How can the gospel transform our society?

Here, Clare Williams-Sarpong chats with Elizabeth McQuoid about how the gospel can transform our society. Clare Williams is an associate speaker with The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and runs her own apologetics ministry ‘Real Questions’.

EM: How can we make sense of culture today?

CW: I think we need to acknowledge that culture is polarised. We have fierce debates on social media, in news reporting, in family settings, and in politics; this is the consequence of living in a fallen world. The Christian worldview actually affirms the fact that our culture will be polarised, and that people will clique together in different groups. So, we need to think how the gospel message speaks to this.

EM: How can Christians engage better with culture?

CW: When we think about COVID, racial justice protests, the war in Ukraine, the Trump election, and woke ideology, sometimes we don’t engage very well with secular culture. I’m reminded of Paul in Acts 17, when he’s making a case for the Christian faith. He actually refers to features of the culture that the listeners would understand. He quotes Aratus and Epimenides who said: “For in him we live and move and have our being”. He doesn’t demonise the culture, he’s actually trying to redeem it. He says: “OK, you clearly have a love for God. Let me tell you who He is. Your poets have grasped onto truth, but let me explain the full revelation of who God is.”

Of course, there are cautions to any idea of culture, but we should listen to what people are saying about social and political issues, and all the ways that they are crying out for justice on either side of the political spectrum, and ask: “How can I get in with the gospel?”

God isn’t asking me who I vote for when He asks me to make disciples. He isn’t asking me what I believe about X or Y politician, or to create a theocracy. He’s asking me to present the case for the Christian faith and the Holy Spirit does the work. When I see social activism, the central issue is justice. We want justice, and justice makes the best sense in a world where God exists. So that’s my way in with the gospel.

In my seminars I want to focus on three main points. One, don’t be afraid of culture. Culture can be redeemed and transformed. Two, what is our way into the culture? Justice is one of the main entries. Third, how do we best use these touch points to share the gospel?

EM: Why is the gospel a better story of transformation?

CW: Our culture can identify sin quite correctly. We don’t call it sin; we call it ‘cancel culture’. If someone does something we think is wrong, we condemn them. But the gospel is different and makes a better story because there is room for repentance and transformation. That doesn’t mean that people who are found guilty of certain things shouldn’t pay civic consequences for their actions; of course they should. We’ve seen lots of people harmed in church spaces where the church hasn’t done due diligence in terms of safeguarding. However, our culture doesn’t believe you can change, it doesn’t give you a second chance; the gospel of Jesus Christ does. When we truly encounter Jesus and have that moment of conviction, our lives should change, we don’t continue in sinful ways. So, I think the gospel is a better story because it accounts for sin in our culture, it accounts for sin in the human heart and it offers a way for us to repent, to be transformed and have a relationship with God.

The gospel is good news, and it will win out every single time no matter what questions of culture emerge. Having confidence in what we believe and in who God is, helps us engage well with our polarised culture so that it is transformed.