We are not to stop with simply telling the nations that Jesus died for the sinner’s sins. We are to demonstrate Christ’s lordship in our families, in our churches, in our work, in our communities, and in our cultures. We’re to make disciples who will obey everything that He commanded, not just in the hazy zone of piety, but in the totality of life. This is the thrust of the Great Commission. It is the spiritual, emotional, and cultural mandate to win all things in the name of Jesus. And though we know that only Christ Himself can fulfill that mandate in its entirety at the close of history, our duty is but to trust and obey. We are to occupy until He comes. The tendency of modern Christians to sidestep all of the implications of the Great Commission except soul-saving has, in stark contrast, paved the way for inhuman humanism’s program to afflict the helpless and crush our liberties and despoil our culture. We tend to be very quick to point the finger, and say, “Oh, woe is Washington! Oh, woe is Hollywood!” – when, in fact, it is our unbelief, our refusal to actually believe that God expects, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven” to be answered in the affirmative. We have reduced the Gospel to snatching a few brands from the flickering flames of perdition and, as a result, virtually all Christian influence has been removed from the world. There is little or nothing to restrain the ambitions of evil men and movements. It is no wonder then that whole cultures, whole nation states, set themselves to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. God’s counsel goes unheard and unheeded because we don’t really believe that Jesus is Lord.
- George Grant, from a lecture entitled “Ruling All the Earth”, given at the Highlands Study Center conference, “For the Beauty of the Earth”, April 2, 2004.
