RACISM MUST GO — THE GOSPEL WILL NOT SHARE THE HEART
Racism is not merely a social failure; it is a theological one. It is not first a problem of education, economics, or environment—it is a denial of what God has said about humanity. And because it contradicts the Gospel at its core, racism must go.
The Bible opens with a truth so simple it leaves no room for hierarchy: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27). The image of God is not distributed by skin tone, language, or geography. It is bestowed by creation. To despise another human being is to insult the Artist whose image they bear.
Racism thrives where pride is tolerated. It whispers that some lives matter more, that some cultures are closer to God, that some histories excuse contempt. Yet the Gospel dismantles every ladder we try to climb. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Paul does not say distinctions vanish—he says distinctions no longer determine worth, access, or standing before God.
The Cross makes racism impossible to justify.
At Calvary, all ground is level. Every sinner approaches God the same way—empty-handed, undeserving, and dependent on grace. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Racism survives only where people forget they needed mercy just as desperately as everyone else.
Jesus did not merely teach inclusion; He embodied it. He crossed ethnic lines with Samaritans, touched the unclean, welcomed outsiders, and told stories where the hero looked nothing like the religious elite.
His kingdom does not expand by resemblance—it expands by redemption. “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation” (Ephesians 2:14).
Racism rebuilds walls Christ died to tear down.
The early church understood this tension well. When prejudice threatened fellowship, the apostles did not minimize it—they confronted it. Peter had to be corrected publicly when fear and favoritism crept into his behavior (Galatians 2:11–14). Unity was not optional; it was gospel-shaped obedience.
Heaven itself settles the matter. John’s vision leaves no room for ethnic superiority: “A great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9). God’s redeemed family is gloriously diverse—and eternally united. Anyone uncomfortable with that vision has not yet aligned their heart with heaven.
Racism must go because love has come. “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8). Love is not vague sentiment—it is action, humility, listening, repentance, and honor. Love refuses caricatures. Love rejects inherited bitterness. Love sees Christ reflected in faces that do not look like our own.
The church must not mirror the world’s divisions; it must model the kingdom’s reconciliation. Silence in the face of racial sin is not neutrality—it is permission. The Gospel calls us higher, deeper, and closer.
Racism must go—not because it is unfashionable, but because it is unchristian.
Not because culture demands it, but because Christ does.
Not because we are better, but because grace has made us new.
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Lord Jesus, Search my heart and expose every trace of pride, prejudice, or partiality; teach me to love as You have loved, to see Your image in every face, and to live now what heaven will one day display in full. Amen.
BDD
