Sider, Good News and Good Works

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Ronald J. Sider, Good News and Good Works: A Theology for the Whole Gospel. Baker Books, 1999.

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LifeandLeadership.com Summary

The name Ron Sider is synonymous with evangelical Christian social conscience. His book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger is arguably the classic of this genre. In Good News and Good Works, he concentrates on the theology and philosophy undergirding Christian social action, but in a way that honors the biblical call to evangelism. He argues that if either emphasis is lost, it fails to be the whole gospel. Church leaders in congregations with strong evangelical roots and wish to develop their social conscience would be hard pressed to find a book that more effectively addresses the biblical and theological dimensions. A helpful companion volume, Cup of Water, Bread of Life: Inspiring Stories About Overcoming Lopsided Christianity (Zondervan, 1994) tells stories about effective ministries that combine evangelism and social transformation.

In Part One, “A House Divided,” Sider tells his own pilgrimage of trying to balance evangelism and social engagement. Next, he “maps the terrain.” He says that with regard to the church’s understanding of its mission, “one group saves souls, the other reforms structures.” He calls this lopsided Christianity. This lopsidedness is expressed in four divergent models: Individualistic Evangelical, Radical Anabaptist, Dominant Ecumenical, and Secular Christian. Each of these is contrasted/compared with respect to its view of sin, anthropology, content of the gospel, meaning of salvation, history and eschatology, source of theological truth, object of evangelism, how the gospel is shared, how society is changed, and the locus of God’s activity.

In Part Two, “The Gospel of the Kingdom,” Sider proposes that overcoming lopsidedness is achieved not by reconciling contradictory views, but by focusing on a more biblical understanding of the kingdom. More specifically, it means “defining the Gospel as the Good News of the kingdom rather than merely the Good News of personal salvation.” (75) He shows how the Gospels build upon the Prophets as they express the kingdom as the dawning of God’s shalom, i.e. “wholeness and right relationships with God, neighbor, and the earth.” (54) Jesus’ teaching then gives birth to a new community that makes this kingdom visible by living out his radical ethics in areas such as forgiveness. People become a part of this new community not by keeping the law perfectly or by joining an armed rebellion against Roman imperialism, not “by good deeds or social engineering,” but only through repentance and the acceptance of God’s forgiveness. (56) His kingdom also does battle with the kingdom of darkness, and in this sense is “disturbing.” Sider says, “Behind wicked persons and twisted social patterns, Jesus saw the work of Satan and his demonic forces.” (61) This is evident from the many exorcisms and statements from Jesus indicating he “saw himself as the strong man binding the demonic powers (Luke 11:22) that moved behind the broken social values and patterns he confronted.” (61) It is also evident in the many ways Jesus challenged the evils of the status quo by defending and embracing the poor, marginalized, and women, and by confronting corrupt political leadership, violent revolutionaries, and oppressive religious leaders. These actions were reflections of and central to Jesus’ self-understanding as God’s Messiah who came to atone for the sins of the world and usher in God’s kingdom of justice and shalom. The early church that formed on the day of Pentecost was the sign that the Messianic age the prophets had predicted and Jesus heralded had begun, but only as “firstfruits” and “pledge” of the fullness of the kingdom that would arrive in God’s time. “Even though they were an infinitesimally insignificant minority in a powerful pagan empire, they dared to proclaim that God would reconcile all things in heaven and on earth through the cross of this Jewish carpenter (Col. 1:15-20).” (75) And they understood that Jesus’ kingdom is wholistic. Sider says,

Thank God that it does bring forgiveness with God and personal, inner sanctification in the power of the Spirit. But it also challenges and changes the social order. The kingdom impacts soul and body, individual and society. The church properly communicates the Good News of Jesus’ kingdom by word and deed: by proclamation, miracles, acts of mercy and justice, and living out the gospel as a winsome example to others.

Jesus’ new redeemed community is part of the Good News. God wants the church to be a little miniature now of the coming kingdom. For that reason, it should, like Jesus’ first community, be a disturbing challenge to every kind of evil rather than a comfortable club of conformity to the world. The church has learned the awesome secret of God’s cosmic design to restore the whole creation to wholeness. Therefore Christians go forth in the world both to lead people to faith in Christ and also to erect signs of the coming kingdom within the broken kingdoms of this world, confident that the Messiah will one day return to complete the victory over the kingdom of darkness.” (75-76)

Sider then lays out seven differences this perspective makes, prefacing each with, “If the gospel is not just forgiveness of sins, but the Good News of the kingdom of God, we…” These seven differences emphasize reconciliation with brothers and sisters in Christ’s body, economic sharing, social (e.g. racial) reconciliation, ministering to the physical and spiritual needs of people, challenging what is wrong with the status quo as a loving critic and countercultural community, caring for the poor, maintaining the distinction between the church and the world, and living, as well as preaching the Gospel.

Part Three looks at salvation and conversion in a messianic/kingdom framework. In the chapter on salvation, Sider explains the wholistic meaning of salvation from both Old and New Testaments. He also covers the present, future, and cosmic senses of salvation, and the three dominant theories of atonement – moral (Jesus as teacher), substitutionary (Jesus as substitute), and classic (Christus Victor, Jesus as victor). He argues that looking through messianic/kingdom lens helps us to see Christ’s atonement in all three senses. In the chapter on conversion, Sider discusses the wholistic understanding of the three basic word groups used in the New Testament to talk about repentance and conversion, pointing out the relationship between conversion and reconciliation with both God and neighbor. He offers a probing and lively comparison/contrast of this wholistic understanding vs. popular expressions of the church growth movement. For example, over against preaching to “felt needs,” Sider cites Jesus’ example of the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17) who was immediately confronted with a powerful prophetic word on riches and sharing with the poor. “Rather than make it easy to join his circle of disciples, Jesus made it extremely costly.” (112) He argues that “we need a combination of appealing to ‘felt needs’ of individuals and calling their attention to Scriptures that focus on sins that may be of particular importance to the new convert.” (113)

Part Four applies the kingdom perspective to evangelism and social action. In the chapter on evangelism, he presents nine central biblical reasons for doing evangelism: God’s love for the world, the uniqueness of Christ, Christ as the only way to salvation, obedience to Christ’s command, love for neighbor, the fact that people are lost without Christ, sin’s effect of eternal separation from God, our eschatological hope, and the glory of God. The chapter on social action explores the biblical basis for social concern. Sider discusses three types of social concern – relief, development, and structural change. He also explains the place of social concern in the key theological doctrines of God, creation, personhood, sin, Christology, and salvation. He acknowledges that many Christians acknowledge the biblical and theological importance of social action through relief and development, but have difficulty with the notion of structural change. Toward that end, he offers a practical and biblical defense of Christians advocating change in social structures through politics rather than relying totally on individual, personal charity.

Part Five, “Incarnational Kingdom Christianity” distinguishes between evangelism and social action, and emphasizes the importance of not substituting one for the other. One chapter also discusses the inseparable relationship between the two. The appendix, “Is Social Justice a Part of Salvation?” evaluates the arguments for a broader definition of salvation espoused by many socially active Christians, but then says the arguments are unconvincing, and insists that we not equate justice and salvation.

Publisher’s Product Description

“I long for the day when every village, town, and city has congregations so in love with Jesus that they lead scores of people to him and so sensitive to the cry of the poor and oppressed that they work vigorously for justice, peace, and freedom,” writes Ronald Sider. In Good News and Good Works, this best-selling author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger encourages readers to do evangelism hand-in-hand with social action in order to proclaim a holistic gospel.

Sider begins by analyzing various kingdom mission models espoused by Christians. He explains the dangers of churches following a one-sided model, then goes on to show how to combine evangelism and social concerns in a balanced fashion. This book was previously published by Zondervan as One-Sided Christianity?

About the Author

Ronald J. Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action and professor of theology and culture at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, is the author of over twenty books, including the best-selling Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.

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