22 Ducere Est Servire: THE LEADERSHIP JOURNAL OF DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY another word to the world of politics and social systems. The Gospel speaks to the totality of human life, to people as they strive to be faithful among the many and complex interconnections of their lives.22 As evidenced in a sermon entitled “There is Power in that Cross,” Taylor believed that the Gospel moves beyond salvific implications. The Gospel carries with it a message of equality, affirming “that every creature, every human soul, is of infinite and endless worth to the heart of God.”23 The Christian Gospel is a message rooted in Jesus Christ, “a person—real, compelling, sustaining, empowering, imbuing, transforming.”24 So that anyone who finds difficulty in bringing prejudice-filled, hate-filled minds and hearts under subjection to the instruction of Christ, there is made available to all, by virtue of the Gospel, the power of Christ. This is a theological truth that Taylor insisted preachers proclaim widely across the pulpits of America. He voiced this notion in no uncertain terms: God in heaven knows that the pulpits of this land ought to be done with our pietistic, moralistic exhortations to people to do better. We ought to be through with our Ben Franklin almanac’s maxims on common sense, parading as the Gospel of light and power and grace and renewal. There is power in the cross of our Christ, if only pulpits of our land would declare it and the people of Christ who are committed to his way would walk in his steep path. …There is power in our cross to bridge the chasm between human beings, to bring people of diverse backgrounds together.25 Adopting Taylor’s homiletic strategy is to proclaim the redemptive and the transformative aspects of the Gospel, recognizing that the space between the spiritual new birth and physical death is a life called to exemplify and proclaim the Biblical concept that all humanity is made in the Imago Dei, in the image of God, and that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:23). Preachers expound these biblical-theological conceptions because they are life-changing, timeless truths rooted in a God who can transform the hearts and minds of people, which, in turn, leads to changes in thought and behavior. During some of the most heated moments in Civil Rights history, Taylor stood in protest rallies, marched for justice, and spent nights in jail for the cause of racial justice
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