Is creation care a gospel issue?

If Jesus is Lord of all the earth, we cannot separate our relationship to Christ from how we act in relation to the earth. For to proclaim the gospel that says ‘Jesus is Lord’ is to proclaim the gospel that includes the earth, since Christ’s Lordship is over all creation. Creation care is thus a gospel issue within the Lordship of Christ.

These words occur in the Cape Town Commitment, published in 2011 by the Lausanne Movement. They were read at a plenary session of the Lausanne Congress in Seoul in 2024, by theologian Christopher J.H. Wright. These words clearly contain much truth, but the phrase ‘creation care is thus a gospel issue’ provoked some discussion at the Congress.

Soon after the Congress, four majority-world theologians published an open letter to the Lausanne leadership asking for ‘a correction, amendment, or a clarification of this ambiguous statement’. They were concerned that ‘there is a serious risk that the gospel is being undermined’, because ‘an essential element of the gospel is that God has saved us by His grace through faith and not a result of works’.

The four theologians suggested that ‘this statement is likely to hinder, rather than help, the cause of creation care within evangelicalism, as it can be interpreted as associating creation care with a different gospel’. Creation care is ‘an important fruit of the gospel … but it is not part of the gospel’, they wrote.

Writing in Britain as a church leader (John Samuel) and as a scientist working in creation care (Richard Buggs), we agree with the four majority-world theologians that the phrase ‘creation care is thus a gospel issue’ is unhelpful and potentially counter-productive. Both of us are motivated by the gospel in our work, both of us are keen on caring for our God-given creation, but neither of us would see Richard’s work to save trees as a gospel issue. An outworking of Biblical truth – yes. Part of the gospel itself – no.

As the four theologians assert, we must ensure that the clear waters of the gospel of grace are not muddied by adding any works to the gospel itself and making such works part of the gospel message for salvation. We are saved for works (Eph. 2:10) but we are not saved by works (Eph. 2:8,9). If we make creation care part of the gospel message, we are at risk of adding works to grace and thus to undermine the wonderful, good news of the free gift of salvation by grace alone.

Within evangelicalism the term ‘gospel issue’ has long been understood to refer to something that is essential for personal salvation. Gospel issues form the core of what we unite around and set the boundaries of what we are (and are not) prepared to divide over.

At one level, the Cape Town Commitment could be understood to be simply redefining a ‘gospel issue’ to mean something much wider than this. But without the Commitment spelling this out clearly, it is not surprising that confusion has arisen.

On the way to the Lausanne 2024 Congress, one of us (Richard) asked Christopher J.H. Wright, the lead writer of the Cape Town Commitment, what it meant by ‘gospel issue’. In reply, he referenced an article on his website. In this, Wright says of the Cape Town Commitment: ‘It speaks of the gospel not just as a personal salvation plan, but in its full Biblical richness as the good news of all that God has done through Christ and the imperative that it addresses to us. So it speaks of the story the gospel tells, the assurance the gospel brings, and the transformation the gospel produces’ (p.189).

He later adds: ‘ “Gospel issues” are much broader than those issues that only affect individual salvation’ (p.190).

In our view, such a definition makes everything into a ‘gospel issue’. To be consistent, the Lausanne movement should enumerate a long list of gospel issues, that would presumably include war, abortion, human trafficking, and perhaps all aspects of culture that can be renewed by Christ. However, we would have lost an established terminology that clearly demarcates what is essential for salvation.

Creation care is strongly mandated throughout the Bible. It was a task given to Adam in the Garden of Eden, and his first sin was the exploitation of a forbidden resource (Gen. 2 and 3). God will ultimately destroy those who destroy the earth (Rev. 11:18). This is something the church has not always taught as clearly as it should. But we do not need to call creation care a ‘gospel issue’ to make it important to Christians.

We need to be clear that creation care is a fruit of the gospel, but it is not a part of the gospel.