Jul 13, 2014 |Under the Cushions

Racism

07.13.14 | Under the Cushions

Racism

Noel Heikkinen

Racism isn’t just wrong, it’s a sin. The solution is the Gospel.

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Racism:

An explicit or implicit belief or practice that qualitatively distinguishes or values one race over other races.

Racism isn’t just wrong, it’s a sin. The solution is the Gospel.

[God] made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place… (Acts 17:26)

“If the Chinese costume seems so barbarous to you, the English dress must be no less so to them…let us in everything unsinful become like the Chinese, that by all means we may save some.”

– Hudson Taylor

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9–10)

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9–10)

“The beauty and power of praise that will come to the Lord from the diversity of these ethnic groups are greater than the beauty and power that would come to him if the chorus of the redeemed were culturally uniform.  The reason for this can be seen in the analogy of a choir.  More depth of beauty is felt from a choir that sings in parts than from a choir that sings only in unison.  Unity in diversity is more beautiful and more powerful than the unity of uniformity.”

– John Piper, Bloodlines

Racism is anti-Gospel.

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:11–22)

Jesus, through his blood, tore down the dividing wall of hostility.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:11–16)

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.  (Colossians 3:11)

The Church is about one thing, and that thing is a person: Jesus.

 

Youth