GOD HATES RACISM
TEXT: GALATIANS 3:27-29
INTRODUCTION:
A racist is someone who believes that a person’s race is the fundamental determinant of human traits and abilities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of one particular race over another. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul, the author of our text, said of himself that he was: “…circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless” (Php. 4:5-6), and the Pharisees were among the most prejudiced and bigoted sects of all the Jews.
Before he was saved Saul was, “…breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1), and “…made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison” (Acts 8:3). He was “consenting” to the death by stoning of Stephen, simply because Stephen was a Christian, and held the coats of those throwing the stones. But on the road to Damascus, on his way to hunt down and arrest every Christian he could find and haul them back to Jerusalem for trial, Jesus appeared to him in a blaze of light so glorious it blinded him, and Saul was converted and made a Christian by Jesus.
Yet, in our text, Paul, this formerly prejudiced, bigoted, and racist Jew, writes that those who are in Christ Jesus are one with one another. Those who belong to Christ no longer define themselves by the color of their skin, by their race, or whether they are white, black, brown, or yellow, but by the blood Jesus shed for us on Calvary that makes us all one in Him.
The Bible says God has “…made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth…” (Acts 17:26a). This is because we all came from one set of parents: Adam and Eve. The Bible does not even speak of “race” or “races,” but of people groups. Science also testifies that all persons living on the earth are classified as “Homo Sapiens,” which translates as “human beings.” In fact, in the Book of Revelation, we are told that in heaven, Christ’s redeemed people who will be around the throne, praising Him are “…from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9), and is repeated in Rev. 7:9.
And how did people from every tribe, language, people-group, and nation end up being all together, loving one another, and loving Christ in heaven? It’s because Christians, compelled by their love for Christ and in obedience to Him, loved those who looked the same, and loved those who looked different from them, told them about the love Christ has for all people, regardless of their skin color or nationality, and loved them into the kingdom of God. That’s why!
God hates sin. Racism is sin, and a Christian must hate what God hates, therefore a Christian cannot be a racist. Next, I am simply going to go through a few scriptures to amplify this truth.
I. THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN
A. In Luke 10:25-37, a Jewish lawyer, trying to trap Jesus in a violation of the law, asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him to tell him what the law said. The lawyer correctly quoted the law as saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said, “Do this, and you will live." But desiring to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"
B. As an answer, Jesus told this Parable of the Good Samaritan, about a traveler who was stripped of his clothing, beaten, robbed, and left half dead alongside the road. He did this to illustrate that love is more than knowing and quoting scripture. Love is about actions.
C. First, a Jewish priest passed by without helping, then a Levite, representing the Law, came by and also avoided the man. Finally, a Samaritan came along. Although Samaritans and Jews despised each other, the Samaritan treated the man’s wounds, put him on his own donkey, and took him to an inn. He paid the innkeeper to take care of him and said he would pay any extra when he came by again.
D. Jesus then asked the lawyer, "And who is my neighbor?" The lawyer concluded that the neighbor in the parable is the one who showed mercy to his injured fellow man—that is, the Samaritan.
E. From the perspective of a religious Jew, the Samaritan would have been the one least likely to show compassion. And notice, Jesus makes no mention of the injured man’s race, skin color, or religion. All the Samaritan saw was a person in need, and he acted with love and compassion.
F. Samaritans were hated by the Jews because Samaritans feared Jehovah but worshipped other gods. Nehemiah forbade them from helping to rebuild the Temple. For a Jew to call someone a Samaritan was like using the “N” word today. Just a few years before this, Samaritans had polluted the Temple by scattering human bones in it and had been banned forever from even entering the Temple.
G. Yet Jesus tells this story to an audience of Jews and makes a hated Samaritan the hero. Dr. Daniel Hays, Dean of the Pruet School of Christian Studies at Ouachita Baptist University, comments on this: (Jesus is) “…teaching…that “loving one’s neighbor” meant crossing ethnic lines and caring for those who were ethnically different. Jesus also…mentions crossing” [ethnic and cultural boundaries] “…in his…orders to his disciples in Acts 1:8, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
H. Jesus is teaching, that loving one’s neighbor, means loving those who look outwardly different from us, and who may not be of our ethnicity or race.
II. MOSES AND HIS INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE
A. Next to Jehovah-God, Moses is the one most mentioned in the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Through him, God gave the Law and the Ten Commandments. We’re told that “…the Lord spoke to Moses’ face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Ex. 33:11). He was a type of Christ and in the NT, we learn that Moses, along with Elijah, came down from heaven to speak with Jesus on The Mount of Transfiguration.
B. Yet, Moses, the Law Giver, married a black woman, and God had no problem with it! Numbers 12 details it. In most translations, the woman is called a “Cushite.”
C. In the KJV, she is called an “Ethiopian.” The Hebrew word is “koo-sheeth'” defined by Strong’s Concordance as “Cushite – Ethiopian.” The Cushite/Ethiopians came from the region of the Nile south of Egypt and are mentioned ten times in the OT. There is no doubt Moses married a black, African woman. And God would not have approved of Moses marrying a woman who didn’t believe in Jehovah-God, so this woman was a believer.
D. Moses’s brother and sister, Aaron, and Miriam, didn’t like the fact that Moses married outside their race. They spoke against Moses because of this marriage of which they didn’t approve and were exhibiting racism.
E. Scripture says, “Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman” (Num. 12:1)
F. What is the lesson? It is in what the Lord did. The Lord came down in a glory cloud and called the three of them before Him. He severely chastised Aaron and Miriam for speaking against Moses – remember, this is done in the context of interracial marriage.
G. When the glory cloud lifted, Miriam had become leprous. Aaron repented for them both and asked Moses to beseech God to withhold His punishment, which He did.
H. God doesn’t approve of His people manifesting racism.
III. THE CUSHITE EBED-MELECH
A. We read about this black, African man, Ebed-Melech beginning in Jeremiah chapter 38. The Babylonians had laid siege to Jerusalem, and Jeremiah prophesied that Jerusalem would fall to the Babylonians. He said further that the Lord said that the people should not resist but should go with their conquerors back to Babylon.
B. Several of King Zedekiah’s counselors brought word to the King and advised that Jeremiah should be imprisoned because he was discouraging the people and strengthening the hand of the enemy, so the King ordered Jeremiah arrested.
C. Scripture says, “So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, (mal-kee-yaw') the king's son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud and Jeremiah sank in the mud” (Jer. 38:6).
D. When no one believed the Word of God spoken by His prophet, an unlikely hero emerged – Ebed-Melech, a black Ethiopian, a Eunuch in the King’s household.
E. When he heard Jeremiah had been arrested, he plead with the King on Jeremiah’s behalf. He said Jeremiah had been cast into a cistern, saying, “…he will die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city” (vs 9). The King told him to take thirty men to rescue Jeremiah.
F. Jer. 38:11-13 says, “So Ebed-Melech took the men with him and went to the house of the king, to a wardrobe in the storehouse, and took from there old rags and worn-out clothes, which he let down to Jeremiah in the cistern by ropes. Then Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, ‘Put the rags and clothes between your armpits and the ropes.’ Jeremiah did so. Then they drew Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.”
G. When the Babylonians took Jerusalem, just as Jeremiah had prophesied, Nebuchadnezzar commanded that no harm should come to Jeremiah and that he was to be well cared-for. Ebed-Melech appears again in chapter 39.
H. He was fearful and wondering what his fate would be at the hands of the Babylonians, so God told Jeremiah to send words of comfort to Ebed-Melech. God said that just as Ebed-Melech had delivered Jeremiah, God would deliver him also and keep him from harm.
I. God said, “…you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war, because you have put your trust in me, declares the Lord” (Jer. 39:17-18).
J. The Word of God was preserved by a Black African.
IV. THE FIRST GENTILE BELIEVER WAS A BLACK MAN
A. We find the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch in the Book of Acts. After Pentecost, the believers were scattered abroad because of Stephen’s martyrdom and the persecution by Saul of Tarsus. The Bible says, “they went everywhere preaching the Word” (Acts 8:4)
B. In obedience to the Lord’s command, the deacon Phillip, then John and Peter, went down to Samaria, preaching, and doing miracles, and many were saved.
C. Beginning in verse 26 God commanded Phillip to leave a great city-wide Gospel Crusade and go down to Gaza, which was in the desert. He didn’t get any details. God’s angel just pointed him in the right direction and said, “Go,” and Phillip went.
D. When he got to where the Lord wanted him, he came upon a man riding in a chariot. We are not given his name. He is just called, “…an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship” (Acts 8:27-28). This black man was reading the scroll of Isaiah, chapter 53. God told Phillip to go to the chariot.
1. The Bible says, “Phillip ran to him…” (vs 30). The Ethiopian invited Phillip to sit with him. Then the scripture says, “…Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus” (vs 35). As a result, the Ethiopian was saved, Phillip baptized him, and the Ethiopian “…he went on his way rejoicing” (vs 39).
2. This black man was the forerunner for all the other Gentiles (like me) who would follow him to the cross, finding salvation in Christ.
Closing:
We must also consider the possibility that a black man helped carry the cross of our Lord to Calvary’s hill. Simon of Cyrene is mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew records his name and place of origin (27:32), and Mark and Luke say that he was “on his way in from the country” (Luke 23:26). Mark tells us that he was “the father of Alexander and Rufus” (Mark 15:21). Cyrene was in what is now modern-day Libya, on the northern coast of Africa. We cannot be sure if he was of African descent (and therefore black), or if he was an African who converted to Judaism, or that he was of mixed descent. But, it is not antibiblical to hold that he was a black man.
Although slavery has been practiced throughout history by all people groups, black slavery, is the form of racism most prominent in the minds of Americans, due to our history with it. It must be pointed out that slavery in America was ended, mainly through the efforts of white Christians. This is not to detract from the efforts of Black people in the cause of their own liberty, because there were many, such as Olaudah Equiano, a former slave who campaigned in England against slavery, and published his memoir in 1789, and others in America, such as Fredrick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman.
In America, the fight against slavery was begun mainly by Christians. The Abolitionist cause was founded, organized, and mainly led by Christians. Tom Gilson quotes Randy Hardman as saying, “If it were not for Christianity and…Christian morality there would have been no abolitionist movement and slavery would not have ended when it did.” Thomas Sowell, contemporary African-American author and social theorist wrote that “no one seems interested in the epic story of how this curse (of slavery) …was finally gotten rid of by the West…”
The American Anti-Slavery Society was founded by the African-American Presbyterian clergyman Theodore S. Wright. Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian members freed their slaves and sponsored black congregations. American Methodists made anti-slavery sentiments a condition of church membership. Evangelist Charles Finney preached against slavery, and other Christians such as Lyman Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and William Lloyd Garrison also fanned the flames of the abolitionist movement.
In Britain, William Wilberforce (1759–1833) founded the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787. Carolyn and I just watched for the second time, the movie, “Amazing Grace” about the life of Wilberforce. He was a devout and dedicated Christian, was very rich. For a time, he felt called to the ministry, but his old pastor, John Newton, the former slave ship Captain who wrote the immortal hymn, “Amazing Grace,” advised him to get into politics and work to end slavery in the British Empire.
Wilberforce organized his Abolition Society, and for 20 years brought bill after bill forward in Parliament, only to see them all defeated. But in 1807, he prevailed when the Slave Trade Act of 1807 was passed, which ending the buying, and selling of Black people throughout the British Empire. In 1823, just three days before Wilberforce died, the campaign he started and led for many years succeeded, when slavery was abolished in the British Empire, by the passage of The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.
It was the fact that he was a Christian that caused Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and those who followed him, both black and white, to work to achieve the goal of judging people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. He read in Gen. 1:26-27 that all made in the image of God, and therefore, from a Christian point of view, slavery and then racial segregation and discrimination were completely unbiblical. The Christian worldview could leave no room for discrimination based on skin color or race.
If you say you are a Christian, whether you are white, black, brown, or yellow, but are prejudiced against others because of the color of their, your salvation may be in doubt. In closing, I repeat for emphasis: Racism is sin. God hates sin, and a Christian must hate what God hates, therefore a Christian cannot be a racist!
Maybe you’re here or came across this message somewhere on the Internet. You may feel that God is dealing with you about your immortal soul. If you feel that, I can guarantee you that He is. If you’re not a Christian, you can be today. God is merciful and full of compassion. Whatever race, culture, or ethnicity you are, Christ died and rose again for the sins of all who would trust Him. Believe on Him today and He will save you.
