“Race” and Christ

Issues of race are inflaming our country. Recently, we have been told that everything from mathematics to the layout of the national interstate system is based on an underlying current of systemic racism. As Christians, this should be of concern to us. In part, this is because much of the modern conversation about “race” flows out of an evolutionary framework. In other words, it is completely antithetical to Scripture. But, before we go about offering solutions, and the Bible has them, we have to work diligently to understand the real problem.
The concept of race is a social construct. Those who are caught up in the delusion of transgenderism, or, more properly, “gender dysphoria,” claim that the distinction between male and female is a product of social construction. Well, it isn’t, but “race” is. Odd how a culture could get these things so confused, isn’t it? Well, maybe not.

Biblically speaking, mankind is of one race. I cannot overemphasize how important this point is. It is so important because it affects how we understand sin and salvation. The First Catechism asks our children, “Who were our first parents?” The answer is “Adam and Eve.” This answer is true for every single child around the globe. 

What this means is that no single human being is exempt from the inheritance of Adam’s sin and guilt. The Scriptures are correct where they say, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God” (Romans 10:10-11). Thus, our starting point is to understand that all men are one in Adam. In the end, the amount of melanin in your skin does not make one shred of difference. “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, NOT EVEN ONE” (Romans 10:12, emphasis mine). 

Because we are all under the umbrella of God’s wrath through Adam, we all need God’s mercy through Christ Jesus. He is not the savior of white, Anglo-Saxons only, for “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” There is no other savior. Just as we all are one in Adam, and under God’s curse, so those who are redeemed are one in Christ (cf. Gal 3:27-29). 

The concept of “race,” therefore, is a social construct that can diminish our focus on the effects of sin and the necessity of evangelism. It can distract the church from its true focus. We have been given “the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:16-21), but what sort of reconciliation are we ministering? In the coming weeks, we will also look at the heretical teaching of liberation theology, critical race theory, and the so-called “woke” Gospel, which is affecting our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America.