A Letter to a Young Church Planter
RTS Papers / Pastoral & Social Ethics / Summer 2018
The Biblical Testimony on Race and Social Justice
First, there is one original race: “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26). Second, that single race fell into sin, proliferating the curse in diverse ways and at diverse rates: “because [at Babel] the Lord confused the language of all the earth” (Gen. 11:9). We reject racist theories of “the curse of Ham,” but we deal seriously with the truth of Exodus 20:5, “that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children.”
Nations have been multiplying all kinds of inequalities from the beginning, mostly unplanned by human device. On the other hand, with those variegated differences come racial sins. And no division could be so abused than a divinely sanctioned ethnic barrier. However even in the call for Israel to be separate, there was in the law of Moses an latent care for all of humanity. It was a sign of redemption, as in Deuteronomy 10:17-19. God was going to demand that his people treat outsiders with the same compassion he had for them, as slaves turned sojourners. The New Testament counterpart is: “God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34-35).
From Peter’s vision - “What God has made clean, do not call common” (Acts 10:15) - to Paul’s letters, “There is neither Jew nor Greek … for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28), there is a gospel logic that makes racism an enemy of God. It had been good news from the beginning that the promise to Abraham would bless the nations (Gen. 12:3); and when Jonah acted contrary, everything in the message of that prophetic book condemned him. The gospel demands restoration of the whole image of God. Consequently, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 Jn. 4:20). This speaks specifically of the “brother,” though other passages extend to “your neighbor” (Mk. 12:31) and even “your enemies” (Lk. 6:27). The gospel makes a heresy of racism and a hypocrite of any churchgoing bigot.
Ethnic diversity was prized in the church, not least because of the division of labor within the body of Christ (Rom. 12:4-6, 1 Cor. 12:4-7). So “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). Philip did not hesitate to baptize the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:30-38). And the maxim that “there is no distinction” (Acts 15:9, Rom. 10:12) was not isolated to the Judaizer controversy. The principle applies to all ethnicities.
It is customary to focus on texts like Paul’s letter to Philemon: often highlighted as undermining slavery. The master is urged to be reconciled to Onesimus, and “no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother” (v. 16). A holistic approach might also look at “big picture” texts that situate the work of Christ in the gospel in a way that phases out racism. Benjamin Gladd draws this out in his chapter on ‘Philemon’ in Michael Kruger, ed. A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016); 401-409. Citing the exposition of Colossians 3 by Douglas Moo, Gladd suggests that even in the passages where Paul instructs masters and slaves on reciprocal duties (thus, for many, enabling the furtherance of slavery), he is actually tacitly undermining the institution by “relativizing the status of the slave’s master” (403).
Consider three New Testament texts: Ephesians 2:11-18, Acts 2:1-36, and Revelation 5:9. Cumulatively, these give a doctrinal basis that disintegrate racist attitudes from emerging in the Christian. Our view moves from the work of Christ, to the work of the Spirit, to the worship and communion of the eternal state. Said in another way, these three texts reveal how God 1. severed the fundamental root of racial tension, 2. reversed the curse of racial segregation, and 3. made racial integration eternally grounded in a vision of ultimate worship.
A greater to lesser argument can be inferred from the Ephesians 2 text, in the words of Frame, “the apostles certainly would have said that if Christ can tear down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles, he can also break down any lesser barrier.”
Some may be inclined to argue that the barrier between black and white is greater than the one between Jew and Gentile. However such assumes that material hostilities are greater than spiritual hostilities.
Racial Harmony in a Local Church According to the Gospel
All of this would seem to suggest that you have an enormous opportunity in planting such a church. What kind of a church? One that is proactively diverse to be sure, but not one that allows that diversity to be politicized. Balance is required here to avoid false guilt, as well as some other “inconveniences” that those proposing a genuinely racial worldview do not typically address. Many reasons for “the most segregated hour of the week” are benign and consequences for equitable integration unthinkable. Consequently we should pursue the maximum of ethnic diversity that is natural and proportionate to the real people living in our neighborhoods. We should not pursue congregational ethnic diversity by the principle of egalitarianism as if it were the ultimate value.
The most important thing you can get right here will be unsurprising: the gospel itself. Guilt is met by the gospel in every other area of sin. Why should racist sins be any different in this sense? Piper addresses three false ways to deal with racist guilt: “Denial drives it below the surface where it creates endless illusions and self-justifications. Wallowing in it produces phony humility and obsequiousness and cowardice. Exploiting it gives a false sense of power that turns out to be only the weapon of weakness.” Your gospel must drive to the heart of the specific guilts involved. Sin is specific. Atonement is particular. Forgiveness can be no less.
“Social justice,” as an extension of the gospel, can contradict the heart of the gospel. Justice is what we do not receive from God, and moreover the “social justice” being demanded would be given (transferred) apart from merit. But in biblical soteriology we call that grace. So grace is being called “justice” in the term “social justice.”
You remember, brother, since you were there with me in Louisville ten years ago now. It was the opening session of Together for the Gospel. It was Thabiti who spoke, and the subject was race. It was a magnificent biblical message. He talked about the oneness in Adam’s sin and the oneness in Christ’s righteous act. Two bloodlines; one infinitely superior. He talked about what we have in common, and that the gospel alone unites us and puts even this hateful evil to rest. But you know in your heart that this is not what we hear today from the many conferences.
There is a charitable way that we can still interpret these critical voices. Often we have a clear case of “Who is he arguing against?” There is a pithy condemnation that, we suppose, no one would ever disagree with, but it is said with the utmost righteous indignation. But it is always possible that there is a concrete somebody that he “is arguing against.” We need to be open to that possibility. On the other hand, we must beg these voices stirring up so much about race to extend the grace of specificity. Jesus demands it in Matthew 18.
We can say to these brothers, “You may suppose us ignorant of your particular understanding of social justice, but we beg you not to suspect us of ill intentions.” And we are within our rights as pastors to steer our own impressionable sheep away from “social gospels” that really turn out to be radical forms of political unrest.
The final words of the introduction to Piper’s book on race also go unheeded: “But we will do well not to speak in too many broad generalizations when dealing with race. Better to anchor our thoughts to the real world. And in the real world, people are one thing, and not another. They may be complex, but they are not generalities. They are specific human beings.”
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