The subject of racism has been the topic of much discussion in the culture at large. Claims of systemic oppression and reverse racism seem to dominate virtually every news cycle. Such allegations have even been found in one place no one should have ever expected, the Christian church. Professing Christians should understand that we are all “one blood” (Acts 17:26), having been created in the image and likeness of God. The idea that any ethnicity has some kind of superiority by virtue of its earthly national heritage should be dismissed without even the slightest debate. Yet, there are indeed elements within even the most doctrinally sound denominations that are beguiled by notions of racial purity and dominance. While this may seem to be a minority of professing Christians holding these views, unless their claims are addressed, the poison threatens to spread throughout the body at large.

God Created All Mankind

To refute the notion that racial purity and superiority are Christian ideals to be upheld, we must understand why ethnicities exist at all. All mankind finds its origin in the creation of the first man and woman, as seen in Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” After Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and were cast out, they had children and multiplied across the earth. The generations that followed, unfortunately, succumbed to their sinful natures, and God judged the entire world, drowning it in a great deluge that covered the globe. Only one man, Noah, and his family were preserved by God through this judgment (Gen. 6-9). After the ark comes to rest and the family is given the command of God to be fruitful and multiply, Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, become the next step in the lineage of all mankind (Gen. 10). Through them, the nations are born. However, mankind does not learn from the sins of prior generations. Rather than go forth throughout all the world, they congregate in one place, Babel, where they challenge God’s authority by building a tower to the heavens. God does not strike them dead this time, instead, He confounds their languages, forcing them to disperse into various people groups. No longer can they work as one common people, they must separate into smaller nation groups and move into new lands.

Here is where ethnicities first begin, as an act of judgment by God on a rebellious people. Now, it is true that, had the people obeyed God and moved out around the world to be fruitful and multiply, we would have still seen genetic differences develop in time. However, the confounding of languages forced these groups to separate, no longer being completely tied to one another. The birth of differences in culture and beliefs can, to some degree, be tied to man’s defiance of God at Babel. Therefore, our differing ethnicities and cultures should cause us to remember that something was lost to us, that sense of common humanity, all because of sin.

A New People Called Out

As history progresses, we see God call Abram out of a pagan nation (Gen. 12:1-3), promising to make him the father of a nation. God establishes the nation of Israel through the covenant that He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is not because of their ethnic heritage that God calls the people of Israel, but rather, He sovereignly chooses them out of all the nations that they might be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” that all the world would see God’s work in them (Ex. 19:6). All that God did through Israel demonstrated His glory, His judgment, His promises, and His grace to the world at large. The world would see God at work and could even become part of His covenant with them by becoming “as a native of the land” (Ex. 12:48). By separating from the world and becoming part of Israel, they could receive the blessings and promises of the covenant. Israel was not set apart because they were ethnically superior; in fact, they demonstrated themselves to be wicked beyond measure. They were called because God chose to use them for His purposes and His glory according to His great and sovereign plan.

All God’s commandments were to be types and shadows that pointed to His promise of a Savior yet to come, Jesus Christ. All that God demanded is fulfilled in Him. While Jesus came to the people of Israel first, in fulfillment of prophecy, He reveals that God’s focus is not merely on one ethnically homogenous people. He teaches the people, “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:16). It is an open revelation of what prophecy had only partially revealed in the past, all the Gentile nations would be blessed in Christ if they would but repent and turn to Him. No longer is it an earthly nation that people must join themselves to, but the person of Christ alone, through whom all nations and peoples could be saved. When Christ is raised up on the cross, the veil of the temple is torn asunder, opening access to God to all who would come (Matt. 27:51). Jesus’s death and resurrection fulfill the promise of the New Covenant given to the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 31:31-34). All people, regardless of their ethnicity, who are dead in their sinful nature (Eph. 2:1-3), have a promise of access to God through Christ (vv. 4-10). This is a promise to all people of all national heritages, there is no different path for different groups.

Every Tribe, Nation, and Tongue

The promises and blessings of the New Covenant are bestowed on all who are in Christ, for their identity is founded in Him, not in their DNA. No longer are people separated from God because of their heritage, for the “dividing wall of hostility” between Jew and Gentile is torn down (Eph. 2:11-22). This is because, as people come to Christ, they are made into a creation, one new man in the eyes of God. No longer is there Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for all are united together as a new spiritual nation in Jesus (Gal. 3:28). We are all set apart from the world, no longer divided by national lines but by spiritual, for mankind is divided by those in Christ or those still in Adam. When we all stand before God on the day of judgment, this is the only distinguishing characteristic that will matter. We see this beautifully revealed in Revelation 7:9-11, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” The people of God are all one people, no longer divided by earthly distinctions. Here we see a kind of reversal of the judgment at Babel, our common ancestry reunited in Christ.

Scripture and history remind us that we are all one race and one blood. While there are distinctions between ethnic lines, variations in DNA, and cultural boundaries, we are all one race created in the image and likeness of God. At no place in God’s revealed word do we see those genetic and cultural boundaries demonstrate that one people is superior to another. It is only when God brings a people into His covenants and establishes His commandments over them that any people are raised above the other nations. It is His work that raises a people up, not the existence of the people themselves, and certainly not their DNA. He did this through Adam and Eve, through Noah and his family, through Abraham and Israel, and finally, through the church founded in Christ. God chooses and makes sinners His people for their benefit and His glory. Any effort to distinguish superiority or racial purity is to reject that God has anything to do with making a new people. It is to attempt to sit on His throne and act in His stead. It is a foolish people who would risk the just wrath of God in such a way. Christians would do well to reject any such effort. Let us take joy that God saves all who will come to Christ, regardless of earthly heritage.

Note: This article was also published at X.com.