I M A G O D E I
Special Six-Week Series:
Racial Justice and the Gospel: Is There A Connection?
by, Luke Bobo, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Made to Flourish
Why is it Good News?
The gospel is good news!
That's true, but let’s go deeper. Why is the gospel good news? In Genesis 15:1-15, God cuts a covenant with a bewildered and impatient Abraham (and with all of his future descendants and that includes you and me as Romans 4:13-21 makes abundantly clear). The covenant cutting ceremony in this passage is remarkably eye-opening! Typically, the two parties cutting a covenant in the ancient near east (ANE) would walk the bloody path one at a time. As each party walked this blood-stained path, they were agreeing that if they went back on their word, they were doomed to suffer the same fate as these dead carcasses. However, in this ceremony, only God walks the bloody path (Genesis 15:17). Let that sink in for a moment. God commits to suffering the same fate as these dead carcasses if he goes back on his covenant promises to Father Abraham.
Our personal testimonies, and the Bible’s testimony, reminds us that God is forever faithful and that he never goes back on his word because he never lies (Numbers 23:19). Rather, we are the unfaithful ones; we lie; we have betrayed God over and over again. We have not kept our side of the bargain. Our unfaithfulness, our multiple and egregious crimes against God, our break with the covenant demanded a punishment because God is just. In God’s impartial criminal justice system, we were found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Our sentence: death. We were placed on death row awaiting our execution.
My readers know that nearly 236 years ago, José Gabriel Condorcanqui – known as Túpac Amaru – and his wife, Commander Micaela Bastidas, Bartolina Sisa, and other heroes were viciously murdered by "civilized" Spaniards. The gospel is good news because Jesus, our hero, stepped forward as our penal substitution, he took our place on death row. Jesus was viciously murdered for our exoneration. And his death satisfied God’s wrath against us (1 John 2:2).
Our sinful criminal record has been expunged. Because Jesus died at our expense--because of our inclination to do evil--and because Jesus rose from the dead, we were freed from the tyranny of Satan, freed from the fear of death, and released from power and bondage of sin.
This is good news indeed.
Our Three-Fold Response
What should be our response to God clearing our guilty verdict and restoring us to right fellowship with him? What should be our response to God’s lavish grace? One, our response should be hearty “Yes!” I remember a preacher once said, “If Christ is your Lord, you can never say, ‘No’” to his plans and direction for your life. If God calls us to go to places we are unfamiliar with, we must say, “Yes.” If God calls us to speak for him, we must say, “Yes.” If Christ is our Savior and Master, we are his servants and we must avail ourselves to his purposes, no questions asked. Two, our response should be unfettered praise and worship. However, remember that worship is not relegated only to the gathered church; rather, we worship God by living an obedient life every day of the week (Colossians 3:23-25; Romans 12:1-2). We worship God with our lips and our life. And three, our response should be loving the things that God loves and hating the things that God hates. God loves people of all races and ethnicities; God hates racial injustice. God hates police brutality. God hates racism. God hates white supremacy. God hates systemic racism.
Why does God hate racial injustice?
God hates racial injustice for at least two reasons. One, every person is made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-28). Every person is an imago Dei bearer, where imago Dei means image of God. The implications of every person being made in God’s image are many. Because every person is made in God’s image, every person--regardless of ability, race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status--deserves to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect. Every person has incredible worth and value as imago Dei bearers. Every person has been crowned with royal dignity (Psalm 8) from the womb to the tomb. This means, as Christians, we must treat every person with the utmost dignity and respect and demand the same treatment by every citizen in this country.
Second, God hates racial injustice because unjust treatment of any imago Dei bearer is an affront to God. Unjust treatment of any imago Dei bearer is like a backhanded slap in God’s face (Proverbs 14:31). So, God calls every believer to defend the cause of the vulnerable and oppressed in this country (Psalm 82:3; Isaiah 1:16-17; James 1:27). God is a God of justice; and he summons his people to be drum majors for and workers of justice (Micah 6:8; Matthew 23:23). Justice advances us toward shalom, where shalom is “nothing is missing and nothing is broken.” Consider this quote, “The church is not the church if it does not stand for justice” (Twelve Elements of Economic Wisdom, p. 11). What does this say about Christians who are not actively and wisely engaged in working for justice?
A car cannot operate without gas; gas fuels a car engine. The good news is our fuel to move. May this good news fuel us to work against racial injustice and injustices of all forms. May we do this work out of gratitude for Jesus paying the unquantifiable cost for our many crimes--past, present, and future. I remember reading that “Justice is simply love distributed,” so may we love our neighbors by seeking to eradicate racial injustice. May the good news fuel us to worship God every day of the week as we live in obedience to his word.
Over the next six weeks, we will dedicate our Adelante Express to exploring themes related to the concept of the Imago Dei and racial justice. We invite you to follow this series and explore what it means to love our neighbor and see the image of God in them.