Racism In The Church: Shallow and Skin Deep

One reason why Racism is bunked - NONE of us had the opportunity to go shopping for our ethnicity; we basically had to play with the cards we were dealt.

To the shame of many, Racism is still an issue within the Church. Some professing believers tend to see themselves by their ethnic background, placing their allegiance to their ethnicity before their faithfulness to Christ and His word. They frequently tend to put their racial background and cultural distinctives at the fore and use it as the lens through which they see the world.

By no means does this say that there aren't differences among various races and cultures or that we should not be appreciative to our own race and culture or sensitive to those who may be different from us. However it is ungodly for us to think that one race has superiority over another because of particular sins found prevalent in certain ethnic groups.

When Christians find other reasons to boast other than in the grace of God and the finished work of Christ, we are essentially devaluing the cost of sin and the value of our salvation. It is a form of pride to find security in our ethnicity and culture and pride is something the Lord hates (Proverbs 6:16-19). No of us told our parents what we wanted to look like, but by God's design we are what we are (even though some wish otherwise). We must be content with who God made us and see ourselves and others as expressions of God's creative power, with the privilege of being made in His image and likeness.

We need to be reminded that just like God - Satan, sin and death is no respecter of race. It doesn't matter who you are, you've got sin and you're going to die one day, either to meet Christ as Savior or the executor of your eternal punishment. Regardless of the good or bad that our forefathers did and the impact it has on us today, God is at the center of it all:

"...And he 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, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring..." - Acts 17:26-28

Though statistics may tell us one race may be more prone to certain types of behaviors than others, it is foolish and proud to think that just because one doesn't belong to such a cross-section that they are somehow experiencing some special favor from God. At the time of Jesus' baptism, many Jews thought themselves to have a special favor with God because they were from a particular lineage, but John the Baptist made them to know the folly of trusting in one's own ethnicity and culture:

"Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire". - Matthew 3:5-10

In similar fashion Jesus also rebuked them for the same (John 8:37-47). Even Paul who had reason to boast because he was of the chosen people of Israel, counted boasting in his ethnicity as foolishness in comparison to knowing and being known of the Lord (Philippians 3:3-11). Even us who are non-Jewish must realize that God made his covenant first to Israel and that we as Gentiles are only grafted in because of the grace of adoption. Even among the Jews, they were not all Israel that were of Israel (Romans 9:6-9).

So, when you look at someone of another race, don't just think about them in light of their differences, but see the similarities you both possess - made in God's image, born in sin with a heart full of wickedness, a worthy recipient of God's damnation, helpless to save yourself, in need of God's grace, an object of God's love, someone in need of the Gospel.

"What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” - Romans 9:30-32