Race and the Gospel: Part 1 – Faith
Zechariah 14:1–9
In God’s mercy, our nation has been drawn into a season of deep soul-searching—grieving the sin of racial prejudice.
Racial prejudice is a sin. It is a form of the sin of failing to love ones neighbor. There are many ways in which we fail to love our neighbor. Racial prejudice is one of those.
This sin requires special attention in America, because this was one of America’s founding sins. Our nation was built through race-based injustices, most notably—the enslavement of Africans. In God’s mercy, our nation ended race-based slavery in the 1860s. But that did not fully resolve our prejudice. One hundred years later, in the 1960s, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. That brought an end to legalized discrimination. Praise God for that progress!
But, just like individuals, societies grow over time. Where the Spirit of Christ is at work, progress is real. But sanctification is a long process and requires perseverance. That is true for societies in our corporate sins, just as for individuals in our personal sins.
America’s struggle against racial prejudice has not been fully mastered yet. And we will likely continue to struggle with this sin, just as we continually struggle with our various besetting sins as individuals. But the Christian life is a life of continual humility and repentance.
We must watch—as individuals and as a community—for those sins that we wish we could say we mastered once-and-for-all, but that have a way of stubbornly reappearing like weeds.
Remarkably, a culture-wide spirit of grief over racial prejudice is presently stirring in our nation. The question before the church is this: Will we allow this national self-examination to take place in a purely secular spirit; or will the church step forward, and model true repentance in the Spirit of Christ?
As the church, we ought to lead in national self-examination. There are secular organizations and political groups speaking out. But there needs to be a stronger Christian witness.
This morning and next week, I want to lead you in a sermon series on Race and the Gospel. We are a small congregation, but—as far as it lies with us—let us be faithful witnesses of Christ’s love in this season of national humbling.
Our keynote passage for this morning’s message is from the prophecy of Zechariah, chapter 14, the first nine verses:
Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle.On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost.And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light.
On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter.
And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one and his name one.
INTRODUCTION
This sermon series on Race and the Gospel has two parts, and the focus of each is very simple. Today, our focus is on doctrine—what we believe about race in view of the gospel. Next week, our focus will be on practice—how we live with respect to racial issues in view of the gospel.
Scripture urges us to foster a “living faith.” That is, a faith that believes, and a faith that works. The New Testament uses the terms “faith and works” to capture those two sides of the coin. “Faith without works is dead,” the Apostle James wrote. A living faith is a faith that also works.
This morning, I want to focus on the first side of that coin: faith or doctrine. What do we believe that makes racial prejudice especially sinful? This morning, I want to show you the Gospel importance of racial reconciliation.
Then next week, we will turn our attention to practice. I am going to do my best to avoid political bandwagons. I am going to strive with all my effort to stick to the Scriptures. But, what are some of the examples the Bible shows us for living out this aspect of our faith, in our works? Next week, I will focus on our practice.
Those are the two parts of this sermon series. This morning, I want to focus on the Gospel importance for grieving over the sin of racial prejudice.
Let me state the premise of this sermon, right up front. Then I will spend the rest of the message developing this premise. My premise is this: our conviction that God is One motivates our commitment to racial reconciliation.
I am referring to the doctrine we call “monotheism.” Monotheism is a compound word. “Mono” means one, and “theos” means God. Monotheism is our conviction that there is only one God. There are not many gods. Different races do not each serve different gods. There is one God, and he is the God of all humankind. Furthermore, there is one Mediator between God and humankind. And there is One Church that transcends all human distinctions. It is that fundamental conviction—that God is One—which makes racial reconciliation vital to our Gospel witness.
Let me urge you—this morning—to take this conviction to heart from the Scriptures, beginning in the Old Testament, and moving through to the New.
1: TOWER OF BABEL
To look at the topic of “race” in the Bible, we need to start with the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11.
The Tower of Babel is a story of human pride. The account begins, “Now the whole earth had one language and the same words... And [the people] said to one another, ‘Come, let us ... build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves...’”
Presumably, there were already different races in the world at that time. But the world was united in one language, as one society. But rather than forming a community under God’s laws of righteousness and justice, humankind united at that ancient Tower in defiance against God’s name and his ways. So God divided humanity into different nations at that time.
The Tower of Babel is the Bible’s explanation, why conflicts exist between different nations and races. Such conflicts between people groups were not part of God’s good order for human society. Different races are part of God’s good order; but division and conflicts between those races are a curse upon human pride.
In the biblical record: racial conflict begins at the Tower of Babel. But, here is the surprising twist in that story.
2: CALL OF ABRAM
Although divisions arose in Genesis 11, in the very next chapter, God introduced his redeeming love. In the very next passage—in Genesis chapter 12—God called a man named Abram to leave his former national identification, and to become the head of a new race in the world—the Hebrew race.
But this is what God said in his call to Abram: “Go from your country and your kindred ... to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation,... and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
That Old Testament term “families of the earth” is what we nowadays call “races” of the world. It refers to the different lineages. Not just geographical lands, but genetic lineages of humankind. Abram was called to bring God’s blessing to the many races of humankind, in direct response to the division of the human races in conflict at the Tower of Babel.
Readers often overlook the connection between God’s call on Abram in Genesis 12 and the divisions of the earth in Genesis 11. God raised up a new race beginning in Abram, not to become just one more race with self-superiority over others. This people was called to be a blessing to other human families in the wake of the Tower of Babel.
That blessing involves a whole lot more than racial reconciliation. We never want to reduce the Gospel to any single social good. But racial reconciliation is an important part of the Gospel’s blessing, as announced in Abram.
Genesis lays this foundation for us from its early chapters.
3: MOSAIC LAW
Abraham’s race did not always model this love for ones neighbor perfectly. Indeed, we often find the Hebrew race fighting internally—one Hebrew tribe or person fighting another! Nevertheless, this calling to model love—even across racial lines—is woven into the Law that God taught to Israel.
Note, for example, how often Old Testament Law exhorts love for the immigrant and the foreigner in Israel’s midst. Listen to this law from Numbers chapter 15 (vv. 14-16):
And if a [foreigner] is sojourning with you, or [a foreign immigrant] is living permanently among you, and he wishes to offer a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD, he shall do as you do... There shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you... You and the sojourner shall be alike before the LORD. One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.
Israel was to enroll foreign races into their worship, and to grant them equal protection under their laws! That command was woven right into the Law of Moses. Now, that kind of interracial communion was unheard of in ancient law systems.
By way of comparison, consider the Laws of Hammurabi from ancient Babylon. In the prologue of this Babylonian law-collection, Hammurabi declared himself as king for “the black-haired people.” Evidently, Hammurabi’s people were known for the darkness of their hair. And his laws were for the protection and blessing of “the black-haired people.” And there is no provision for the incorporation or protection of other peoples in Hammurabi’s laws. That was typical.
Only Israel, of all the nations of the ancient world, had protections for other races built right into their laws.
Sadly, OT Israel did not fully live up to that calling. The strains of sin—including racism—were present in Israel as in the rest of the ancient world. But the work of the Gospel revealed in Israel was making progress against the curse of pride at the Tower of Babel.
Israel was called to be a racially welcoming culture, in contrast to the norm among other nations of the world. And the promise of the Gospel was that one day, the Messiah, would fully heal those divisions.
4: THE THEOLOGY OF RECONCILIATION
At this point, I want to wrap up our survey of this teaching in the Old Testament with attention to that passage from Zechariah which I read earlier.
The Prophet Zechariah was one of the last prophets of the Old Testament period. He prophesied of a day when God would finish the work of redemption. God would finish the kingdom that was started in Abraham’s house. As part of that promise, Zechariah proclaimed:
“Behold, a day is coming... [when] the Lord will be king over all the the earth. On that day, the Lord will be one and his name one.”
That is what we call “monotheism.” The Lord is one, and his name one. The prophet Zechariah was quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 6. In Deuteronomy, Moses had taught the people the oneness of God, saying, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
Other nations of the ancient world believed in many gods in the heavens. And because there were many gods in the heavens, there were also many different peoples on earth—with each people group established to worship their own particular deities. Thus, Hammurabi’s people—the “black-haired people”—worshiped the Babylonian deities. The Egyptians worshiped the Egyptian pantheon. And so forth.
The pluralities of gods meant a plurality of—and competition among—the peoples of the earth.
But Israel alone understood that all humankind is made in the image of One God. And he is one. That oneness of God is not just a metaphysical statement about God’s nature. It is a statement of God’s nature that has profound, practical implications. In particular, the image bearers of God are to be one.
Zechariah assured the people of a day when the metaphysical reality of God’s oneness would be reflected in its practical realization. “The Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day, the Lord will be one, and his name one.”
How could this be? How could it be that a tiny kingdom like Judah, laying in ruins under the shadow of mighty empires like Persia and Greece and Rome, would bring about the communion of all races under the one God?
That fulfillment only comes through the promised Messiah, the king of redemption for all peoples.
5: THE MESSIAH
So we turn the page to the New Testament as Jesus came. Wise men from the east came to see the one born to be king. Although born in a time of great strife and suffering in the world, Jesus perfectly embodied the love we are taught in God’s Law. That included love for God, love for his fellow Jews—and love for other races as well.
Then Jesus went to the cross to provide atonement for all peoples, as the redeemer of all races. After he rose from the dead, he ascended to a throne appointed to him in the heavens.
He did not ascend to a throne on Mount Zion, as though king overlooking the land of Israel. But he ascended to a throne in heaven—a throne overlooking the whole earth. And upon his ascension, Jesus gave us—the church—this commission:
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing ... [and] teaching them...
That commission to make disciples of all nations was unique among world religions. Prior to that moment, religions were always ethnic and racial. Ever since the Tower of Babel, each culture had its own deities and its own religion—and its own sense of superiority over other peoples.
But from the Law of Moses to the Reality in Christ, Israel’s unique conviction that the Lord is One always anticipated reconciliation among the families of the earth. And Jesus came to bring about that restoration of humans in love for God, and in love for one another. Including racial reconciliation. The reconciliation of races is not just a nice thing. It truly is essential to the work of the Gospel.
The book of Acts shows us how the church in Jerusalem modeled racial reconciliation, beginning with Pentecost.
When the Holy Spirit descended on the church at Pentecost, the Spirit gave the people languages. He filled the people with languages in order to be able to proclaim the Gospel to people of all races. It was as though the division of the world’s families at the Tower of Babel was being reversed at Pentecost. Pentecost at the beginning of the New Testament signifies the reversal of the Tower of Babel at the beginning of the Old.
In Acts chapter 6, we see the appointment of Gentile deacons in the church in Jerusalem. And in Acts chapter 11, we see the establishment of the Gentile pastors for the church in Antioch.
In fact, in Acts chapter 13, we are introduced to the first named African pastor in the church—a black man named Simeon. And according to Acts 13, this black pastor named Simeon became the lead pastor of the Church in Antioch. Apparently, it was a black pastor who led the service that sent the Apostle Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey! The entire New Testament Church owes a huge debt to the spiritual leadership of a black pastor named Simeon, who laid his hands on Paul to commission him to his first missionary journey.
This whole concept of racial reconciliation is a Christian idea, deeply woven into the history and calling of the church. There may be many secular and non-Christian groups in the world today that have picked up on the importance of racial reconciliation. But that is like Americans developing our own version of Mexican food. We might recognize a good thing and adapt it into Tex-Mex; but it pales next to the real thing.
There are many secular movements for racial reconciliation. But I want you to see that the whole idea of racial reconciliation is originally and fundamentally rooted in the Gospel. And do not let the fact that certain secular versions of racial justice and racial harmony exist, lead you to reject those causes!
Racial reconciliation is an inherent aspect of the church’s calling, and a necessary fruit of Redemption. Racial reconciliation is an outworking of our faith that God is one, that there is one mediator between God and all humankind, and that there is One Church. The doctrine of monotheism compels us to promote racial reconciliation.
CONCLUSION
Today, God is showing mercy on our nation.
When God abandons a people, they grow hard and indifferent to sin. But when God shows mercy, he pricks our conscience so we might repent. The fact that God is humbling our nation with a pandemic, and at the same time stirring our national conscience over one of our besetting, founding sins is a mark of mercy and an opportunity—if the church will exploit the opportunity to witness repentance.
If God had asked us, we might have had different priorities for him to address. We might have advised God to stir up national grief over a different sin. Maybe we think God should bring our nation to confess her sins of abortion. That is the sin—and it is a heinous sin—which American Christians have tended to prioritize in our public witness. Maybe we think God should bring our nation to grieve over that sin. And American must grieve that sin!
But who are we to tell God where to bring conviction in a land? And if racial prejudice is, indeed, one of America’s founding sins—and if this society has yet more of this lack of love for our neighbors to confess and repudiate—and if this is a sin that God has said, “Let’s stir the nation’s conscience on this one”—then praise God for his mercy. And let us model repentance for this sin—as well as others—as a church.
During America’s founding era, it was, sadly, the church that offered our politicians justification to enslave Africans. Too often we, preachers, use our pulpits to salve the conscience of society to assure society that this or that sin is not really a sin—or worse, to offer blinders to ignore it. We fail in our calling when we offer society blinders, salving the conscience which God’s Spirit would quicken, rather than doing our duty to prick the conscience and point the way of repentance.
Over the years, churches in American have too often dismissed the cries of our dark-skinned neighbors in order to soothe the consciences of the light-skinned among us.
But I pray things will be different today. God is doing something in our day, and I do not pretend to know what it is. But he is humbling this world through pandemic; he is further humbling our national pride through economic decline; and at the same time, he is stirring a spirit of grieving in America over our founding sin of racial injustice.
Let us—as far as it lies with us—open our hearts to the Spirit’s conviction, and seek to model repentance.
You and I are no more immune to the sin of prejudice that permeates our society, than the sins of pride and the love of money that also characterize our culture. Let us not wear blinders. Instead, let us pray for grace to recognize the prejudices in our own hearts—that we might repent as individuals—and serve the cause of true reformation in our land.
Next week, we will look at some examples of racial reconciliation at work in the Scriptures. But this morning, I want you to see how important racial reconciliation is as an outworking of the Gospel. It is an expression of our faith, that, in the words of Zechariah:
“The Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one, and his name one.”
This resource is part of the series More than Imago Dei: Theological Explorations on Race. Click here to explore more resources from this series.
Michael LeFebvre is a presbyterian minister. He holds a PhD in Old Testament from the University of Aberdeen and is a CPT board member and a member of the St. John Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
