One Humanity: The Story Evangelicals Are Not Telling.
Revisiting Ephesians 2: 11-22.
Let’s begin by pointing to the difference between an evangelist and an evangelical, and by extension, evangelism and evangelicalism. An evangelist spreads the good news of salvation - procured through the shed blood of Jesus Christ for lost souls — regardless of race, color, and nationalities: “For he is our peace” (v.14). An evangelical, on the other hand, creates barriers, highlights differences, and draws a thick line. My definition.
Jesus came to heal and restore broken humanity.
“(He) who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body (the Church), to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (vv.14-16).
We see in the above Scripture a reenactment of the book of The Beginning (Genesis), tracing human origin to one family: The apparent differences in race, color, and language are the product of a process - the genetic mutations - acclimatizing to changes and differences in environments over time.
The human race remains the same across racial, national, and language barriers. The human anatomy testifies to that reality. God created one family, comprising a man and a woman with a command to increase and fill the earth in its varying geophysical and vegetation manifestations, and colors.
The Creator is a lover of variety and colors. Beauty is created when you put different colors together: black, white, pink, blue, green, brown, yellow, red, purple; name it. They all point to the same maker whose character manifests in the Rainbow.
But the finite humans we are — not seeing beyond our noses — have turned the beauty of diversity into an ugly sentiment — crying wolf!
To put right what went wrong, God descended on earth in human form, spoke human language, and identified with human weaknesses - to show us how to live in harmony with nature and fellow humans.
The law of circumcision (which is done in the body by human hand), erects a wall of separation and hostility between Jews and the rest of humanity called Gentiles.
God had His reason for calling Abraham, and his descendants (Israel). They were chosen to model God’s purpose for humanity, serving as an instrument of peace and reconciliation of fallen humanity to their Creator. Their role which was time-bound, was spelled out. They were to stand in the gap until the advent of Jesus, the Messiah. They were not meant to assume a superior or inferior status to other humans.
Sadly, religion and human traditions have portrayed the Jews in such lights. The Jews still enjoy physical and material blessings drawn from God’s covenants with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But they have rejected the overarching blessing of accepting the long-awaited Messiah in the person of Jesus.
Isaiah said this about Israel:
“The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.” (Isaiah 1: 1, 3–4).
Wait a minute! God, through the prophet, complained about Israel going backward, instead of moving forward in Jesus. Any wonder that peace had eluded Israel because they rejected the prince of peace and stick to the obsolete, if anachronic status of a chosen people?
Of the blood of Jesus, the writer of Hebrew underscores its superiority to the blood of goats and bulls offered in the temple:
“How much more then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death..” (Heb. 9:13-14.) So then, if those who aren't circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, a lawbreaker.”
Apostle Paul wrote:
“A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people but from God (Romans 2: 25-28).
Through Christ, Jews and Gentiles have access to the Father by one Spirit. To the Gentile believers, Paul says,
“You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household - built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the Chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:19-20).
How unbecoming are Christians - believers in Christ, evangelicals, or by whatever titles we are identified, to jettison the fundamental ingredients of the Christian faith to support those who in action and utterances hold in contempt all that Christ came to accomplish on earth.
We are witnessing a classic example of what apostle James described as an “unequal yoke together with an unbeliever.” He queried,
“For what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has he that believes with an infidel? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore Come out from among them, and be ye separate, says the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, And I will receive you, And be a Father to you. And you shall be my sons and daughters, says the LORD, Almighty.” (2 Cor. 6: 14-18, KJV).
We shouldn’t be comfortable with ceaseless attacks on the very core of our faith — No bedfellows with those who have no qualms about bringing down all institutions that hold us together as one humanity.
The LORD’S is the Earth.
