The Only Viable Cure for Racial Injustice
- Joe Pantaleo
- Jun 1, 2020
- 5 min read
Lately my top song on Spotify has been the Bob Dylan classic The Times They Are A-Changin’. The coronavirus has caused division and isolation. The recent protests have magnified racial injustice and have contributed to the crippling of the American economy. Americans are more divided now than ever before.
Indeed, the times they are a changin'!
The Church and Racial Injustice
These changes have caused many Christians to question how the Church is supposed to navigate these ever changing waters. How are we to genuinely combat injustice, racial injustice in particular? We see events like the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. We see abuse of power. We see racism. And we know that these things are wrong. Yet we are often left feeling helpless when it comes to affecting real change. The politicians and activists alike will tell you how to handle the injustices but their solutions never result in real change. Racial injustice is a virus and the world can’t seem to find a vaccine. From a humanistic standpoint, racial unity may as well be a pipe dream.
Fortunately, God has revealed in His word how the world - with all of its beautiful cultures, skin colors, and racial dynamics - can be brought together in unity. In Galatians 3:28, Christians can learn all we need to know about how to fight injustice and bring healing to our nation.
“Neither” Doesn’t Mean “Non-Existent”
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female...” (Galatians 3:28a, ESV)
In the first part of Galatians 3:28, Paul calls out three main dividing points - race, economic-class, and gender. Paul takes these three points of natural division and does away with them! As an unfortunate result of this, many Christians have latched on to this verse as a justification for saying “I’m colorblind” or “I don’t see race, just human-beings.” However, the logic is never applied consistently, otherwise Christians would also say things like “I don’t see gender” or “I don’t even notice the nice cars in the church parking lot and the people who drive those cars.”
So what is Paul getting at with this statement that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there is no male nor female”? The fact that he acknowledged these divisions proves their existence. So while these divisions are real, Paul makes it clear that these points of division are ultimately not worth dividing over. While we may feel inclined to agree with that statement, too often our actions tell a different story.
Discrimination still occurs.
Sexism is still a reality.
Racism is still alive.
Yet a healthy, biblical understanding of humanity helps us realize that things such as race, culture, and skin color are beautiful gifts from God that we should appreciate. We should notice these differences and praise God for such unique particularities. However, they should not be so important in our lives that they cause division and strife. Race, gender, and even economic status should all be valued, yet tempered. It is natural for people to elevate things like race as a key aspect for their self-identity, but Christians are called to something different - something greater.
Christ Is Our Identity
Paul shows us that our identity should not be wrapped up in our gender, race, or economic status - but it should instead be totally consumed in Christ.
“... for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28, ESV)
Christ supersedes our race.
Christ supersedes our gender.
Christ supersedes our finances.
In Christ, we become one. Yet, we do so without losing our distinctives. One of the beauties of being in Christ is that we learn to appreciate our culture, race, and gender in an appropriate way. Instead of becoming key markers of our identity that naturally cause division, they become beautiful peculiarities that we can appreciate in one another. What this means, is that we become Christians first and (African, White, Mexican)-Americans second. We are Christians first, and that is what unites us.
In Christ, we are bound up together in such a way that our distinctives cease to divide us.
How To Heal A Nation
If then we can be one and undivided in Christ - then the solution for healing our nation is obvious: we must make disciples. The greatest weapon against racial injustice is the gospel. The means by which we prevent injustice from happening is discipling individuals in the truths of the gospel. In short, as we fulfill the Great Commission we will see healing begin.
True, intense, radical discipleship is what it takes to heal a nation. This is because true disciples do not kill or race-bait or hate… they love. In John 13:35, Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” When people come together in Christ, we collectively are conformed into the image of Christ and are made more like Him. We take on His likeness. We love like He loves. We care about the things He cares about - namely, one another's struggles.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in The Cost of Discipleship, profoundly wrote that:
“Through fellowship and communion with the incarnate Lord, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time we are delivered from that individualism which is the consequence of sin, and retrieve our solidarity with the whole human race. By being partakers of Christ incarnate, we are partakers in the whole humanity which he bore. We now know that we have been taken up and borne in the humanity of Jesus, and therefore that new nature we now enjoy means that we too must bear the sins and sorrows of others. The incarnate Lord makes his followers the brothers of all mankind.”
Bonhoeffer’s words expose the truth that true disciples - those who know God, are growing in God, and are living for God - will be, indeed they must be, the impetus for bringing about healing in our nation. As disciples “partake of Christ incarnate” and fulfill the Great Commission by making disciples in the power of the Holy Spirit, racial divisions will be healed because appreciation of differences will replace fear and division. Injustices will be made right because we will rightly love and appreciate one another. God will be glorified because the Imago Dei (image of God) in each of us will be honored!
Bob Dylan had it right… the times are rapidly changing. But the method for fighting injustice has remained the same. The sooner Churches and individual Christians realize this and take disciple-making seriously, the sooner we can start changing the world for Christ again. Radical discipleship was Jesus’ plan for changing the world. It should be our plan too.
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