God’s People and Racial Reconciliation
- Jul 15, 2005 - comment
From a biblical view, racism is always wrong. As we shall see, Genesis 1:26-27 is absolutely clear on this point. Because all human beings are created in the image of God, no one race is superior either in terms of value or significance. Indeed, we can say it in even stronger terms: In light of God’s great work of new creation in Christ, which has purchased people from every tribe, language, people and nation (Rev 5:9), what is true in terms of creation is now doubly true in terms of salvation.
Sadly, sin has distorted and twisted God’s good creation, including racial relations, and it is only the power of the Gospel which can bring true healing and transformation. Unfortunately, it must be admitted that in regard to race relations the church has not always lived up to the truth of God’s Word. No doubt, this statement must be balanced with what Christians have done through the ages, particularly in the 19th century when the strongest voices in England calling for the end of slavery were Christian voices, and, as a result, the slave trade across the Atlantic was largely stopped. But even with that said, it must still be acknowledged that the church has not always been faithful to the Scriptures regarding the issue of race.
What many of us affirm in theory, namely the equal value of all people, is not always worked out in practice. We, as the church, have a long way to go. In fact, that is one of the reasons why the issue of race relations in the church needs to be addressed afresh. Outside Christ, in a fallen world that has no firm grounds for racial reconciliation as well as little desire to pursue it, the church, for the glory of God and the truth of the Gospel, must proclaim and live out the beauty and power of the Gospel in order to testify clearly that racial reconciliation is never found merely in social movements but only in the transforming truth of the Gospel.
In what follows I intend to give some reflections on what the Scripture teaches regarding race, especially as it applies to the church, with the goal of stirring each one of us both to affirm and practice the Gospel before a watching world. How will I tackle this subject? I will briefly reflect on the issue of race in terms of the biblical framework of creation, fall and redemption. This will lead to a description of the church as God’s “new humanity” that has the supreme privilege of demonstrating in concrete ways the truth of the Gospel, even in the area of race.
Let us first turn to the subject of who we are as God’s image-bearers in creation.
Human beings, race and the doctrine of creation
The doctrine of creation is foundational to all of Christian theology and especially in regard to the issue of race. Why does the Scripture forbid any view that elevates one race as superior to or more significant than another? Because, as Genesis 1:26-27 makes plain: all human beings regardless of gender or race are created in the image and likeness of God. What is staggering about Genesis 1 is the contrast between fishes, birds and beasts that are made “after their kinds,” and human beings who are created after the pattern of God Himself.
In Christian theology, there is much debate regarding the meaning of the expression “image of God” as applied to human beings. At its heart, however, it simply conveys the idea that we are representatives of the Lord, finite replicas of God, little vice-regents – kings and queens – who were created to know and glorify God by ruling over the creation. This is certainly consistent with the idea of “image” in the ancient world. But what is unique about the biblical concept is that unlike the ancient world, which tended to apply the idea of “image” only to the king, thus reflecting a hierarchical view of society, the Scripture affirms that “man” (collectively) is the “image of God.” Thus, God’s creation of human beings, patterned after Himself, establishes not only the equality of the human race, but also its unity – genetically and genealogically – and hence any hint of racism is eliminated by this affirmation. This truth is borne out in the subsequent narrative and genealogies which simply reflect this fact (see also Acts 17:26; Rom 5:12, 19; 1 Cor 15:21-22).
Human beings, race and the impact of the fall
What impact has the fall had on the created order? Francis Schaeffer often summarized the implications of Genesis 3 in terms of a fourfold alienation. First, there is a vertical alienation between God and human beings. Due to Adam’s disobedience the entire human race by nature and choice have become enemies of God, under the sentence of death and, by nature, objects of God’s wrath (see Rom 3:23; 5:12-21; 6:23; Eph 2:1-3).
Second, sin has produced a cosmic alienation in that the whole universe now lives under the effects of the curse. Paul emphasizes this precise point in Romans 8:22-25 where he speaks of the whole creation groaning as in the pains of childbirth as it awaits the consummation of Christ’s glorious work in the new creation (see also Rev 21-22).
Third, sin has also brought an inward alienation in that we as human beings are schizophrenic at heart. That is why sin not only brings forth God’s judgment of us, it also leads to a failure to understand ourselves properly, with all of the disastrous ramifications this has for our lives (see Rom 1:18-32; 1 Cor 6:18; Eph 2:1-3).
Fourth, sin has also produced a horizontal alienation in this world, which is important to stress in regard to the issue of race. Due to sin, there are now horrible divisions between human beings – one of them being racial division. Certainly this awful effect of sin is graphically described, beginning in Genesis 3 and extending throughout the entire canon of Scripture. In Genesis 3 we first see it in regard to male and female relationships, then between brothers in Genesis 4, which then leads to alienation between people from every tribe, language and nation (see Gen 11:1-9). The Scripture is clear: the effects of sin are pervasive, both individually and corporately. In every aspect of our lives, sin has brought a terrible distortion to God’s creation, including the wrath and judgment of God.
Human beings, race and God’s glorious work of redemption
Thankfully, in Christ, the glorious news of the Gospel is that this fourfold alienation has been dealt with in the cross work of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has already won the victory and who will, in the end, consummate all things when He comes again in glory and power. In the meantime, between the comings of our Lord, we, as Christians, are to begin to live out the reality of sin’s defeat in a fourfold reversal of the effects of the fall. Thus, for example, before our great God, we stand justified and righteous in Christ. Our vertical alienation has been removed and through the cross we are reconciled to God (see Eph 2:14-18). In regard to the alienation that has resulted in the created order, we not only anticipate the fullness of the new creation, but even now, as the people of God, we begin to fulfill once again our creation mandate in the midst of this fallen world because Christ, the pioneer and champion of our salvation, has won the victory for us (see Heb 2:5-9). Even in our personal lives, as we are renewed and transformed into the image of Christ by the work of the Spirit, we discover substantial healing as we grow in grace (see Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18).
And lastly, in the Gospel, we also experience reconciliation with one another, both personally and corporately. Specifically, it is in this last area that the issue of race relations is important. Scripture is clear. Not only are all human beings created in the image of God, but in Christ, the ruinous effects of sin, which are at the root of racial alienation, are now removed, so that we are reconciled both to God and to each other through Christ who is our peace (Eph 2:14). Thus, in Christ, reconciliation has taken place, which entails that we, as the people of God, should now begin to live out what we are, namely “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). In other words, in Christ, the truth of what we are in creation is now restored, but even in a greater sense. In Christ, we discover that the desperate plight begun in Eden now finds solution. In Christ, the promise that God Himself will be the Savior of His people is now realized, and the promise to Abraham that through him and his seed blessing will come to the nations now reaches its climax in the church. In Christ, the people of God are now no longer merely ethnic or racial but international and trans-racial. And as a result of Christ’s great work, the church is not only commissioned to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth in anticipation of the climactic consummation of God’s promises in the new creation, she is also called to live out the truth of the Gospel in her daily experience, not least in the issues of race relations.
The church as God’s new humanity and racial reconciliation
It is the reality of the Gospel that the church is now called to live out both individually and corporately. This is certainly one of the implications of Ephesians 2-3. In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul, after he beautifully contrasts at the individual level what we once were by nature in Adam and what we now are in Christ by grace (see vv. 1-10), begins to develop this same contrast at the corporate level, in terms of Jew-Gentile relations. Under the old covenant there was a God-given barrier, namely the law-covenant, that separated the Gentile from the Jew, thus leading to the awful reality that Gentiles were “separated from Christ,” “excluded from citizenship in Israel” and “foreigners to the covenants of promise” and thus “without hope and without God in the world” (see vv. 11-12). But now, in Christ and His cross, that barrier has been removed so that both Jew and Gentile are reconciled to God and to each other in the creation of “one new man” (see vv. 13-18). Consequently, in Christ, both Jew and Gentile constitute this “new humanity” as “fellow citizens,” “members of God’s household,” as they are being built into a “holy temple” in which God lives by His Spirit (vv. 19-22).
Obviously by these three images, namely that of fellow citizenship, members of one family and together constituting the new temple of God, Paul is stressing the utter newness of what has taken place in the creation of the church. In the church, Paul emphasizes, there are no second-class citizens, no insiders or outsiders. Regardless of race, all believers are full citizens with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto – citizens by spiritual re-birth and citizens because the Lord of the Kingdom has laid down His life for the subjects of the Kingdom. In addition, picking up the family and temple imagery, those in Christ, regardless of race, are not only subject to a common Lord, they are also part of a common family – brothers and sisters in Christ – who are being built together into a holy temple unto the Lord. What, then, is true of us individually is also true of us corporately – we have been given the same Spirit to dwell in us as the dwelling place of God, with our Lord Jesus Christ serving as the chief cornerstone of the building.
Clearly, in the context of Ephesians and the entire New Testament, the emphasis on the same Lord who redeems us and the same Spirit who dwells in us is not insignificant. It is evidence that now, due to Christ’s triumphant work, both Jew and Gentile have equal standing before God and that they are one in Him (see Acts 10:44-48). Thus, any hint of superiority of person, nation or race, in Christ, is utterly removed – removed in creation and now in the new creation by the blood of the Lamb. This is one of the reasons why in the post-New Testament era of the early church, believers were known by the descriptive phrase, “a third race.” To our ears, this might sound strange, but it really is not. It describes perfectly what Ephesians 2 and the entire New Testament is proclaiming: in Christ, both vertical and horizontal reconciliation has taken place, and what has now been created is a “third race” whose identity is not fundamentally tied to one race or people, but to Christ the Lord, who has given us access to the Father through Him, by the Spirit.
Certainly this is a glorious truth. In a world of divisions, separations and alienations due to human depravity; in a world where image-bearers who were created to know God are under God’s judgment and wrath; in a world where human beings were made to work together to glorify God in carrying out our creation mandate but who are now alienated from each other, the message of reconciliation is good news indeed! And, it must be stressed, that it is a message not based in some utopian dream or fantasy as we continue to hear promulgated by the non-Christian world, but upon the finished work of Christ. This message of reconciliation is rooted and grounded upon the true and living God who is there, as well as a real Jesus, God the Son, who took upon our human nature, lived our life, bore our sin, curse and alienation on the tree, in order to set us free from the dominion and power of sin and thus reconcile us to God and to each other.
But it must also be strongly emphasized that as glorious as this message is – this vision of a “new humanity,” “a third race,” a reconciled people, first to God and then to each other – it is not enough merely to talk about it; it must also be lived out before our poor, lost and alienated world. The church, as the new humanity, must become what we are in Christ, both individually and corporately. And as we do, we testify to our world of the greatness of our God, the glory of our Savior and the power of the Gospel in our lives. Is this not Paul’s point in Ephesians 3?
After describing the content of his preaching in Ephesians 3:8, namely the unsearchable riches of Christ, Paul goes on to explain how the “mystery” of the Gospel is now being put into effect (v. 9) in very concrete terms. He states that as the Gospel is proclaimed, what we see occurring on the stage of human history is men and women, from every background and race, being reconciled to God and to each other through Christ. In this way, in the everyday life of the church, people see the sovereign God of creation and redemption at work. But it is even more: It is not only human individuals who bear witness to God’s reconciling work; it is also angelic beings – “rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms” – who see in the church the manifold wisdom of God displayed (v. 10). As the Gospel is proclaimed, it results in nothing less than the birth and growth of the church. The eternal plan of God, the “mystery” as Paul calls it, namely “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ” (Eph 1:10) takes on concrete shape before our eyes, as this new multiracial humanity is formed and grows. And in so doing, the “manifold wisdom of God” is displayed for all to see. In this sense, then, the church is nothing less than a public demonstration of God’s power, grace and wisdom.
Does this vision of the church not give us incentive to be the church, especially in regard to issues of race? It certainly does! For if we take seriously what the New Testament teaches about the church, then how we treat one another as the church, especially in terms of race, ultimately bears witness to the truthfulness and power of the Gospel. For if it is in the church that God’s manifold wisdom and reconciling work is seen; if the very existence of church is supposed to be evidence that Christ has accomplished His sin-bearing work and that in Him God’s eternal plan is coming to pass; if the church is nothing less than a visible pledge that alienation has been removed, sin has been destroyed and horizontal divisions have been eradicated; if the church is a visible sign that it’s only a matter of time before all things are placed under the feet of King Jesus – which the church certainly testifies to – then certainly this should be incentive for us, as the people of God, to live out the truth of the Gospel, by God’s grace and for His glory!
In the end, the church is nothing less than the very demonstration of God’s redemptive plan, power, wisdom and glory. With every justified and transformed life, every kind word that leads to reconciliation and healing, where rivalries are buried – both the watching world and angelic hosts get a theology lesson. They learn something of the incredible plan of God as centered in Jesus Christ. They learn that in this poor, lost world – this world reserved for judgment – the only hope for forgiveness and reconciliation is found in Christ and Christ alone. How, then, are we doing as the church, God’s new humanity?
In such a racially divided and fallen world, it is imperative for the church to be the church. Before a watching world and angelic hosts, we must live out the power of the Gospel, for the glory of God, as a testimony to all people of the truth of who we are, regardless of our race, by virtue of our creation, and, by God’s grace, what we may become by faith in Christ. The church, as a company of God’s people, the redeemed, must learn afresh how to live out now, even in imperfect ways, the partial reality of the triumph of our King that will be completely transparent in the new heaven and new earth, as people from every nation, people, tribe and tongue gather around the throne and give praise, honor and worship to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.
Stephen J. Wellum is associate professor of Christian theology at Southern Seminary.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, Racial Reconciliation, Social Issues