One Nation Under The Blood

What was your first racial incident? When was the first time the differences of race and ethnicity was brought home to you? Most of us can recall the first time that we were made acutely aware of the issue of race and ethnicity one way or the other. Many more of us can recall how racial incidents and episodes affect and have affected us throughout our lives.

As we come to our third message on issues of race and ethnicity some might even be wondering why are we dealing with this in the first place? How can I apply these important but perhaps not practical issues to my life and my context?
First of all, you’ve been called primarily to be a vehicle and vessel for the glory of God. Thus the main issue in your walk with the Lord is not how to get by and through your struggles, troubles, trials, tribulations and temptations as much as it is how do you conform your total life to live for His consuming glory through Jesus Christ. Since God has not only spoken on issues of race and ethnicity but has revealed a definite plan to glorify Himself through all ethnic groups this in and of itself is a cause and reason to worship, adore and marvel at His goodness and greatness in Jesus Christ.

Secondly, those who’ve believed in Jesus Christ are called to have lives that grow more and more to reflect God’s character as expressed in His word and seen in the person of Jesus Christ. You therefore need to know how God has called you to think and act with regards to race and ethnicity so that you might walk before Him in obedience and honor Him in this area of your life.

Thirdly, God has called you to be a witness of the glorious, transforming gospel of Jesus Christ. He’s intentionally placed you in a multi-ethnic society and called you to be His witness. These messages then are aimed at equipping you to be an authentic, true and relevant witness in a world that drips with ethnic tension, strife, division, indifference and resentment.

Fourthly, by God’s grace and sovereign will CLF is a multi-ethnic church. It’s His clear will therefore to use us as a manifestation of His wisdom regarding race and ethnicity as well as a vehicle through which He gets glory in Jesus Christ in this area.

We began this series in the last part of Genesis 9 by citing that the human race is still deeply marked and marred with a corrupt, sinful human nature. Not only that but we’re capable of acts of utter depravity. Moreover left to ourselves we would literally destroy our culture and selves by our own craving for sin and perversion. If that weren’t enough Scripture teaches and demonstrates that God is determined to judge and punish all who continue and insist on ignoring and rebelling against His word.
Last week we saw the beginning of ethnicity in Gen. 10 and discovered that all ethnic groups bear a residual imprint of God’s image upon them. However, it is also true that all ethnic groups bear the mark of radical depravity that this affects all areas of the societies we create. Finally we saw by God’s grace that all ethnicities share in the redemption of the human race through the cross of Jesus Christ.

This week we continue to explore, discover and gaze upon what God has done to redeem people from all ethnic groups, reconcile them together in one family, restore us as one nation under the blood of Jesus Christ and fully and finally end the scourge and effects of racism.

We are one nation under the blood because through the redemptive cross Jesus has rescued us from our sin and brought us near and close to the living God.

The cross testifies that no matter what my ethnicity I’m separated from God, alienated from His people, have no claim on his covenantal promises have no hope and lived in a world apart from the redemptive love, goodness, grace, mercy, hope, joy and salvation of the living God. God has done this by actually treating His Son Jesus Christ as an alien, a stranger, an outcast as one who was cutoff and separated from Him. By rights I and all of my people should still be separate from the promise of a savior, still alienated from God’s people, still foreigners with no claim on his covenants, still without any real, lasting concrete hope and still without God in the world.
That’s true of everyone Jew or non Jew. The only way into God’s family is through faith in Jesus Christ. The gospels make it clear from the very beginning that those who are in God’s family are only those who placed individual, personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
Apart from the supreme work of Jesus Christ there is no people of God because all people apart from faith in Christ stand to be judged and punished by God.

On what basis do you believe God accepts you? If it’s anything other than belief in the Person and work of Christ than you are living on shaky ground. If you’ve placed your faith in Christ do you realize that your redemption is a part of God’s plan to glorify Himself by placing you into a redeemed and reconciled family made up of people from all other ethnicities.

We are one nation under the blood because through the redemptive cross Jesus has reconciled hostile, divided, indifferent, bitter enemies into one new race.

Through His cross Jesus 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.
The middle wall of partition Paul mentions here probably refers to the wall in the temple that literally separated the Jews from the Gentiles. Paul is thinking of the temple Herod build which consisted of a Most Holy Place in which on the high priests went, the Holy Place where the rest of the priests conducted their regular ministry of sacrifice, the court of the sons of Israel where only Jewish men could go, the court women which is where Jewish women were allowed and beyond this the court of the Gentiles. The wall itself was not a large or imposing wall only standing some five feet high, but it was a clear indication that no gentile for any reason was to ever venture past that wall to in anyway draw near to living God.
However this wall also carried a strong symbolic meaning in that it stood for the definite separation of the Jews from the gentiles whom they considered morally and humanly corrupt and would never have any real racial harmony with.

Reconciliation means exchanging hostility for harmony. To reconcile means to bring together in a peaceful community.
Hostility exist because groups have committed crimes and atrocities against each other. Hostility exists because groups have sought to dominate abuse, and oppress other groups. Hostility exists because groups believe that the only true way promote the interest of their group is to shut out, ignore or marginalize other groups. Hostility exists because dominant groups can be indifferent and oblivious to the genuine concerns and issues of subdominant groups. Along with this hostility will exist when one group fails to acknowledge the personhood, culture, contribution and humanity of another group. It exists because groups honestly believe that they’re better than others and thus don’t truly want to associate or identify with
them. Hostility exists because groups who’ve been wounded and oppressed don’t want to forgive those who’ve harmed them. Hostility exists because subdominant groups may view racial sin as ultimate sin and thus each offense serves to further build a wall of resistance that prevents us from genuinely relating to others from other ethnicities. Hostility exists because subdominant groups fail to see that the dominant group does not and cannot hold the key to their total healing, restoration and wholeness.

What measure of hostility or indifference do you have toward other groups? Do you still regard certain peoples with indifference because you know that in all likelihood you probably won’t ever have to deal with them and can get along in life fine without them? Do you believe that any problems and issues they have assimilating into the dominant culture are there problems and issues and have little or nothing to do with you. Do you still regard other groups with suspicion, distrust and resentment? Do you resent the reality that in order for you to progress in this word you have to deal with certain groups of people who misunderstand you and mistreat you and you’d really prefer if those kind of folks stayed in their churches on Sunday morning?
What is keeping us from living like one nation under the blood?

Jesus deals with the indifference and apathy groups can have for others by showing true, authentic sacrificial concern for all people. When it came to our sins Jesus said your problems and issues are my problems and issues. In fact Jesus so identified with our sin that He was willing to take the punishment for that sin onto Himself. The Lord God could have by rights left you in your sin, said that your sin was your problem, turned His back on you and essentially said the next time we speak will be at your judgment. Jesus’ act of grace means that I can never be apathetic or indifferent to others and thus refuse to enter into a gospel driven harmonious relationship with them.
Jesus deals with the resentment and bitterness groups can have for others by being the cause and basis for God forgiving us. No matter how much we’ve been sinned against, wronged and treated unjustly it will never equal the effect our sinful rebellion has had on the living God. The Lord God could have by rights allowed your sin to remain a barrier between you and Him forever. Jesus’ act of grace means that I can never refuse to forgive others and enter into a gospel driven harmonious relationship with them.

Either we will follow the example of our Lord Jesus and live out the implications of His mighty peacemaking work on the cross or we will follow the example of our people, following their indifference and bitterness, hypocritically singing songs about the cross and watch our culture tear itself apart in ethnic division, hostility and hatred.

We are one nation under the blood because through the redemptive cross Jesus Christ has made restored us into one race, one kingdom and one family.

Through the law and their traditions the Jews had marked themselves off as God’s only separate, distinct and favored people. Their belief was that though all ethnic groups were ultimately accountable to God, they alone had a special covenantal relationship with God. For them access to God depended upon keeping the law and making the sacrifices that God had given to them and them alone. While people from other groups could participate in some limited way in Jewish worship and some actually went all the way, were circumcised and become members of the community they were never really accepted as full-fledged, native born Jews. Now part of this kind of thinking still lives among bible believing Christians. Many still believe that God has two people with two destinies. Yet Scripture is clear, there is one people, with one Savior who have access to one Father and have been made into one new race.

As one race we think of our brothers and sisters in Christ the same way we think of those in our ethnic race. That means we have a common history, shared outlook, a joint struggle and a common culture. In Christ we are one kingdom. We follow one leader the Lord Jesus Christ. We have one agenda namely to make disciples of all people groups and spread the blessings of God’s eternal kingdom in Christ to all lands. And we pledge allegiance to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the redemptive salvation for which it stands, one nation under the blood, indivisible with God’s unmerited grace and reconciling peace for all.
In Christ we are one family and all members of God’s household. We have one Father who loves all His children with an unlimited measure of unconditional, persistent, infinite, sacrificial and redemptive love. As a family we act together for the good, well being and progress of the family. When we have issues and we will we don’t cut ourselves off from the family we stay and work it out. We pray with, cry with, rejoice with, work with, serve with and yes worship with the family. And just like you have some strange, weird and eccentric family members that you still love we love all of our strange, weird and eccentric family members.

Are we going to live our Christian life as if we’re part of one new race or will we continue to separate them in our minds and refuse to genuinely treat them like insiders? Where does our real allegiance lie? Are we more concerned with the security and supremacy of the USA than the spread of God’s kingdom of righteousness, peace and justice.

Finally we are one nation under the blood because through the redemptive cross racism has come to its full and final end. In the wise genius of our Lord He has done this not by abolishing ethnicity and making us the same, but by unifying us around the common theme of eternal joy, worship and peace in Him.

To Him Who Loves Us…
Pastor Lance