In Christ we have the tools needed to finally vanquish the privileged and powerful’s subjugation of the vulnerable and disadvantaged. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew and followed this truth, which became the largely unacknowledged source of confidence and strength behind the successes of the Civil Rights Movement. To leave that source out of current reforms would be a monumental mistake.
A New Vision
Humans love to draw lines of distinction between themselves. Jesus went about erasing every line that did not highlight the kingdom of God. Through Christ we can gain the capacity to see others from God’s
perspective—the God who so loved the world that he sent his only son to redeem it (John 3:16). This God of love (1 John 4:8) changes our hearts so they become the vessels he can employ to continue expressing his ongoing, passionate love for the world, especially toward those who suffer its pain and injustices.
The simple truth is that you cannot love someone and be racist toward them. Laws alone can never get us to that place of indiscriminate love, where we truly desire the highest good for others. What God does through Christ is to write his law of love upon our hearts (Hebrews 8:9–10). That gives us the capacity to love and serve him through our love and service to others. He becomes the change within us that we want to see replicated in the world around.
There is no other way forward to achieve the end-goal of a society and world freed from racism’s ugly grip. Unless and until we recognize and deal with the true inward source of racism, we’ll only see it morph into ever-changing forms within our own hearts and society, no matter the legal changes instituted. Only transformed hearts can guide us in the difficult task of creating a more just, compassionate, and unified world. And only God has the power to transform them. Our part is allowing him to do so.
Ending systemic racism is a necessary if daunting task. As folks go about it, often demanding change, let’s encourage one another to allow God to dismantle the strongholds of evil within us, and replace them with divine love, mutual respect, and that true and lasting vision of the equality we have in him. A changed interior is a necessary part of assuring effective change on the outside. Unless we allow God to be an integral part of the equation of change, the goal to end racism will forever elude us.
