The Gospel and the Dream of India

Akshay Rajkumar: So India is being described as an aspirational country, and every Indian has dreams and desires and longings. So what do you do with these dreams? And in what way is the gospel good news for India and Indians and their dreams?

Anand Mahadevan: You know at the very beginning the gospel has to shape our dreams. This is true not just of India. I think it’s true of every culture.

I think every culture, every good dream in every culture is actually flowing from some kind of a faint, subconscious remembrance of how good creation was, how beautiful and perfect creation was, how much harmony and flourishing there was in creation before sin entered the world.

So I think every good dream in every culture is actually beginning from that. And in a sense, every dream in every culture, every good dream in every culture is also looking forward to the redemption, to come to the new heavens and the new Earth.

So the first thing I want to say is, I think the dream of India cannot but be shaped by the gospel. Every good dream flows from the gospel. So I think that’s really the first thing we must acknowledge even as we reflect on the gospel and the dream of India. Yeah.

Akshay Rajkumar: And dreams are really personal, but they can have a national impact as well. And I think about the gospel, and I think about how it is both deeply personal and broadly cosmic at the same time. So Paul has no qualms in describing Jesus as the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

And at the same time, in Ephesians, he’ll talk about how God wants to unite all things in heaven and Earth under Christ. So there’s this experience of deep personal reconciliation to God and also being a witness and participant in how God is reconciling all things to himself in Christ.

Ranjit David: Absolutely. I think along with how the gospel shapes our dreams, I think gospel also shapes our loves. And one of the things that we see in Delhi is, if I can speak from my context, people usually move to Delhi from all over the country to study and to advance their careers for medical work and all kinds of stuff.

People usually try to take things from the city. They want to come into the city, use the city for themselves. And they have a posture towards a city where it’s usually they hate Delhi. Very rarely, people live in Delhi and enjoy the city. They hate the culture, they hate pollution, they hate the population. So that is how the city shapes us in so many ways.

The city disciples us, right? But when we really understand the gospel, the gospel changes how we view the city. People in Delhi usually live in pockets. They live together because of the violent history in the past. Delhi is also known as the orphan city, where people are very suspicious of each other.

But what we’ve seen in our context is how in the Church, when people begin to understand the gospel, their posture towards the city completely changes. They look at the city through the eyes of Christ with compassion. They love the city and they want to serve the city.

They enjoy the beauty of the city, but they’re also aware of the brokenness of the city. So people, when they leave Delhi, at least from our context, in our Church, in our community, they have a wonderful experience of what Delhi is because they’ve enjoyed the gospel and they’ve seen the city through the gospel. So it shapes how we view cities. And I hope that spreads all across the country for people to see the flourishing of our nation.

Akshay Rajkumar: Can I just ask you a personal question? You still support the Chennai Super Kings? The gospel hasn’t shaped your love there.

Ranjit David: I know, cricket is a slightly separate topic from the. . . . Yeah.

Akshay Rajkumar: Arvind, what do you think?

Arvind Balaram: I think the gospel penetrates deeper into people’s lives as they really look to Christ for their security, for their peace, for their hope, for their joy. This really experiences grace and love deep in their hearts. We see people’s lives are changed, and they want to live out that gospel reality in their vocations and in their neighbourhoods and their office places.

And that’s what we want to see as believers who know Christ to be released, to live out their faith. And that does have an amazing effect on the surroundings, on their neighbourhoods and among their colleagues. And that’s what we’ve seen throughout history, is that as believers are living out their faith, living out the good of the gospel in every aspect of their lives, then even societies are transformed. Nations are transformed.

It’s not just a personal thing. It’s not just about my eternal destiny, but even nations being transformed. We’ve seen it again and again throughout history and around the world. We want to see that happen in India as well.

Akshay Rajkumar: Yeah. And it’s kind of something extraordinary that happens very ordinarily, right? I mean, we’re all leading churches, and Sunday can sometimes feel like it’s the only big thing in the week. But how does the gospel play out from Monday to Saturday is a huge question for us, and it has huge implications. As Christians live ordinary, faithful lives, God can do extraordinary things.

Anand Mahadevan: Yeah, that’s true, Akshay. And every time we think about engaging in public spaces, I think we’ve got to really take hold of this doctrine of common grace. And I think we truly understand this. The way we engage with non-christians can become so much more richer.

We’ve got to recognize that this dream of India is not exclusively owned by only Christians. This dream of India is owned by every citizen of the country. And as Christians, I think we have the joy, the privilege of really collaborating, engaging, working together with every citizen of the country, irrespective of faith, to build this dream of India. And I think as we work with people who are not Christians, who may not be Christians.

We’re also going to become aware that even in their hearts in some subconscious way, they do have a longing to go back to the perfection of creation before sin. They do have a longing of the perfect world to come. So in an intuitive way, they are also part of the gospel story in a very different stages in the journey.

So I think if we really understand and embrace this doctrine of common grace that can really bring us together with every other citizen in the country as we together pursue the dream of India.

Ranjit David: Yeah, absolutely. I think one thing that held us back from really engaging and flourishing in this country is because of legalism. I think as a culture we’re very legalistic and legalism is also prevalent in the Church, so that kind of prevents us from really engaging and having a posture, whereas we have a posture of us versus them and instead of really serving and loving our colleagues and neighbours.

The other one is, I think, dualism as well. There’s a big divide between the sacred and secular and if we can really understand the gospel and reimagine how we work in the arts and music, in the government or in the social sector or even entrepreneurship and all these things and how the gospel can actually help us reimagine these spaces and that can also bring about tremendous flourishing where we work and where we serve these people.

Akshay Rajkumar: Yeah. So what we’re saying is that the gospel is far bigger than any of us can imagine and far more personal than we can even describe in words.

It affects us deeply. It’s shaping our dreams it’s shaping our loves It’s shaping our relationship to our neighbours and all of our longings are ultimately fulfilled in Christ and through the power of Christ and that’s a beautiful thing.

Arvind Balaram: We long to see the gospel just making an impact not just in our lives but in a public way for the good of the whole country and won’t that be such a beautiful thing? Yeah.