Training - Racial Reconciliation

Teaching Notes

Framework Principles
- All humans are made in God’s image* (Genesis 1:26-27)
- All humans fell into sin through Adam & Eve’s disobedience (Genesis 3)
  - Sin permeates every aspect of humanity (Ephesians 2:3; Romans 8:20-21)
- All people groups were originally broken up by language, not skin color, by the Lord because of corporate rebellion at the tower of Babel* (Genesis 11:1-9)
  - First corporate rebellion recorded
  - The Lord then holds all the people accountable
  - Administers the consequences corporately as well
- God’s Son, Jesus, becomes a human and dies for the sins of all nations and people groups* (Revelation 5:9-10)
- Jesus commissions his people to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20)
- Jesus creates the church, made up of all nations, to be a new and holy nation (people group)* (1 Peter 2:9, Philippians 3:20)
- People redeemed from every nation and people group will worship the Father and the Lamb (Jesus)* (Revelation 7:9-10)
Further development on foundational principles focused on racial reconciliation
- Race & nationalism are man’s invention and not God’s
  - At the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) God separated people groups by language but this establishes man’s desire to corporately exalt himself through the means of denying God and His truth
    - Comparably racism seeks to do the same, corporately exalting one group over another through denying God’s truth about man
- Sin’s reach is not limited but infiltrates “social institutions, structures, policies and programs” as well as governments
  - Systems of oppression and injustice exist
  - Ex. Daniel 6
- God meant for Israel to be a royal priesthood to the nations* (Exodus 19:5-6, Deuteronomy 4:5-8)
  - God’s heart is for all nations and not just Israel; He did not set up a people group to be superior but a people group to speak to the nations
- Jesus is an amazing example
  - For crossing racial boundaries (John 4:1-45)
  - For engaging and confronting unjust systems (Mark 11:15-19; Matthew 23:1-36 [verses 23-24])
- Jesus’ work on the cross gives us power to end racially driven hostility (Ephesians 2:11-22)
- New covenant reality, now the church becomes the royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9)
- Corporate sin exists (Tower of Babel, Genesis 11; Revelation 2-3; Daniel 9)
  - Even if unintentional (Leviticus 4)
- To live a life of faith, God’s people are challenged to care about justice
  - Exodus 23:2, 6; Deuteronomy 27:19; Lamentations 3:34-36
- Therefore: God’s church needs to advocate for justice in unjust and oppressive systems, especially those that are racially driven. (Galatians 2:11-14)