don't like him and he smells funny," the maker wouldn't say, "Can't you see how much you have and how much he lacks? He doesn't have any light. Someone's got to step in and help him out. Shine your light on him!"
That would be guilt manipulation, the most common evangelical method of getting people out the door to live missionally.

But if the lightbulb's maker said, "Well, lightbulb, what do you think I made you for? To do what you want and avoid the things you don't want? No. Indeed, I made you to give light to everyone and everything around you. It's not about who you're shining light on, it's about what you were made to do."

It's not about whether we want to shine light on other people. It's about what we were made to do, and that we will never be happy and fulfilled if we are not doing what we were made to do. Like that car insurance commercial: How happy does our insurance make people? "Happier than a slinky on an escalator."