The Righteousness of God and Racial Division

In 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 Paul makes an amazing statement of transformative importance with implications regarding racial exclusion and division. He writes, "For our sake he" (God) "made him" (Christ) "to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21 - ESV).

Two realities are expressed, contextually, in this verse that speak directly to the role of the church in the problems of racial exclusion: 1) the church - those reconciled back to God by faith in Christ - is to be a visible expression of what the righteousness of God looks like in a human being; 2) the church reconciled must be the active agent of reconciling all things to the Lord.

The term righteousness not only means the moral perfection of God, but it also means - though too often ignored by the church - the rightness of God. The former speaks of God's character to the world and the latter speaks of God design and purpose for the church in the world.

As it relates to racial exclusion is must be understood that one cannot be righteous is he is actively, or by implication, participating in the sustained racial disharmony in the church.

The Righteousness of God: The Church is to be a visible expression of what righteousness looks like in humans

The purpose of God saving men and women is not simply that we might go to heaven. To be redeemed is being transformed to reflect the ethic of heaven in our daily lives on earth. This is what Paul means when he writes "... so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21 - ESV). Christians, models of the righteousness of God, must be a portrait to the world of what it looks like to have the enslaving power of sin removed and the eternal judgment of hell crushed. Righteousness, therefore, is a relational term. When one is made righteous in Christ it means that their relationship with God has changed from one of "foe" to "friend" of God. This has implications to how we relate to one-another in the Body of Christ.

If we, through faith in Christ, are all friends of God (that is, we have been made righteous) this not only highlights the change in our relationship with the Lord but, also, with others who have become friends of God regardless of race. As God's friend my relationship with Him should inform how I relate to others because how I relate to others is proof of my relationship with the Lord. In essence, I cannot be made right with the Lord while, at the same time and with the same "changed" heart, stand in relational opposition to another who has been made right with God simply because of their culture and or race. Well, the truth is that I can - and some do - operate in this way. In doing so, however, I would be proving that my profession of faith is false and that I am still a foe to, rather than a friend of, - God.

If those of us who have changed by the gospel still live lives that are contrary to the gospel how is it that we think that we can make an eternal difference in this world? Hypocrisy on this issue of racial exclusion mutes our voice and influence in other areas of life and society. We must represent in our relationships with other Christians that we are truly family, adopted into Christ from every tongue, tribe, people and nation, if we desire to have a genuinely transformative impact on this world.

We will look at this impact on Wednesday.