Election Season Necessitates the Gospel

(Image courtesy of Associated Press.)

It is certainly election season, and we as Christians ought to pray. Not only should we pray for the salvation of lost souls in the land where we live, but I think it is our responsibility to vote. It is a liberty that God has given to us, so we ought to steward this duty well.

If I were being honest (which I will be), I am a follower of the Constitution Party. The Constitution is one of the greatest, civic documents ever written, and the Founding Fathers did an excellent job in defining the role of government. The problem is the Constitution is rarely obeyed today.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is also rarely obeyed today. Did you know that every single candidate in the upcoming November election is a professing Christian? Kamala Harris claims to be a Baptist. (More accurately, but not less confusing, Harris claims to be “a Baptist with a Jewish spouse and ties to the Black Church and Gandhi” [PBS].) Tim Walz, her running mate, quoted from the Bible in the Vice-Presidential debate. Donald Trump claims to be a Christian. J.D. Vance, his running mate, used the name of Christ (not as a curse word) during the Vice-Presidential debate as well.

I want to say this next part with humility and a bit of fear and trembling, for if someone were to put my life against my profession, I would be ashamed of some things. Yet, we are called to examine the fruit of someone’s life, for by the fruit you will know the tree (cf. Matthew 7:15-20). Clearly, there is some bad fruit hanging from each of these flawed politicians, some more than others.

Immediately after speaking about fruit and how it reveals the goodness or badness of the whole tree, Jesus issues all people a terrifying warning: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Simply because one claims to be a Christian, doesn’t make him so. The gospel changes lives, and if you’re not changed, then you don’t know the gospel. The gospel changes us – both in the immediate sense and over the course of our lifetimes – from spiritually dead and corrupt to spiritually alive and growing in goodness.

What we believe influences our actions and, in the case of politicians, their policies. Can someone say, “Christ is my Savior” and out of the same mouth make policy that desecrates human life, even the unborn? Can a politician say, “I believe in God” and celebrate gay marriage and drag queens? This is paradoxical.

Shifting gears: What does the fruit of your life reveal? Does your life match your profession?

Since none of us is without sin, let us consider this: what are we to do when our lives don’t match with our profession? Where are we to go with sin in our lives? Do we mount up our defenses and double-down? Or do we change course through repentance and go to the One who forgives?

The apostle Paul was once a hater of Christ, but when the Lord graciously forgave him, Paul was a new man. He ran early and often to the cross of Christ, relishing in the grace so lavishly given to him, a former sinner. Paul knew emphatically that he did not have “a righteousness of [his] own that comes from [doing what is right], but that which is through faith in Christ” (Philippians 3:9).

I pray that the profession of each candidate would be truthful, and that the gospel they profess to believe would lead them to living changed lives and moral policies. Even so, let us not lose sight of the face in our own mirrors; we need Christ’s forgiveness too.