Would Christ have had to die for the social justice gospel to be true?
If the answer is no ... if social justice has, de facto, become the gospel itself, and our goal is simply to "redeem" the culture" then Jesus would not be needed as a Savior, but merely as an example. Without personal redemption, however, can we even come close to living a life according to such a perfect standard? Even many leaders of other religions could serve as moral examples to follow, so if an example is all we needed then Christianity could not be differentiated from any other false religion. If this were the case, we could have churches full of people every Sunday where we learned how to craft social and political policy (like they often do in Unitarian churches) but where it would be quite unnecessary to preach Christ.
First let us acknowledge the fact that Jesus and the Apostles went out of their way to intentionally help specific groups of sinners — the poor, the alienated, the mistreated, and many of those facing injustice. (Luke 4:18; Isaiah 61:1; Gal 2:10)