Toward the end of my last article on the social justice movement (A Third Race?), I pressed some questions regarding the consequences of thinking of the church as a third race. What does Ephesians 2 teach us about so-called social justice in all its varied forms including oppression, empowering women, mircroagressioms, white privilege and intersectionality? Part of the problem is defining those terms. The problem is people mean different things by those terms. But the problem is further compounded when entire groups of people are hailed as guilty villains while other entire groups are hailed as innocent victims. Who determines who exactly is guilty of whatever they are purportedly guilty of, and when exactly were they guilty? Its best to allow our understanding of ecclesiology to inform our assessment of popular and dangerous political trends such as social justice. Perhaps if church discipline, for example, was actively being practiced across the board, a determination based upon the collective wisdom of individual elders and congregations could identify those who are guilty of the Scriptural definition of injustice.
Here is a list of legitimately worthy and sober questions to ask: What do such concepts as white privelage and reparations do to the peace that Christ has established through the cross? Does a constant emphasis on our differences help nurture peace? Are general accusations toward large masses of people with a certain skin color or particular gender, fair (or just)? How can we possibly know that every white person is racist or that every man is a woman hater. Is every man automatically a member of the he-man women-hater club? As Christians, when making these determinations we best be informed by Scripture and Scripture alone, not culture.
Paul’s emphasis in Ephesians 2 is not on what makes Christians different, but rather on what makes them the same. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. Sure, Jews may have been near to God because they had the covenants, the law, circumcision, and the presence of God’s Shekinah glory in the Temple. And for these reasons, the Gentiles were rightly considered far off. But this was superficial to some extent since a large portion of Jews rejected the Messiah. Not all Jews in the Old Testament had the faith of Abraham, and thus were not true sons of Abraham. “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.”[i]
The only reason we may think that Paul is emphasizing the ethnic differences between those in the body of Christ in Ephesians 2 is because he’s speaking in terms of redemptive history. But when we look closer at the text, we see that he’s speaking about those differences before Christ came and died to secure salvation for the nations.[ii] The reality is that he’s emphasizing the differences existing before the cross event in order to magnify the similarities after the cross event. And further, before he states anything about the differences of Jews and Gentiles, he announces the plight that both groups (indeed all ethnic groups apart from Christ) find themselves in when he says in Ephesians 2:1 that we are dead in trespasses and sins. One is either dead, or alive in God’s eyes. God doesn’t prefer one race over another in the new covenant. We might say that the “injustices” committed by all races, men, women, and nations are too many to add up. The injustices committed against God by all people are unforgivable apart from the cross. Our transgressions collectively as a human race are too many to count. One example of extreme and real injustice is abortion. Every Christian should condemn the injustice of slaughtering a little life in the womb of a mother (or outside). Every Christian should see this as inescapably obvious. What could possibly be difficult about affirming this injustice? Well, if one is darkened in their understanding and ignorant due to their volitional suppression of God’s truth, then perhaps they can ignore abortion and emphasize other less obvious forms of “injustice”.
In Romans 5, Paul is clear that there are really only two types of people in the world: those in Adam and those in Christ (the second Adam). All ethnic races are full of sinners. And the church is full of saved sinners from all ethnic races. In this sense, no race is privelaged beyond another. This is why Paul says later in Ephesians 4:4-6, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
When I was between the ages of about 8-11 or so, my grandmother bought me a subscription to a kid’s magazine called Highlights. I don’t remember any of the articles specifically, though I loved the magazine. What I do remember was a portion of each edition containing a picture. The drawing could be of a place outside or a room inside. The goal was to find all the hidden objects within the picture. The hidden objects usually had nothing to do with the scene. So if it was the scene of a kid’s bedroom, for example, there would be hidden things like frying pans, forks, pots, and hot pads- things belonging in the kitchen. I would take a pencil and circle each item until I had found all the items on the list at the bottom.
It was an exercise of great concentration. It required focus and repetition. Your eyes had to cross over the same areas of the picture over and over again before you could finally see the object you were looking for. In the same way, the book of Ephesians is like that. Paul gives to us images of the church. These images might not be what we normally think about when we think about church. But they are the images God has given to help Christians better understand what the church is. The world will not and cannot understand these images. They are blind to these images- and likely would laugh if you described the church in these terms. But nevertheless, these are the images inspired by the Holy Spirit. When Christians begin viewing one another the way God views us it tends to alleviate the noise of the culture regarding issues pertaining to social justice.
Three images of the church are found in Ephesians 2:19-22: a neighborhood, brotherhood, and priesthood. These images represent the way God views Christians, and in turn the way Christians are to view themselves. We are collectively the people of God. Our fundamental identity is not our ethnic race, but Christ.
A New Neighborhood of Citizens in God’s Kingdom (19a)
The first image Paul provides of God’s third race, the church, is that of a new neighborhood, or kingdom. Paul writes in verse 19: “So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints.” He is talking to the Gentiles who largely make up the Ephesian congregation. They were “strangers to the covenants of promise”[iii], but since the cross they are “no longer strangers”. Paul says, “now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ”.[iv] Together with believing Jews, believing Gentiles are now “fellow citizens with the saints” due to their union with Christ by faith. Faith brings peace between God and man, as well as peace between man and man. Jewish and Gentile believers exist as “fellow citizens” together in God’s kingdom.
The emphasis is oneness. God’s third race is a new neighborhood. This neighborhood is a large kingdom. And God’s kingdom is not specific to one race, but is interracial. It’s not territorial or geographical, but spiritual. It’s not national, but international. Amazingly, in fulfillment of prophecy and according to God’s intricate plan of redemption, those who have faith are the true sons of Abraham, and are thus “citizens” of God’s kingdom.[v] The blood of Christ has brought Jews and Gentiles together in the church. The spiritual DNA of those in the new covenant has been sent to God’s laboratory, and the results reveal that Abraham is the father of them all because Christ is their “blood brother”. The emphasis is not the differences of racial privilege or lack thereof. The emphasis is what they have in common now, which is Christ.
A New Brotherhood of Siblings in God’s Household (19b-20)
The second image of God’s third race of people is that of a new brotherhood. The end of verse 19 says they are also “members of the household of God”. Christians are both born into this family and adopted. They are born into God’s family by the Spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again of the Spirit in order to see the kingdom of God.[vi] But the language of family is more intimate than kingdom language. This is probably the reason Paul moves from neighborhood language to brotherhood language. Many places in the Bible also describe the church as a family adopted by God making Him our Abba.[vii]
Jews and Gentiles form a brotherhood. Christ, the Son of God, is their elder brother-Savior. This makes God their Father. This is the spiritual family of God made possible only by the atoning death of Christ, which forgives sinners and brings those with faith in this Savior into union with Him and other repenters.
The founding document of this family is the New Testament Scriptures. This is what Paul means when he says in verse 20 that God’s family is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone”. The church takes its shape from Christ who is the keystone. From Him the church receives its stability and durability. All the stones around the “cornerstone” of Christ are there because of Christ. Without the foundation of the gospel revealed to us in God’s inspired apostolic Word of the New Testament, there is no unity in the structure of the church because without the saving gospel there is simply no church.
It is Christ Himself who particularly keeps the church aligned in both her doctrine and relationships. God’s Word in general does the same. When the church focuses on subjective, controversial, obscure, and dangerous categories such as social justice, she looses her gaze upon Christ and the instruction of His Word.
All Christians should take stands against clear racism and oppression. We should hate those sins because God does. But no amount of reparations can forgive those sins. Only Christ can forgive those sins…and He does. He is capable of forgiving any sin. When Christians demand reparations from other Christians they reveal they have lost focus of Christ and the forgiveness He has already authoritatively granted. Further, corporate confession, of say all white people, for the sins of only some white people is hardly true justice. Nor is such corporate confession of sin endorsed in the new covenant anywhere I can find.
A New Priesthood of Living Stones in God’s Temple (21-22)
The final image of God’s third race that Paul presents is that of a priesthood, as verse 21 says, that is “joined together, [and] grows into a holy temple in the Lord”. The temple of the new covenant is not a stone structure like the temple in the Old Testament. Individually, Christians are temples of God.[viii] Congregationally speaking, local churches are manifestations of the temple of God.[ix] And universally and historically all Christians compose God’s temple, which is Paul’s point here in Ephesians 2. And as verse 22 says, this temple is “being built together as a dwelling place of God by the Spirit”. Just as God’s Shekinah glory dwelt in the temple of the Old Testament, so too does God’s Spirit dwell in the temple of Christ’s body- the church of the New Testament.
Paul doesn’t directly say the church is made up of a new priesthood. But Peter does. I Peter 2 uses the same Old Testament imagery of Christ as the cornerstone, and then verse 9 explicitly says the church is a “royal priesthood”. As priests of God, new covenant citizens and members of God’s family “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name” because He has redeemed them from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Someday, the scaffolding of this glorious temple being built by God will be removed. The Bible ends with a description of the completion of this temple in Revelation 21.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place[a] of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,[b] and God himself will be with them as their God.[x]
Until the consummation of God’s kingdom, the church will be full of broken sinners. We will offend and be easily offended. We are all still a work of God in progress. But construction is underway, and there is no doubt regarding the glory to come. So we must be quick to forgive. As Paul says later in Ephesians 4:32, we should “[b]e kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave [us]”.
We must rejoice that God has forgiven us. We must rejoice in the fact that God has forgiven those we are joined to by Christ. We must be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”.[xi] We should prayerfully seek to apply Ephesians 4:26-27, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”
Conclusion
The church is glorious, so glorious that Paul selects three images to express its full-orbed wonder. The church will spend eternity together as the new redeemed creation of God- a new neighborhood, new brotherhood, and new priesthood. Until heaven, unity in this third race of people is maintained when clear offenses are confessed and forgiven in the spirit and divinely established protocol of Matthew 18. Unity is also maintained when others see themselves as both equally sinners in Adam and equally forgiven in Christ. Unity is maintained when our similarities are emphasized, not our differences. Unity is maintained when we choose not to be easily offended, turn the other cheek, and overlook insignificant, hard to define, or fallacious offenses. May we pursue such unity for God’s glory, and not allow Satan to gain a deeper foothold.
[i] Galatians 3:7
[ii] cf. Genesis 12:3
[iii] Ephesians 2:12
[iv] Ephesians 2:13
[v] Galatians 3:7
[vi] John 3:3
[vii] Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5
[viii] I Corinthians 6:19
[ix] cf. I Corinthians 3:16-17
[x] Revelation 21:1-3
[xi] Ephesians 4:3