A bhakta of the Lord can never say “My life is my message.” Mukti is purely based on the grace of God and nothing can be added to it. As we are ‘saved sinners and struggling saints’ we can never say, “Let my life speak/share the message of the gospel.” However, if we try to present an ‘objective’ gospel that isn’t reflected in our lives, then we are propagating some utopian ideal which has no relevancy to the struggle on this earth. As someone well said, “Show me that you are saved, then I will believe in your saviour.” This is a golden statement that we all need to take seriously.
Therefore, any explanation about the noble truth of the gospel ‘objectively’ without relating to the way it was preached, propagated, presented and several times marred by our own life needs to be accepted by us. The gospel, like mukti (according to Muktiveda) is both paramartika and vyavakarika (transcendental and practical). But one cannot be explained and experienced at the cost of the other.
It is true that once the gospel is allowed to incarnate in every culture and society, it has the inherent capacity to transform it from within, not destroying all the noble things in it. This is a transcendental gospel. At the same time, the historic reality is that, due to human limitation/understanding and often due to over-zeal, in the name of ‘redeeming’ the people and removing the weeds, we uproot the plant itself. So whenever we make an objective statement about the greatness of the gospel in its transcendental nature, we have to admit the mistakes (atrocities!) done in the name of the same gospel. Mere objective glorification of any ideal without accepting the flaws while implementing it will do injustice to the nobleness of the very idealism.
This article about Roland Allen will expose all such flaws in the long history of the church and mission. As giving any summary won’t convey the impact of this article, I am leaving it for others to read and understand. Those who don’t have time (and also patience and interest to read such long article) can skip to the heading: The New World Society.
Though we all need an objective idealism, historic reality is the subjective testing ground to make it different from a utopian one.