So, what English word can one use to describe the most ruthless, cruel, and destructive trick the devil has ever pulled on the people of the world?
A farce…? A farce is a ludicrously improbable situation. No, this word doesn’t fit.
A ruse…? An action intended to deceive? Perhaps.
A hoax…? A malicious deception? I think this is the most apt word to describe what I am about to disclose.
From where did he, this arch-deceiver, pull this hoax that the world is divided by race? Are humans grouped according to a variety of different kinds of bodies, basic shapes, or ways of functioning? What do we see when we peel the skin off an African, an Asian, an Australian, a European, an American, or anyone from a remote island somewhere in the middle of the ocean? Are we so different inside that we do not all belong to one race, the human race? Does the inside differ so much from one group to another, one continent to another, that we are unrecognisable as one race on the inside? Do we have differing hearts, kidneys or any other organs inside our skin?
Imagine trying to organise an international sports event between “races” that look and function differently, like tigers versus giraffes!
Can you see how ridiculous racism is! Racism isn’t about fact. It’s a way of artificially driving us apart, creating divisions between us that we cannot heal, that foster hatred, bitterness and even war.
We must turn to the one reliable source of information to find the truth.
Acts of the Apostles 17:26 NLT
[26] “From ONE MAN he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.”
Did you get that? “From one man..”! Nations, yes, but not races. God’s plan was to create a unified race from one man, divided into nations, not skin colours, to populate the earth. So, where are the races that are supposed to make us all different?
Until humans decided to rebel against and defy God, there were no nations. They were all one race with one language.
Genesis 11:1-2, 4-9 NIV
[1] “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. [2] As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there…
[4]… Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” [5] But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. [6] The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. [7] Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” [8] So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. [9] That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”
It’s a lie, a hoax, and those who pull the race card use it to justify the lie and to hide the hatred, prejudice, and hypocrisy, not colour, that are in their hearts and that separate people from one another. They are liars because they base their arguments, even their policies, values, and beviour on a lie, creating artificial boundaries that don’t exist.
Why is the racist lie so devilish? People believe it because it’s the narrative used to get what they want. In my country, as in many, those who rule hide behind “the injustices of the past” of the white “race” to excuse and justify their evil desires…the power to control and even to possess what is not rightfully theirs. Why not just evil and misguided people?
So, what is the answer to the artificial boundaries human dishonesty has spawned? In Jesus’ day, the great divide was Jew and everyone else bundled together under the omnibus title of “Gentile”. Greeks, Romans, Samaritans, and anyone else who was regarded as their enemy, fell under the category. Even the use of the word “Gentile” was like a red rag to a bull.
After his arrest for supposedly taking a Gentile into the temple, Paul told his story to the hostile Jewish mob who had apprehended him.
Acts 22:1-2, 21-22 NIV
[1] “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.” [2] When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet. Then Paul said… “
… and Paul told his story until he mentioned the word” Gentiles”…
[21] “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ” [22] The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”
Such was their hatred for Gentiles that the Jews disregarded their own Scriptures which predicted their Messiah’s role to bring the
Gentiles into God’s salvation covenant.
Isaiah 49:6 NIV
[6] “…He says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus came to redeem and restore the whole world to fellowship with the Father. How would He accomplish so great a task in the face of such bitter hatred and division? How would He overcome the artificial boundaries caused by so-called racism?
In a nutshell, Paul gives us the answer. “Race” was not the problem. Hatred, enmity, hostility in the heart was!
Ephesians 2:11-18 NIV
[11] Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision”…
[12] remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
[13] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. [14] For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, [15] by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, [16] and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. [17] He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. [18] For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”
The cross of Jesus dealt the death blow, not to racism but to the sin in the heart that uses racism as its expression. No laws or policies, no education, not efforts to eradicate the so-called “culture of racism”, can cure the evil in the heart.
Jeremiah 17:9 NIV
[9] “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
Jesus did it by living to fulfil the law and dying to take our penalty for not fulfilling the law.
Colossians 2:13-15 NIV
[13] “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, [14] having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. [15] And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Racism is a phantom, a ghost that does not exist except in the minds of evil people. There is no cure and never will be for racism, which is an invention of evil hearts, outside of the cross. No law or education can change that!
When Jesus changes the heart, racism fades like the morning mist, from thought and action.
2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
[17] “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! “
Faith in Christ changes hearts, destiny, and citizenship.
Ephesians 2:12-13 NIV
[12]”…Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. [13] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
Galatians 3:26-28 NIV
[26] “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, [27] for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. [28] There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Black and white, Jew and Arab, East and West, are reunited as one in Christ. We have a new identity regardless of clan, tribe, or nation. We are all children of God. We have a new culture as citizens of heaven…
Galatians 5:6 NIV
[6] “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
Beloved children of God, God’s Word is truth. Let us who are His children cancel the lie by living by the truth.