A Biblical Perspective on Race (part 6)

Romans 10:12; Galatians 3:26-29

Have you ever heard the saying, “Two wrongs don’t make a right”? Ever since the church began, there have been issues of culture, nationality, and racial division. Do you know why this division occurred? There are two reasons. First, because the church is made of people, and everyone has problems. Second, because the first church was thrust into being multicultural on the day of Pentecost. Differences often result in disagreements.

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For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.

Romans 10:12

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Galatians 3:26-29

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Anything short of viewing lost people as souls in need of the gospel, and viewing saved people as brothers and sisters in Christ, is ungodly. Acts chapter two, the Gospel was preached to all the people from every language group. Acts 8, the gospel went to the Ethiopian eunuch. In Acts 10, the Gospel was taken to the gentile, Cornelius. Acts 16, the gospel went to the Philippian jailer. The message of the gospel does not discriminate and neither should the messenger.

Over the last several years, I have heard the statement from people as to why they made a decision, “...because there were people who looked like me”. That kind of statement has no place in the church. We should want people who look like us in church, not because they look like us, but because they have been saved and are living a life of obedience to Jesus by being in the church. We should equally want people who do not look like us. I think of the missionary who goes to a foreign mission field. If he only shared the gospel with people who “looked like him”, it would be a pathetic work, and the gospel would not go out into all the world.

That being said, there will be different churches based on language. This will often result in similar complexions meeting together. The distinction should be based upon one's ability to understand the preaching of God’s word, and not on how someone looks. God told the prophet Samuel, “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (I Samuel 16:7). An example of this would be a Korean church in a city. The people will look similar, but the distinction will be language, not complexion. However, a byproduct of the language distinction will be that the complexions of those within the church will be similar. A Korean who has been born and raised in the U.S., and is fluent in English, is not confined by language and is therefore free to attend church with any doctrinally sound body of believers.

My goal through this series has been for us to take a step back and look at this issue of race from a big picture perspective. We have seen that we have a common ancestry with all of humanity in both Adam and Noah. We have seen that Jesus is the Savior of the whole world because of this common ancestry. We have also seen that heaven will be filled with people of all different races, nationalities, and languages. If our story begins with a common ancestry, and it ends with a common paradise, why in the world would God segregate His kingdom here on earth? He doesn’t. The only acceptable division is based on our ability to understand preaching and fellowship with other believers.

Father, we mess up Your kingdom here on earth because we think of it as our kingdom. Rather than being transformed by the renewing of our minds, we allow ourselves to be conformed to the image of this world.