Galatians:
Both Jews and Gentiles are sinners, and the Good News (The Gospel) of Christ required both sides to admit their sinfulness, as well as their desperate need of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ by the grace of God. Gentiles came as Gentiles to the Lord. And Jews came as Jews to the Lord. The problem arose when certain Jews (Judaizers) demanded that in order for Gentiles to be truly saved and accepted by God, they had to DO something. They had to be circumcised. Paul’s counter to this was that Gentile Christians had already been forgiven and accepted in Christ Jesus just as Jewish Christians had, and so it was not only wrong of them to ask, but also in direct opposition to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, and therefore, not the true message of the Gospel. It was in opposition to this legalism that acted as though it were not trying to replace the Gospel, but rather just add a sort of litmus test to it in order that one might prove TO THE JEWS (not God mind you) through something they DID (something that was demanded OF the Gentiles BY the Jews that the Gentiles do in order to either be made right with God or at the least, to prove that they HAD BEEN MADE RIGHT with God) that Paul stated that Jews need not become like Gentiles and Gentiles need not become like Jews in order to be saved. Paul acknowledged that while there were literal physical distinctions b/w the two people groups, such as nationality, race, and pasts, Jews and Gentiles alike were all sinners in need of saving and that this was only accomplished by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus, apart from the works of the Law, and thus, promotes true unity b/c this is what the Jews and Gentiles both had in common and should be the central focus of every believer in Christ, WHETHER Jew or Gentile. Let this be a lesson, from the Word of God, for today’s times, which helps us take the knowledge we’ve been given and apply it wisely.
Racial reconciliation will only be brought about when one side stops demanding that the other confess and repent of sins possibly committed by ancestors or family members or people of the same race just b/c they were born into that race. Yes, I am speaking specifically in this case, of blacks and whites, since that seems to be the very disturbing train the SBC, along with the majority of its leaders, teachers, and pastors, have jumped on. The outcry coming from those, like me, who oppose this, is not b/c we oppose racial reconciliation. It is b/c we oppose the hypocrisy and one-sidedness that presents one race as the oppressor and one as the victim, when the fact of the matter is, BOTH races (actually every race for that matter) have BOTH oppressors and victims contained within them, and therefore, are BOTH in need of repentance and forgiveness. There needs to be a call for repentance on BOTH sides. There needs to be admittance of guilt on BOTH sides. To act and preach as if one group of people sin more or are the only ones who partake in a particular sin is not only, frankly, willful ignorance at it’s finest, but also completely unbiblical and antithetical to the SAVING Gospel of Christ (not this reforming social gospel mumbo jumbo that’s being preached as the true good news and being denied as such WHILE it’s being preached, all the while seeking to reform a nation through the passage of laws without reforming the individuals that make up the nation through the only thing that can: the preaching of the Gospel of Christ .
ALL INDIVIDUALS WITHIN PEOPLE GROUPS, whether cultural, racial, national, or religious, stand before God the same–sinful beings in need of a Savior and condemned to death and hell b/c of that sinfulness. However, the flip side, and this is the TRUE Good News of the Gospel of Christ, is that though we all stand condemned b/c of our sin, we can all be saved and stand justified before God b/c of our faith in Christ, alone, through the grace of God, alone. To preach a lopsided Gospel is to preach a false gospel. To say you believe that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and yet hold conferences and rallies that demonize only ONE group of people and call for confession and repentance of sin FROM THAT GROUP ONLY b/c of the race they were born into, is not only hypocritical, but is judgmental in its assertions (either straightforward or implied) that one group is more guilty than another or that one group is not “as guilty” as the other, and THAT is NOT THE Gospel. THAT is a false assertion, masked as the Gospel, and fueled by a sense of unholy justice, judgment, and discontentment, along with revenge, bitterness, and pride that have no place in the body of Christ. The loud cry is that contentment in Christ is an excuse for complacency in society. The idea is that we should not LEARN, as members of the body of Christ, to be content in whatever
circumstances/situations we find ourselves in (AS we do what we can daily to practice justice and mercy), but that INSTEAD we should CHANGE our circumstances/situations so that we can be content. Before demanding that others confess and repent of sins that the Lord HIMSELF hasn’t even convicted them of (and then, by the way, implying that if they haven’t been convicted it’s b/c they are either not WILLING to be or b/c they just “aren’t truly children of God”), maybe they ought to try getting the log out of their own eye before they try to address the one in someone else’s (whether actual or perceived).
We are ALL in need of repentance, ALL in need of a Savior, ALL in need of grace and mercy and forgiveness and salvation from and through Jesus Christ our Lord. To demand all of that from ONE people group without demanding it from another, to demand it from a place of judgment b/c only God judges the heart and tests the thoughts and motives of men (as well as knows what they have repented for, been saved from and forgiven of, and what they need to repent for, though already covered under the blood), to accuse and point fingers at another person for either a perceived sin or an actual sin and draw your OWN line in the sand (forgetting that that line has already been drawn by Christ both literally and spiritually), to cast the first stone b/c YOU assert that others in a particular people group are guilty or that you are not guilty of the “same” sin(s) or at least “not as guilty,” to judge a group of people (as individuals) as a collective whole based on what you’ve looked at on the outside when YOU KNOW that the Bible says that MAN looks on the outside, but the LORD looks at the heart, is to completely misunderstand, misinterpret, misapply, and misuse the Gospel of Christ and to COMPLETELY MISS THE POINT OF THE GOSPEL AND WHY IT IS CALLED THE GOOD NEWS.
The point of the Gospel is that ALL have committed sin(s) (some the same, some different, but sin nevertheless) and ALL are guilty before the Lord and stand under the same condemnation and wrath of Almighty God. BUT b/c of Christ’s sacrificial death ( his atonement–which by the way means that the sentence has ALREADY BEEN PASSED and justice ALREADY MET on the cross once for all) and his glorious resurrection, we can ALL be made right (righteous) with God by the grace of God, through faith in Christ– alone. And just as we all stood guilty and condemned b/c of our sin, we, as His children, now stand innocent, free, and justified through our Lord Jesus Christ. Did you hear that? Not just free. Not just justified. But DECLARED INNOCENT. How is it then, that there are those, even now WITHIN the Church, that are DECLARING THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY BEEN DECLARED INNOCENT BY GOD …GUILTY? And it is here, in THIS, that you will find the BIGGEST REASON for the opposition and backlash to those in the SBC, the ERLC, TGC, and the leaders in support of them who hold to this view of a lopsided “gospel” that produces lopsided judgment, lopsided reform, and lopsided racial reconciliation. Our cry, as your FELLOW brothers and sisters IN CHRIST (I think we use that term so often that we forget what it really means) is “How DARE YOU try to DECLARE ME GUILTY before God and men when it is GOD who has DECLARED ME INNOCENT before HIMSELF?” When you try to snatch the precious assurance and experience of salvation away from one of us as God’s children, you will receive opposition EVERY TIME. You will be bucked EVERY TIME. You will be spoken out against EVERY TIME. And rightfully and RIGHTEOUSLY so!
We don’t just have the bad in common through our humanity. We have the GOOD in common through Christ IN SPITE OF our humanity. We should NOT be having this discussion within the body of Christ b/c BEING IN CHRIST, we are now ONE, being in common, IN SPITE OF distinctions of race, social status, economic status, or otherwise. It is not that those things do not exist or that we are intentionally hiding our heads or ignoring causes. It is not that we are making excuses for society, for others, or for ourselves. Just b/c certain people do not see the everyday work of the Holy Spirit in our lives does not mean that He is not working in us to bring about His good, pleasing, and perfect will in us, which firstly, is to reconcile us to Himself and secondly, to reconcile us with others. It is not that we don’t do what we feel led and convicted of God to do for others on a daily basis (WHATEVER that might be), instead of prescribing to a national, public call of confession and repentance AS PROOF to supposedly FELLOW brothers and sisters in Christ of that admittance and repentance–in essence, proof of our true salvation. We simply CHOOSE NOT TO SEE AND PRESCRIBE TO distinctions that have ALREADY BEEN DONE AWAY WITH IN US, as individuals, who make up Christ’s body of which He is the Head– the Church. For we threw OFF the law with all of its demands and stopped trying to meet all of them, SO THAT WE MIGHT LIVE FOR CHRIST. We know that the most important thing to Christ is not a great public display of piety in the form of confession and repentance through rallies, conferences, marches, and movements, (which receives public recognition, approval, and support as the only reward those a part of them will ever get) but it is the personal walk with our Lord that encompasses confession, repentance, and obedience in our day to day lives that the Lord, “who sees in secret” will reward, b/c HE sees what others do not. HE sees the secret places b/c HE IS IN THE SECRET PLACES. HE ALONE is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. He sees, knows, and acts justly even when others throw around their judgments based off of what they see and assume they know.
Paul, in Galatians, says that it is a sinner who tries to rebuild the old system (of the Law) when it has already been torn down, b/c as children of God, one in Christ Jesus, it neither pertains to our salvation or is relevant for the unity which Christ prayed that His disciples might have. And by the way, that unity is not obtained by GUILTING FELLOW BELIEVERS, who have been made EQUALLY RIGHTEOUS before God and have been EQUALLY FORGIVEN of their sins, for “sins” that, IF committed, HAVE ALREADY BEEN FORGIVEN and IF NOT committed, HAVE NO NEED FOR FORGIVENESS. Not ALL unity is of God or even commanded by God just for the sake of unity. One must look at HOW the unity is being promoted and WHAT expense(s) it is being promoted AT in order to know whether or not it is of the Holy Spirit of God or of the spirit of this present age. TEST the 
spirits (and btw, not just the literal spirits who are not speaking from God, but of the ATTITUDES “spirits” out of which they speak) to see if they be of God. Don’t just give them a free pass b/c they demand it in the name of the Lord b/c NOT EVERYONE who uses the name of the Lord to back up their causes and works publicly in order to “prove” (isn’t that interesting?) their relationship with Him is known by the Lord, nor will they enter into the gates of heaven, and NOT EVERYTHING that is DONE in the name of the Lord is from the Lord. I am not judging those in the SBC, ERLC, and TGC by saying they are not the Lord’s. I am simply saying: 1) TEST the attitudes (not the hearts, mind you) out of which they speak and the spirits driving the attitudes, 2) LOOK BEYOND the words and the Scripture quoting, 3) LISTEN not only to what you hear, but FOR WHAT YOU AREN’T HEARING, 4) LOOK at the end goal of their purpose and test it by praying about it, putting it up against the plumb line of Scripture and comparing it to Scripture, and using the gift of discernment the Holy Spirit gives you, 5) DO RESEARCH into what they say they are NOT adhering to in order to SEE FOR YOURSELF if they ARE adhering to it or not, and finally 6) PAY ATTENTION to whether the focus is on fixing the temporal for a better life now or preparing people for the eternal b/c the truth is, while good, when the FOCUS of the Church (speaking of us individuals who make up the body of Christ) becomes social reform and reconciliation of people groups through good works (and it is good) and that focus dominates and becomes the PREFERRED MESSAGE and CAUSE of the Church RATHER THAN the reform of the heart and reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ, then we have failed, as the Church, to promote and proclaim the only thing given to us through which a person can prepare for the eternal IN SPITE OF THE TEMPORAL CIRCUMSTANCES/SITUATIONS that one can expect from this fallen world (that some in the church have forgotten IS NOT our home) and can be saved: the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Test the spirits, dear brothers and sisters. Test the spirits.
Contending for the TRUE message of the Gospel (as Paul stated in Galatians) as opposed to the NEW message of the Gospel,
Jessica Laird
Musings from Hearth and Home 