Racial Reconciliation Is Part Of The Gospel Demand
“Racial reconciliation is actually part of the Gospel demand. It is not an implication of the Gospel; it is part of the Gospel. For example, in Ephesians 1 Paul says that the Gospel is the unification of all things in Christ. In Ephesians 2:11-3:8 Paul says the Gospel is to unify the Jews and Gentiles into this one new man. And that Jews and Gentiles share equally in God’s spiritual blessings that he promised for Israel. And through Christ Jews and Gentiles become this one new man and equally participate in these spiritual blessings. I believe many Christians don’t understand that. They reduce reconciliation to a social issue.”
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Dr. Jarvis Williams in 3 Reasons Why Churches Are Still Racially Segregated
To be clear, Paul isn’t saying that salvation is based on faith plus working towards racial reconciliation. Paul makes it clear in Ephesians 2 that salvation comes by God’s grace through faith. Paul is talking about the Gospel, not salvation. What then is the Gospel? After a first-century Roman general had conquered his foes, he would march his army home and parade down Main Street in Rome. A runner preceding the parade would proclaim the gospel (good news) that Rome’s army had defeated her enemies and brought home all the loot for the benefit of the citizens of Rome. Likewise, Paul is telling us in Ephesians 1 that the good news of Christ is that we are forgiven of our trespasses and that all things are united in Christ. In Ephesians 2:11-3:8 Paul tells us the good news is that we are reconciled to God and that we are reconciled across racial/ethnic lines into one new humanity.
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Since reconciliation with God and racial/ethnic unity are central to the good news for our lives, and central to the gospel that we preach to the world, we are compelled to live out both as a church body. We certainly aren’t an accurate or complete witness to God’s transformational power when we worship God in segregated churches.
In Ephesians 2:15 Paul says “His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity” – Paul elevated this racial diverse unity, in one organized entity, as the very purpose of God. Paul’s makes a bold statement. But is Dr. Williams’ claim supportable, beyond Paul’s teaching, that living into ethnic unity within the church is a gospel demand? One Book One Story demonstrated a strong pair of Biblical themes flowing from Genesis 12 through to Revelation 7: God is on mission to establish his kingdom to include every nation, tribe, and people group on earth, and God is calling all followers of Jesus to join him in that mission. How do we know that God’s central purpose is to bring this diversity together in unity, and goes beyond ensuring that all the ethnicities are individually reconciled to God? Jesus did warn us in Matthew 6:15 that “if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” And 1 John 4:20 says, “If we say we love God but hate any of our brothers or sisters in his family, we are liars. If we don’t love someone we have seen, how can we love God? We have never even seen him.” And in John 13:35, Jesus, praying for unity, says, “By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
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Aubrey Sequeira, adjunct professor of Gulf Theological Seminary in Dubai, summarizes in this powerful essay:
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The polemic against ethnocentrism is not limited to Paul; it is pervasive throughout the Gospels as well. Jesus offends the ethnocentric pride of the Pharisees by his associating with Gentiles, tax-collectors, and sinners. The Gospels teach that citizenship in the kingdom of God is obtained by faith in Christ rather than by ethnic identity. The call to repentance includes a call to repentance from ethnic and racial pride. As John Piper frames it, “Faith in Jesus trumps ethnicity.” Piper adduces several examples of this theme in the Gospels: the commendation of the Centurion’s faith (Matt 8:5–13), the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:33), the healing of the ten lepers, of whom only the foreigner returned to give thanks (Luke 17:16), the healing of the Syrophoenician’s daughter (Mark 7:26), the cleansing of the temple (Mark 11:17). Clearly, Jesus was not afraid to offend the ethnocentric pride of the Pharisees.
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In Modules 3 & 6 of Embracing Unity Academy we will look at how churches in America mirror the ethnocentrism experienced in the early church.