What the Church Offers for Race Relations

00:00:05.000 | Pastor John, we talk a lot about multiculturalism in the church, and the question for today is this.

00:00:12.000 | What does the church offer the world in race reconciliation realistically?

00:00:17.000 | Is the church primarily a place to model racial harmony for the world, or does the church bear responsibility

00:00:24.000 | to address police brutality and spearhead broader social changes?

00:00:29.000 | What would you say to listeners and to leaders who are trying to figure this out?

00:00:33.000 | Well, let me start with a provocative statement, maybe, which would go like this.

00:00:39.000 | The church is not responsible for the condition of the world.

00:00:45.000 | The church is responsible for the condition of the church.

00:00:51.000 | And let me supplement that statement with a second one, which I hope refines it.

00:00:57.000 | The church is responsible to address the condition of the world and point the world to Jesus Christ as a great Savior

00:01:07.000 | from the wrath of God and the guilt of sin, a Savior who gives the power to be just and loving as a person in the world.

00:01:17.000 | And if you put those two statements together, there are really big implications that follow, I think.

00:01:26.000 | And one is that if the church successfully takes responsibility for the church,

00:01:33.000 | one of the ways that the church will address the condition of the world is by the alternative community that it is or is becoming.

00:01:46.000 | In other words, whatever transformation happens in the world is not a primary focus of the church,

00:01:56.000 | but a reflex of her focus on being a new kind of people in the world.

00:02:02.000 | "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden."

00:02:06.000 | These are, of course, the words of Jesus.

00:02:08.000 | "Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

00:02:16.000 | In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

00:02:26.000 | Now, whether the world is finally transformed by such a light, such a city on a hill, is not our responsibility.

00:02:35.000 | We are primarily a witness to the truth, not an imposer of the truth.

00:02:42.000 | So, let me go back to the—at least, in what you said, I heard three specific questions.

00:02:48.000 | So, on the basis of those general thoughts, let me give a brief answer to each one.

00:02:54.000 | What, realistically, does the church offer the world in race reconciliation?

00:03:00.000 | Answer, a witness to the reconciling power of the gospel in our message, in our individual relationships, and in our visible community.

00:03:15.000 | Christ died, Paul said, Ephesians 2, that he might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

00:03:29.000 | That is, killing ethnic hostility between Jew and Gentile, and by implication, all ethnic hostilities that would rend the body of Christ.

00:03:40.000 | We're not responsible to make that happen among unbelievers.

00:03:46.000 | We are responsible to make it happen among believers.

00:03:50.000 | And if we succeed, it will be a powerful witness to the world.

00:03:56.000 | Second question that I heard, is the church primarily a place to model racial harmony for the world?

00:04:05.000 | Answer, no. Not primarily, but significantly.

00:04:10.000 | To say "primarily" would be to elevate one specific fruit of salvation above all the others, which the Bible doesn't do.

00:04:20.000 | What about love between men and women?

00:04:23.000 | What about love between old and young?

00:04:25.000 | What about love between poor and rich?

00:04:27.000 | What about love between educated and uneducated?

00:04:30.000 | What about the acts of love to reach lost people and unengaged peoples?

00:04:34.000 | What about sacrifices of love that aim to heal diseases or provide education or protect the helpless?

00:04:41.000 | No, we should not elevate racial harmony above all other acts of love.

00:04:47.000 | It is essential. It is not supreme.

00:04:52.000 | Third, and I think this is the last one in the way the question was posed.

00:04:58.000 | Does the church bear responsibility to address police brutality and spearhead broader social changes?

00:05:09.000 | Given what I've said, my answer is yes, responsible to address.

00:05:16.000 | No, not responsible to spearhead.

00:05:20.000 | Unless you call addressing spearheading, which it may well be.

00:05:27.000 | The Old Testament prophets were relentless in calling attention to the collapsing conditions in Israel and the nations.

00:05:36.000 | But it was not their responsibility.

00:05:39.000 | It is not our responsibility, the responsibility of the church, to take up the task of training the police.

00:05:48.000 | That's the job of the state.

00:05:51.000 | And my conviction, in conclusion, is that the church will have its greatest influence for the glory of Christ,

00:06:01.000 | both individually and socially and eternally,

00:06:08.000 | if it stays riveted on giving biblical shape to the people of God by his Spirit, through his Word, as a witness to the world.

00:06:22.000 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:06:24.000 | And as I mentioned earlier, we have a number of episodes on race in this podcast series.

00:06:29.000 | And now there's a new way to search and navigate the archive of over 500 episodes that we have recorded and released to date.

00:06:36.000 | We have apps for the Apple and Android devices, of course.

00:06:39.000 | And now we have a landing page on our website.

00:06:42.000 | Go to DesiringGod.org and at the top of the page, click on the tab that says "More" and then click on "Ask Pastor John."

00:06:49.000 | And there you can search the entire database of episodes by title.

00:06:53.000 | So go to the home page, click on "More" and click on "Ask Pastor John."

00:06:58.000 | Speaking of race, we have an email from a cop who wants to know, "What can a white Christian police officer do to make a difference in the race issues of our country?"

00:07:08.000 | That's tomorrow.

00:07:09.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:07:10.000 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

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What the Church Offers for Race Relations

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