I’m enjoying an outstanding message that Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile preached earlier this week at the Together For The Gospel Conference. Entitled Bearing the Image: Identity, the Work of Christ, and the Church, Thabiti provocatively argues that race is a figment of our imagination. We are all members of the human race (i.e., descendants of Adam). Therefore, race is neither a theological nor biological reality.
Race is to be distinguished from ethnicity. Genesis 10 speaks to the rise of ethnicities, not the rise of races. With all humanity, we share unity in Adam. With Christians, we possess (in addition) unity in Christ. Penultimately, we possess unity in the church. And ultimately, we will be united in glory. Article XVII of the T4G Statement “Affirmations and Denials“:
We affirm that God calls his people to display his glory in the reconciliation of the nations within the Church, and that God’s pleasure in this reconciliation is evident in the gathering of believers from every tongue and tribe and people and nation. We acknowledge that the staggering magnitude of injustice against African-Americans in the name of the Gospel presents a special opportunity for displaying the repentance, forgiveness, and restoration promised in the Gospel. We further affirm that evangelical Christianity in America bears a unique responsibility to demonstrate this reconciliation with our African-American brothers and sisters.
Read more about the message. Listen to the message.