When is the Gospel the Answer?

I had this question called to my mind a couple of times this week, and I want to pose it to you. Before I do that, however, let me tell you how it was called to my mind.

The first item was a comment on my post on civil liberties. Dave Black comment on that post, saying:

Yes, but…

Spes mea in Deo est.

(If you can’t translate the Latin, put it in Google and you’ll get a usable translation.)

Then I attended the mid-week Bible study taught by the associate pastor at my church, Geoffrey Lentz. I love attending that study, because I first met Geoffrey when he was 14 and was a student in a class I offered for his church’s youth. Now I get to learn from him, and that’s a very special blessing.

As we discussed a political point right after the class, and had quoted Lincoln’s “last best hope” comment, Geoffrey suddenly told us he didn’t really like that quote. “What about the gospel of Jesus Christ?” he asked.

So that’s my question. This is really for my Christian readers, particularly those involved in Christian ministry. (We’ll leave aside the question of whether one can be “Christian” and not be involved in Christian ministry for the moment.)

How often, when confronted with a problem in society, is you answer “the gospel of Jesus Christ”?

I’m going to leave it at that without doing any more defining. I feel some posts coming on about some specifics. Yes, I know I still haven’t finished my series on “obvious” Biblical interpretation, but I will do that as well.

Really.