This issue became controversial following the death of George Floyd and the resulting #BlackLivesMatter protests. Quite a few churches sought to take the issue of racism and prejudice seriously with pastors publicly repenting from sin. Significant thought leaders such as Tim Keller had been arguing for some time that racism is a gospel issue. Whilst, I don’t think he spoke in quite the same terms, John Piper has also raised the issue of racism to a place of prominence with his book “Bloodlines”.
However, those responding in support of #BlackLivesMatters and in agreement with Keller were accused by others of betraying the Gospel by adding to it and becoming like the agitators in Galatians. Those speaking up against racism were labelled as legalists, accused of being captivated through Critical Race Theory (CRT) to Marxist ideology and appeasing the woke agenda. So, who is right here?
I am in agreement with Keller that racism is a Gospel issue. So, it is important to understand what we mean by that. Galatians 2 is significant to our conclusions here. In Galatians, Paul rebukes Jewish believers who refuse to sit down to eat with Gentile believers. The Jewish believers were drawing distinctions on ethnic lines. It’s important to remember as we make the observation that the issue wasn’t directly one of racism as we know it today. This is because the Jewish view of Gentiles was wrapped up in religious and doctrinal matters about what how one could be included in God’s people and because it was still possible for a Gentile to eat with a Jew, if they were circumcised first. However, there is an ethnic dimension at work in the controversy and furthermore, the issue is analogous.
It’s analogous because Paul takes an ethical issue – how we live and says that this links to the Gospel. There is something about the issue that means it isn’t just a matter of discipleship. This is important because table fellowship became a Gospel issue, not in that you had to get your position and behaviour right in order to become a Christian and receive forgiveness. Rather, it was that the behaviour of people who should have been mature in Christ was undermining the message of the Gospel.
The proverb “actions speak louder than words” is in operation here. The Christians in Galatia claimed to believe that God shows his grace to people from every background in Jesus. We come to him not on the basis of our ethnic identity or on our religious observance. Rather, we come to him on the basis of Christ’s death and resurrection. The result of this is that “we are all one in Christ Jesus.” Age old distinctions between gender, class and ethnicity are broken down on the basis of the Gospel. Refusing to eat with Gentiles meant that people like Peter were erecting those distinctions again, putting up the barriers. It meant that they were saying that God does treat us differently based on ethnicity and religiosity. Those who had given in to the agitators were in effect resetting the clock and acting as those Jesus had not died and risen again, as though the Gospel had not yet come. That’s why table fellowship was a Gospel issue.
We can see from this how racism becomes a Gospel issue. It’s not that God isn’t capable of saving racists. Nor is it that if I struggle with prejudice that I’m not saved. Rather, it’s that if I give in to racism, then I live as though the Gospel isn’t true and hasn’t had an impact on my life.
The Gospel means that I see myself as one with my brothers and sisters in Christ and I prefer their needs to mind. Racism asks me to see people from different ethnic backgrounds as “other” to me and less than me, worthy of less respect and love. Racism works against the logic of the Gospel. That’s why it is a Gospel issue.
Faithroots 