Race Matters Part 2. Genesis 10

Though CLF didn’t start out as a multi-ethnic fellowship I’m grateful that our Lord has grown us into one and would want it no other way. For many of us race and ethnicity is the issue that lurks just outside our day to day lives. Yet, most of us probably do not have a biblical viewpoint on race, ethnicity and God’s will and plan regarding ethnicity.

The first biblical record of human ethnicity is found in Gen. 10. Verse 32 simply ends by stating These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations; and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood.

The questions for us this morning (at least the questions I intend to focus on) are what does race and ethnicity have to do with Scripture in general and specifically what does race have to do with the reality that God has one people, one plan for saving that people and one man (Jesus Christ) by whom those people are redeemed? Furthermore, how do I relate to that issue regardless of what my ethnicity is? Lastly, where does racism really end?


All ethnicities bear a residual imprint of God’s image upon them.

All ethnicities have demonstrated a measure of intelligence, creativity, humanity and civilization that speaks to the truth that people have been created in God’s image. The earliest biblical records of humanity demonstrate that people gathered themselves into self-governing communities that grew and progressed. Human history is filled with instances of ethnic groups participating in artistic expression, political activity and commerce. Human history is filled with the religious activity of all ethnicities. In fact the very notion of atheism is a quite recent development in human history. Scripture teaches that God has been at work in all ethnicities to lead and guide them. That’s why history is so important. Studying a groups history reminds us that they were indeed made in God’s image. In seeing their cultural and ethnic accomplishments we see the imprint of God on their culture.
Also if we look closely enough we may even see the clues God has left in their history that would draw them to Himself. Consequently we don’t dismiss a people’s history and experience as unimportant.
Since humanity still bears the imprint of God’s image it’s important for us as God’s people to stay involved and engaged within our culture and world.

This means becoming involved the practice of law and politics to pursue policies that are just, fair and work for the good of all who are governed. It means becoming engaged in the world of artistic expression to create works of are that reflect God’s beauty as well as the brokeness and hope of our humanity. This doesn’t mean creating art that is confined to overtly Christian subjects. It means becoming involved and engaged in the world of commerce to create products and services that are useful, help create work for others and provide income for yourself and family as well as give you the opportunity to have something to give to others. It means becoming engaged and involved in the world of education to teach and shape young minds as well as preparing them to be able to make a positive solid contribution to their community and city. It means becoming involved and engaged in health care so that you can help provide compassionate and wise care to those in need along with promoting practices that lead and contribute to good health habits.

As believers we do not check out of our community or culture nor do we simply confine ourselves to the spiritual issues that concern our community. While that is so we do of course proclaim and promote the gospel of Jesus Christ that calls for people and ethnic groups to repent from sin, believe the gospel and participate fully in the rule and reign of the living God.

All ethnicities bear the mark of radical depravity due to Adam’s rebellion. We are thus hopelessly fallen and can never find true and ultimate healing, hope, satisfaction and meaning within their own ethnicity.

All ethnicities are completely fallen, separated from God and in themselves have no hope of finding or relating to Him. The situation was so bad that God Himself has to call one man (Abraham) and actually start a new ethnicity just to preserve the true knowledge of God and send a savior to humanity. Left to ourselves all ethnicities would make up our own tribal deities whose main and only interest is seeing to our whims and wishes. All ethnicities engage in God given culture in fallen depraved ways. Our art is saturated with ungodly expressions of rebellion against our Creator. Our commerce is riddled with deception, stealing and greed. All cultures have practiced some form of political oppression and injustice against others. They’ve done it to people from other ethnicities and to those of their own ethnicity. Our falleness may be most evident in the open malicious hostility we have toward each other. We exist with distrust, suspicion, fear, animosity, indifference and hatred toward each other.

Just think about the cry that came from the Jewish holocaust that said never again. After that sad time in history the nations of the world said never again will we allow a group to be so marginalized that millions of them die.
And yet just in the last thirty years or so we had the killing fields of Cambodia in which an estimated 1.5 to 3 million people were just slaughtered. Last decade we had the Rawandan genocide in which at least a half million people were slaughtered in a matter of about 100 days. In the early 90’s the world watched as the former Yugoslavia descended into ethnic conflict. This decade the world once more watches as hundreds of thousands in Darfur Sudan are slaughtered, brutalized and displaced.

All this takes place in a world that has said ‘never again’ will we stand by and watch innocent people slaughtered like diseased cattle.

How many times have you gotten into conversations with people of your own ethnicity about other groups of people? How many times do those conversations lead to what’s wrong with your folks? We have to remember that the problem with sin isn't just with 'them', it's with all of us.

All ethnicities share in the redemption of the human race through the cross of Jesus Christ.

First and foremost Jesus deals with God’s anger toward us by taking it upon himself at the cross. No matter how great your people they were completely powerless and hopeless to do the one thing that matters eternally, namely squaring their relationship with their Creator. We come to Jesus because He is our only true ethnic savior. Jesus refuses to allow me to flaunt my ethnic pride before others by claiming that He’s one of us. We are saved by grace, not ethnicity. Jesus doesn’t refuse me entrance into His kingdom, nor treat me as a second class citizen once I’m in just because of my ethnicity. We come to Jesus because through His cross He has destroyed the barriers of hostility that existed between us, brought people from all ethnicities into a right relationship with God and created harmony in place of hostility.

To Him Who Loves Us...
Pastor Lance