I have written before that the watershed issue for me in the political process is abortion. But that leads immediately to a host of practical questions — is this politician sincere in his pro-life views? If sincere, does he have the horsepower to get anything done about it? Is anything actually going to happen? There are other related issues, certainly, but this one is a good litmus test.
But there is a mistake here, one that we easily make, through neglect of the issue that underlies all issues. When I see that a candidate professes a commitment to my big ticket items, and that profession is not transparently hypocritical, this simply means that I feel free to vote for that person, and can do so without troubling my conscience. But it does not mean that I trust that person to fix the problem. Why on earth would I believe that this stalwart candidate, if elected, could turn anything around? This applies to all the prospects we have discussed here. A handful of them I like, some of them make me wary, and most I can’t handle. Moving on from the Republicans, we are leaving the party of purblind wickedness for the party of high iniquity. But what is the best case scenario here? Leaving the polling booth feeling like I haven’t sinned is a pretty low threshhold, and doesn’t fix anything.
America needs salvation, and there is only one Savior, the Lord Jesus. Unfortunately for our constitutional mythologies, we cannot arrange for Him to save us without mentioning His name. This is the issue underlying all issues. When we speak of the devil, one little word
shall fell him, and I am not in sympathy with those who want to keep trying the same impotent words and phrases we have been using for the last century or two — democracy! exceptionalism! good sense of the American people! gakk!
The very best possible outcomes in the congressional elections of 2010 — which I am looking forward to — will not save us. They will not deliver us. Only Jesus can save us, and He cannot be fetched by all the lobbyists in Washington. The best we could hope for is a Josiah-like reform, one that will last just as long as Josiah did. And since every Josiah is mortal, we are in for it. And out of all the possible contenders, we don’t have anyone who even rises to a Josiah-level. Do we have anyone whose proposed reforms can be described as “goodness, according to that which was written in the law of the LORD” (2 Chron. 35:26)?
Only Jesus can save us, and He cannot be whistled up. He can be preached down, but only because He in His sovereign grace has promised to come when the sins of man are boldly declared and the cross of Christ is lifted up so those sins — including the scarlet political ones — might be crucified there with Him. When the cross is lifted up, all men will stream to Him (John 12:32). When the cross is lifted up, then the resurrected Christ comes down, in the power of the Spirit. That can save us, nothing else.
Where will this happen? Who is responsible for it? Who has been given that task? Not the governors, not the bankers, not the congressmen, not the lobbyists, not the business execs, not the U.S. Marines. Who then? Well, this is as good a reason as any to pray for your pastor. Jesus Christ has already ordained tens of thousands of men, they are charged with this very task, and they live right here in North America.