John the Baptist heard about the works of Christ while he languished in prison. He sent his disciples to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Jesus answered, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
This exchange brings the issue into sharp relief. John focused on what God was not doing. He expected deliverance from political captivity and the overthrow of unrighteous rulers, but his expectation was frustrated. Jesus answered not by giving him hope of political liberation, but by pointing him to what God was doing in the ministry of the kingdom. The evidence of God’s work was not in political reforms but in the power of the Spirit, in healings, in miracles, and in the preaching of the gospel. To be offended at this is to reject Christ in favor of another. To embrace this is to accept him as the true Christ, whose ministry is exactly what Scripture foretold.
Throughout the Gospels and Acts we see that John was not alone in his expectation. Many in Israel looked for a Christ who would restore the nation politically. After Jesus multiplied the loaves and fed the multitude, the people exclaimed that he must be the prophet who was to come into the world, and then they tried to take him by force and make him king. Their desire was to transform his ministry of spiritual power into a tool of national and political power. They saw him as a means to advance their cause against Rome, rather than as the Christ who came to establish the kingdom of God through doctrine and miracles.
Even his disciples carried this expectation. On the road to Emmaus after the crucifixion, the disciples confessed, “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” They interpreted redemption in terms of political deliverance, and his death seemed to them to shatter that hope. The resurrection bypassed their expectations, for it signaled a victory far greater than they anticipated, yet of a different nature than they demanded. The apostles themselves, after forty days of instruction from the risen Lord, asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” They were still preoccupied with political restoration, but Jesus redirected them to the real power that would mark their mission: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses.” They sought a national kingdom, but Jesus gave them the kingdom of God with spiritual authority to preach and perform miracles.
The Triumphal Entry reflects the same expectation. The crowds cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” invoking royal deliverance. The word “Hosanna” comes from a plea for salvation, and on their lips it carried the overtones of immediate rescue through a Davidic king. This expectation matched the fear of the Jewish leaders, who said, “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” Their anxiety was not about crowds alone, but about the messianic fervor that Rome would interpret as political and military rebellion. The entire environment revolved around Rome, and many hoped for a Messiah who would save Israel by national power.
Against this background Jesus consistently defined his ministry as something higher, spiritual, and miraculous. He rebuked Peter for “minding the things of men rather than the things of God.” The distinction he drew is decisive. The things of God are the gospel, the revelation of truth, and the miraculous power of the Spirit. The things of men are politics, national structures, and governmental schemes. Jesus was not dismissing these as worthless, but he was making clear that they do not belong to the same level as his ministry. Paul’s example demonstrates this. He used his Roman citizenship to avoid unlawful punishment, and he urged Christians to pray for kings so that there might be peace in which the gospel could advance. These were instrumental uses of politics, not a redefinition of politics as gospel. Paul never advocated elevating political reform to the place of spiritual mission.
The same principle applies to how we construct our theology. Some preaching builds itself on what God is not doing. It centers on complaints about the absence of political deliverance, filling sermons with laments about governments, policies, and national decline. This is unbelief, for it demands from Christ the role of a political liberator and then takes offense when he does not fill it. True theology builds itself on what God is doing. It takes joy in the works that Christ himself pointed out: conversions, healings, deliverances, the proclamation of the gospel. Those who build their message on the failures of politics miss the presence of Christ. Those who build it on the power of miracles see him for who he is.
The prophets addressed politics, but they did so by declaring the word of God. In Israel, politics and religion were often mingled, but the prophets never confused national identity with spiritual identity. Their standard was always revelation. When they spoke to foreign nations, they did not appeal to founding traditions or civic documents, but confronted them with God’s authority. They preached to kings and peoples alike and judged political wrongs as spiritual rebellion. Their confrontation was theological, not partisan. They were preachers, not activists.
Appealing to their doctrine of common grace and the cultural mandate, there are those who imagine that politics and culture are just as spiritual as the gospel, and that campaigning and activism carry equal weight with preaching and miracles. This is a substitution of the carnal for the spiritual. Politics can be useful if it favors the gospel, but it is never the gospel. It does not deserve the effort many expend on it. Christian identity is spiritual, rooted in Christ and his kingdom rather than in national or cultural affiliation.
When Christians attempt to capture Jesus for politics, they repeat the error of those who tried to make him king by force. They portray themselves as fighting for his kingdom, but in truth they exploit him and use him as the mascot for their ideology. They devote themselves to winning votes and securing policies, while denying or even persecuting those who proclaim healing, miracles, and the baptism of the Spirit. This is an anti-Christ perversion because it rejects the very works that define the ministry of Jesus while demanding from him a role he never assumed.
The true measure of God’s presence is not political reform but divine power. Politics is human power; miracles are divine power. If we ask where God is at work, the answer is in the gospel being preached with conviction and accompanied by healings and miracles. That is the agenda of heaven. To look elsewhere is to be offended at Christ.
The expectation of a political Christ was a recurring temptation in Israel, and it remains a recurring temptation in the church. But the Christ who came is the Christ whom Scripture promised: the one who heals the sick, raises the dead, forgives sins, and proclaims liberty to the captives. He is the spiritual Christ. To demand another Christ, a political Christ, is to reject the real one and to expect a different Christ altogether. But there is only one Christ, and there is no salvation in any other.