In Search of a Biblical Perspective on Race, Justice, and Law Enforcement
Emotions in America especially have been running high for over a full month now, since George Floyd’s death. Everyone is talking about race and justice and law enforcement. I feel it’s appropriate to add my voice as well, especially because I’ve been largely disappointed with the responses I’ve heard among the Christian community so far. If you’re reading from another country, this is not just for Americans, and I will try to keep it as apolitical as possible. My desire is that as brothers and sisters, we think Biblically, because how we think will drive our actions.
Nation Against Nation
The verse that best characterizes this present conflict is Matthew 24:7. Here’s the full context, because I don’t want us to miss Jesus’ encouragement.
Matthew 24:6-8 (NKJV)
6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
I remember being confused by “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,” when I was young. I thought Jesus was using two words for the same thing. But the word translated “nation” is ethnos (ἔθνος), from which we get our word “ethnic.” Ethnos is about people groups, not countries. It is the same word Jesus uses in the great commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Mt 28:19). Also: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Mt 24:14). Jesus told us about these ethnic conflicts in advance. He commands us, “See that you are not troubled.” The only way we can do that is by continuously remembering His promise, “And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20) and fixing our hearts on Him.
Human Race
I don’t like the way the word, “race” is used to refer to skin color or ethnic group. I feel this in itself is divisive, because we are all members of the human race. The first chapter of the Bible tells us how God created man, male and female.
Genesis 1:26-27 (NKJV)
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
We are made in the image of God! And we are all descendants of Adam and Eve, and also of Noah.
Genesis 3:20 (NKJV)
20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Eve’s name comes from the word for life, and Strong’s Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Testament says Eve means, “life-giver.”
Ethnic Groups
How did we get to be divided into ethnic groups, with different skin colors and features? When Noah’s family got off the ark, they received a command: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Ge 9:1). But as the population increased in the years after the Flood, they decided to rebel against the command to fill the earth.
Genesis 11:1-9 (NKJV)
Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
“Babel” means “confusion.”
All the unique features we see in people were built into the human genome. But because the people were separated by language groups and geography and not able to intermarry with people they otherwise would have, certain features became prominent. Keeping in mind God’s command to fill the earth, regardless of the means He used to accomplish it, I am confident the various ethnic groups were always in His plan. Answers in Genesis has a lot of great resources on this topic (“One Blood”), including DVDs and books for various age groups. I highly recommend them!
One of the first songs my mom taught me as an infant was, “Jesus Loves the Little Children” (lyrics by Clare Herbert Woolston; tune by George Frederick Root):
Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children
Of the world
Should we be “colorblind”? God isn’t ethnic-blind. The word ethnos recognizes that there are different people groups, even though we are all human.
Revelation 7:9-10 (NKJV)
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
All nations (ethnos), tribes, peoples and tongues will eventually be found in the one body of Christ. God’s heart is for unity among all the people groups in Christ: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ep 4:4-6).
A Brief History of Racism
Racism has a long past that probably goes back to the time when peoples who had been genetically separated after Babel encountered each other again—maybe even earlier.
The first Biblical hint of racism I can think of is found in Numbers 12, when Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ sister and brother, spoke against Moses because of a Cushite wife he took. By mentioning her nationality twice and nothing else, it appears Miriam and Aaron’s criticism may have been due to racial prejudice: “Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman” (Nu 12:1). After verbally rebuking them, God struck Miriam with leprosy for a week to discipline her (Nu 12:9-15), saying, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may be received again” (Nu 12:14). In this whole account, Moses is gracious towards his sister and brother—a good example for us when we are sinned against.
What the Shullamite says about the color of her skin in Song of Solomon suggests a possible cultural bias against naturally darker-skinned people:
Song of Solomon 1:5-6 (NKJV)
5 I am dark, but lovely,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
Like the tents of Kedar,
Like the curtains of Solomon.
6 Do not look upon me, because I am dark,
Because the sun has tanned me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
They made me the keeper of the vineyards,
But my own vineyard I have not kept.
Commands to “love your neighbor as yourself” also make God’s heart plain when we think about the peoples of the earth. When Jesus was asked, “And who is my neighbor?” He answered with a parable (or account?) about a Samaritan helping a Jewish man who fell into the hands of robbers and was left half-dead. The Samaritans were descendants of the Israelite northern tribes, mixed with peoples settled by the kingdom of Assyria. The Jews considered them half-breeds and idolaters and avoided them (Jn 4:9, Jn 8:48). Samaria was third on Jesus’ list when He commanded the disciples to go and be His witnesses (Ac 1:8), making disciples.
I thought Dr. Noah Riseman’s concise history of racism (from the 1400s), particularly as it affected Australia’s Aboriginal people, was insightful (“Racism has a long history we must all understand”). He describes how some Europeans said the Aboriginal people were not even human, but apes. This was before Darwin published his theory of evolution, which bolstered such thinking, promoting the idea that some ethnic groups evolved more perfectly than others. The clash of an evolutionary and Biblical worldview couldn’t be starker when it comes to the matter of racism.
However, a person who is born again doesn’t just download a Biblical worldview. We need to renew our minds in the Scriptures, believing and doing what they say. We can still be deceived about things. For example, Martin Luther’s attitude towards the Jews started out well, but later in his life, after his attempts at converting them didn’t work, he started driving them out of towns and speaking all manner of hateful words against them. He published a book called On The Jews and Their Lies, which promoted their mistreatment and destruction. His words didn’t die with him. Four hundred years later, the Nazis reprinted and circulated this book as they were preparing for the Holocaust.
Jesus taught us not to judge someone’s heart. To jump to the conclusion events are racially motivated without any basis except different colors of skin (and share it with others on social media, for example) promotes division. Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10).
Do we deny that racism exists? No. However, I believe the attitudes between ethnicities in the United States have made great strides since the days when slavery was practiced, and since the civil rights movement. Anyone can be racist. But is it a systemic problem, or are we being manipulated towards disunity?
The Only True Solution for Racism: Christ
The only hope for people who do hate people on the basis of skin or ethnic group is Christ.
South Africa was imploding from the inside in the days of apartheid. Whites tried to destroy the blacks. Recently, you may have heard about white farmers being tortured and killed on their farms by blacks. Such as mess. But Jesus still does miracles. My friend Cristóbal Krusen put Gerrit Wolfaardt and Moses Moremi’s transformation accounts to screen in his apartheid film, Final Solution. The film perfectly illustrates how it’s the power of the gospel that frees people from the bounds of hatred, where it exists. I definitely encourage you to watch it yourself and consider sharing its message with others! Last month Cristóbal told me, “I wrote this to someone about the movie: ‘The killing of George Floyd and all that has happened since around the world… It makes “Final Solution” seem almost prescient, made for such a time as this.’” Final Solution is available on Amazon Prime and Tubi. Cristóbal considers himself a missionary who makes films. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to Messenger Films, you can do so here.
Some of you remember, but others may not have read my blog post last December, The Mystery of the Olive Tree. It’s about the one body of Christ, composed of all ethnic groups, including the family of Israel. The end of the blog chronicles the testimony of my Israeli Jewish brother Ilya, whose heart God changed from hating Arabs. I encourage you to read his story if you have not.
How Will the Church Respond?
I believe the present conflict delivers Christians a choice: lend our voices to a liberal justice movement, or show the world what Biblical justice looks like.
I’ve been saddened by what I perceive as church leaders conflating God’s heart for justice with a divisive political movement. As I was thinking about this early last month, I came across a tweet by Peter P. Lackey, Jr., about the difference between social and biblical justice. He attached a graphic comparing social justice and Biblical justice in a number of areas.
Lackey wrote a book called Man’s Ultimate Challenge Second Edition: Being A Man of Virtue in a Culture of Vice, and he sent me a Facebook post with some excerpts. I wanted to highlight a few of his words, but you can read the whole thing yourself, if you like, by clicking on the link above. He writes:
When you give your race or cultural heritage primacy in your identity instead of Christ, then you will baptize the positive racism and walk as unjust before both God and man. A man of virtue walks in disobedience when he chooses to get his identity from a mere physical property such as skin color and not the spiritual quality that is found in Christ. It is, in essence, a form of not only racism, but idolatry as you place the creation above the Creator (Romans 1:21-25). In Christ we are one race, and it is the human race; one color, and it is red, for we are either covered by the blood of Christ or uncovered. You are either covered by the blood of Christ, adopted into His new chosen race and promise of eternity, or you are uncovered, remaining in the old fallen race and the promise of eternal separation from God. When I first see you and you first see me, on the surface we will see the racial properties. Shortly thereafter, neither of us should primarily notice our blackness, brownness, or whiteness, but our Christ-likeness. We should expect those in the world to get their primary identity in the first Adam and the imperfect fallen hyphenated categories rooted in secularism/Marxism and Darwinism. On the other hand, those of us in the Church should get our primary identity in the second Adam—Jesus Christ, and our lives should reflect this reality.
Naturally, we do not lose our cultural identity in Christ, but our cultural identity must be under the headship of Christ as we submit to Him and make our identity in Christ primary. Jesus Christ has called us, His universal Church, to not simply “speak” for His new race of people who are all family by adoption,[2] but to be Ambassadors representing Him within the church and to the world around us. There is one race, the human race, where the image of God rests, and the image of God is never to be minimized to skin pigment. In reality, there is only one major pigment called melanin that produces every person’s skin color. In a sense, we are all shades of brown. In summary, God gave us our cultural background and in Christ these are not to be erased, but embraced under His headship. The issue is primacy! A simple shift such as calling ministries cross-cultural instead of multi-cultural is one way to express this reality of unity in our diversity under the cross of Jesus Christ.
Our LORD is holy—completely without wickedness. He is also just, so He must punish sin appropriately. The punishment we have earned is death—not just physical death, but second death as well—to be eternally under His wrath. But God loves us so much that He decided before the foundations of world what He would do—take on flesh, live a sinless life, and be made a perfect blood sacrifice for our sins. And Jesus fulfilled the plan, as was prophesied, and was buried, and rose again on the third day. And all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus will be saved. Biblical justice is the gospel, not only what Jesus did for us, but how He call us to live, reflecting Christ our Lord–loving our neighbor as ourselves, not showing partiality, etc.
Law Enforcement
Ever since the day of George Floyd’s death, people have been demanding, “Defund the police!” The logic I’m hearing is that police are corrupt, so they should be dissolved. That is not a Biblical response. The Lord admonishes us:
Romans 13:1-8 (NKJV)
13 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. 4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. 5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
These instructions are not based on how well a government’s law enforcement reflects the justice of God. During the time of Christ and when Paul wrote this epistle to the church at Rome, the Romans were in charge. They weren’t a picture of Biblical justice by any means! They could be quite cruel, especially in the way they executed non-citizens by crucifixion. And Rome killed many Christians.
The law enforcement agencies are made up of sinners. There’s going to be some corruption, because humanity is corrupt. It’s also foolish to judge that our law enforcement officers are so systemically corrupt that we should abdicate their role. And who would step in their place? Every man for himself? This would leave the weak at a huge disservice. The military? Federal law enforcement? A foreign government?
The way people have been carrying on, some law enforcement officers are afraid. A society without law enforcement will break down in every way. The only exception to our submission to governing authorities should be if obeying laws would cause us to disobey Christ.
Perspective
I pray we would be able to see the events of our times through the lens of God’s Word, so we will be neither deceived nor discouraged. The LORD our God is enthroned in Heaven. Nothing surprises Him, and He gave us His prophecy that we may not be surprised either. May we be His faithful ambassadors.
Would you like to add any words of insight to these matters? Feel free to add them in the comments section. If this blessed you, I encourage you to pass it on to others. God be with you.
Emotions in America especially have been running high for over a full month now, since George Floyd’s death. Everyone is talking about race and justice and law enforcement. I feel it’s appropriate to add my voice as well, especially because I’ve been largely disappointed with the responses I’ve heard among the Christian community so far. If you’re reading from another country, this is not just for Americans, and I will try to keep it as apolitical as possible. My desire is that as brothers and sisters, we think Biblically, because how we think will drive our actions.
Nation Against Nation
The verse that best characterizes this present conflict is Matthew 24:7. Here’s the full context, because I don’t want us to miss Jesus’ encouragement.
Matthew 24:6-8 (NKJV)
6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
I remember being confused by “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,” when I was young. I thought Jesus was using two words for the same thing. But the word translated “nation” is ethnos (ἔθνος), from which we get our word “ethnic.” Ethnos is about people groups, not countries. It is the same word Jesus uses in the great commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Mt 28:19). Also: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Mt 24:14). Jesus told us about these ethnic conflicts in advance. He commands us, “See that you are not troubled.” The only way we can do that is by continuously remembering His promise, “And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20) and fixing our hearts on Him.
Human Race
I don’t like the way the word, “race” use is used to refer to skin color or ethnic group. I feel this in itself is divisive, because we are all members of the human race. The first chapter of the Bible tells us how God created man, male and female.
Genesis 1:26-27 (NKJV)
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
We are made in the image of God! And we are all descendants of Adam and Eve, and also of Noah.
Genesis 3:20 (NKJV)
20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Eve’s name comes from the word for life, and Strong’s Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Testament says Eve means, “life-giver.”
Ethnic Groups
How did we get to be divided into ethnic groups, with different skin colors and features? When Noah’s family got off the ark, they received a command: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Ge 9:1). But as the population increased in the years after the Flood, they decided to rebel against the command to fill the earth.
Genesis 11:1-9 (NKJV)
Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
“Babel” means “confusion.”
All the unique features we see in people were built into the human genome. But because the people were separated by language groups and geography and not able to intermarry with people they otherwise would have, certain features became prominent. Keeping in mind God’s command to fill the earth, regardless of the means He used to accomplish it, I am confident the various ethnic groups were always in His plan. Answers in Genesis has a lot of great resources on this topic (“One Blood”), including DVDs and books for various age groups. I highly recommend them!
One of the first songs my mom taught me as an infant was, “Jesus Loves the Little Children” (lyrics by Clare Herbert Woolston; tune by George Frederick Root):
Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children
Of the world
Should we be “colorblind”? God isn’t ethnic-blind. The word ethnos recognizes that there are different people groups, even though we are all human.
Revelation 7:9-10 (NKJV)
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
All nations (ethnos), tribes, peoples and tongues will eventually be found in the one body of Christ. God’s heart is for unity among all the people groups in Christ: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ep 4:4-6).
A Brief History of Racism
Racism has a long past that probably goes back to the time when peoples who had been genetically separated after Babel encountered each other again—maybe even earlier.
The first Biblical hint of racism I can think of is found in Numbers 12, when Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ sister and brother, spoke against Moses because of a Cushite wife he took. By mentioning her nationality twice and nothing else, it appears Miriam and Aaron’s criticism may have been due to racial prejudice: “Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman” (Nu 12:1). After verbally rebuking them, God struck Miriam with leprosy for a week to discipline her (Nu 12:9-15), saying, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may be received again” (Nu 12:14). In this whole account, Moses is gracious towards his sister and brother—a good example for us when we are sinned against.
What the Shullamite says about the color of her skin in Song of Solomon suggests a possible cultural bias against naturally darker-skinned people:
Song of Solomon 1:5-6 (NKJV)
5 I am dark, but lovely,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
Like the tents of Kedar,
Like the curtains of Solomon.
6 Do not look upon me, because I am dark,
Because the sun has tanned me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
They made me the keeper of the vineyards,
But my own vineyard I have not kept.
Commands to “love your neighbor as yourself” also make God’s heart plain when we think about the peoples of the earth. When Jesus was asked, “And who is my neighbor?” He answered with a parable (or account?) about a Samaritan helping a Jewish man who fell into the hands of robbers and was left half-dead. The Samaritans were descendants of the Israelite northern tribes, mixed with peoples settled by the kingdom of Assyria. The Jews considered them half-breeds and idolaters and avoided them (Jn 4:9, Jn 8:48). Samaria was third on Jesus’ list when He commanded the disciples to go and be His witnesses (Ac 1:8), making disciples.
I thought Dr. Noah Riseman’s concise history of racism (from the 1400s), particularly as it affected Australia’s Aboriginal people, was insightful (“Racism has a long history we must all understand”). He describes how some Europeans said the Aboriginal people were not even human, but apes. This was before Darwin published his theory of evolution, which bolstered such thinking, promoting the idea that some ethnic groups evolved more perfectly than others. The clash of an evolutionary and Biblical worldview couldn’t be starker when it comes to the matter of racism.
However, a person who is born again doesn’t just download a Biblical worldview. We need to renew our minds in the Scriptures, believing and doing what they say. We can still be deceived about things. For example, Martin Luther’s attitude towards the Jews started out well, but later in his life, after his attempts at converting them didn’t work, he started driving them out of towns and speaking all manner of hateful words against them. He published a book called On The Jews and Their Lies, which promoted their mistreatment and destruction. His words didn’t die with him. Four hundred years later, the Nazis reprinted and circulated this book as they were preparing for the Holocaust.
Jesus taught us not to judge someone’s heart. To jump to the conclusion events are racially motivated without any basis except different colors of skin (and share it with others on social media, for example) promotes division. Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10).
Do we deny that racism exists? No. However, I believe the attitudes between ethnicities in the United States have made great strides since the days when slavery was practiced, and since the civil rights movement. Anyone can be racist. But is it a systemic problem, or are we being manipulated towards disunity?
The Only True Solution for Racism: Christ
The only hope for people who do hate people on the basis of skin or ethnic group is Christ.
South Africa was imploding from the inside in the days of apartheid. Whites tried to destroy the blacks. Recently, you may have heard about white farmers being tortured and killed on their farms by blacks. Such as mess. But Jesus still does miracles. My friend Cristóbal Krusen put Gerrit Wolfaardt and Moses Moremi’s transformation accounts to screen in his apartheid film, Final Solution. The film perfectly illustrates how it’s the power of the gospel that frees people from the bounds of hatred, where it exists. I definitely encourage you to watch it yourself and consider sharing its message with others! Last month Cristóbal told me, “I wrote this to someone about the movie: ‘The killing of George Floyd and all that has happened since around the world… It makes “Final Solution” seem almost prescient, made for such a time as this.’” Final Solution is available on Amazon Prime and Tubi. Cristóbal considers himself a missionary who makes films. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to Messenger Films, you can do so here.
Some of you remember, but others may not have read my blog post last December, The Mystery of the Olive Tree. It’s about the one body of Christ, composed of all ethnic groups, including the family of Israel. The end of the blog chronicles the testimony of my Israeli Jewish brother Ilya, whose heart God changed from hating Arabs. I encourage you to read his story if you have not.
How Will the Church Respond?
I believe the present conflict delivers Christians a choice: lend our voices to a liberal justice movement, or show the world what Biblical justice looks like.
I’ve been saddened by what I perceive as church leaders conflating God’s heart for justice with a divisive political movement. As I was thinking about this early last month, I came across a tweet by Peter P. Lackey, Jr., about the difference between social and biblical justice. He attached a graphic comparing social justice and Biblical justice in a number of areas.
Lackey wrote a book called Man’s Ultimate Challenge Second Edition: Being A Man of Virtue in a Culture of Vice, and he sent me a Facebook post with some excerpts. I wanted to highlight a few of his words, but you can read the whole thing yourself, if you like, by clicking on the link above. He writes:
When you give your race or cultural heritage primacy in your identity instead of Christ, then you will baptize the positive racism and walk as unjust before both God and man. A man of virtue walks in disobedience when he chooses to get his identity from a mere physical property such as skin color and not the spiritual quality that is found in Christ. It is, in essence, a form of not only racism, but idolatry as you place the creation above the Creator (Romans 1:21-25). In Christ we are one race, and it is the human race; one color, and it is red, for we are either covered by the blood of Christ or uncovered. You are either covered by the blood of Christ, adopted into His new chosen race and promise of eternity, or you are uncovered, remaining in the old fallen race and the promise of eternal separation from God. When I first see you and you first see me, on the surface we will see the racial properties. Shortly thereafter, neither of us should primarily notice our blackness, brownness, or whiteness, but our Christ-likeness. We should expect those in the world to get their primary identity in the first Adam and the imperfect fallen hyphenated categories rooted in secularism/Marxism and Darwinism. On the other hand, those of us in the Church should get our primary identity in the second Adam—Jesus Christ, and our lives should reflect this reality.
Naturally, we do not lose our cultural identity in Christ, but our cultural identity must be under the headship of Christ as we submit to Him and make our identity in Christ primary. Jesus Christ has called us, His universal Church, to not simply “speak” for His new race of people who are all family by adoption,[2] but to be Ambassadors representing Him within the church and to the world around us. There is one race, the human race, where the image of God rests, and the image of God is never to be minimized to skin pigment. In reality, there is only one major pigment called melanin that produces every person’s skin color. In a sense, we are all shades of brown. In summary, God gave us our cultural background and in Christ these are not to be erased, but embraced under His headship. The issue is primacy! A simple shift such as calling ministries cross-cultural instead of multi-cultural is one way to express this reality of unity in our diversity under the cross of Jesus Christ.
Our LORD is holy—completely without wickedness. He is also just, so He must punish sin appropriately. The punishment we have earned is death—not just physical death, but second death as well—to be eternally under His wrath. But God loves us so much that He decided before the foundations of world what He would do—take on flesh, live a sinless life, and be made a perfect blood sacrifice for our sins. And Jesus fulfilled the plan, as was prophesied, and was buried, and rose again on the third day. And all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus will be saved. Biblical justice is the gospel, not only what Jesus did for us, but how He call us to live, reflecting Christ our Lord–loving our neighbor as ourselves, not showing partiality, etc.
Law Enforcement
Ever since the day of George Floyd’s death, people have been demanding, “Defund the police!” The logic I’m hearing is that police are corrupt, so they should be dissolved. That is not a Biblical response. The Lord admonishes us:
Romans 13:1-8 (NKJV)
13 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. 4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. 5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
These instructions are not based on how well a government’s law enforcement reflects the justice of God. During the time of Christ and when Paul wrote this epistle to the church at Rome, the Romans were in charge. They weren’t a picture of Biblical justice by any means! They could be quite cruel, especially in the way they executed non-citizens by crucifixion. And Rome killed many Christians.
The law enforcement agencies are made up of sinners. There’s going to be some corruption, because humanity is corrupt. It’s also foolish to judge that our law enforcement officers are so systemically corrupt that we should abdicate their role. And who would step in their place? Every man for himself? This would leave the weak at a huge disservice. The military? Federal law enforcement? A foreign government?
The way people have been carrying on, some law enforcement officers are afraid. A society without law enforcement will break down in every way. The only exception to our submission to governing authorities should be if obeying laws would cause us to disobey Christ.
Perspective
I pray we would be able to see the events of our times through the lens of God’s Word, so we will be neither deceived nor discouraged. The LORD our God is enthroned in Heaven. Nothing surprises Him, and He gave us His prophecy that we may not be surprised either. May we be His faithful ambassadors.
Would you like to add any words of insight to these matters? Feel free to add them in the comments section. If this blessed you, I encourage you to pass it on to others. God be with you.
