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The heart of the Christian message is God’s righteousness and God’s love. All Christians are sustained and inspired by this righteousness and love, which reaches out to every person, without exception.
It forms the foundation for the accurate Christian view on racism. According to the Bible, racism (when one judges or values people based on their skin color or background) is a grave error that goes against everything God teaches about human worth, unity, and love.
Let us explore this vital teaching. Let us show why prejudice has no place in the life of a follower of Christ.
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All Created in God’s Image
The Biblical teachings on equality start at the very beginning. According to the Bible, God created all human beings in His own image. There is the misconception that this means God must look like us. This is not the case. To be created in God’s image is not about the superficiality of our physical appearances. It is about the inherent value and dignity God deliberately placed within each and every person.
Dr. Julius Mosley II explains this clearly in Living Life with Blinders On, writing that God created the first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve, and thus: “the entire human race is an offspring of these two human beings.“
He stresses further that “all human beings originated from two human beings, making the entire human race brothers and sisters.“
This shared origin means we are all family.
He also clarifies that our physical bodies are simply “vessels,” without merit on their own.
“There are small vessels, tall vessels, fat vessels, skinny vessels, and vessels of many colors—black, white, brown, yellow, et cetera. A vessel is a vessel and nothing else.”
He points out that while “man tries to make vessels different,” that thinking is flawed. “That’s the curse!” he says, for the actual value of a person is not in the color of their “vessel,” or whatever else on the surface, but in the soul that is carried inside. That is what is made in God’s image.
As Mosley states, “the body maybe colored, but the soul is COLORLESS. To treat a person based on their color…is living life with blinders on.“
This is the starting point for human dignity: every single person, regardless of race, carries the imprint of their Creator.
To disrespect or devalue another human is to disrespect the God in whose image they are made.
One Human Family, One Problem
The Bible teaches that while we were created perfect, humanity fell into sin. This affected everyone, and because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, “the entire human race inherited [their] curse.“
The division, hatred, and pride we see—including racism—are symptoms of this fallen state that we have been cursed with. We are all burdened with the same spiritual condition. Thus, we fight amongst each other over trivial things like the color of our skin or whatever else.
Mosley writes powerfully: “Perhaps now you and I can understand why we cannot solve our own problems… because we are the problem!” Racism is part of this human problem, stemming from the sinful desire to lift ourselves by putting others down, forgetting, or perhaps being blinded to the truth that before God, all are equal.
For God does not show favoritism. –Romans 2:11
The Christian view on racism, thus, should be that it is a sin that comes from a heart turned away from God. It is more so a spiritual plague than a social issue, for the pride that says “my race is better” is the same pride that separated humanity from God from the beginning.
Unity in the Body of Christ
God ushered in a new path: a new, united family through Jesus Christ. The New Testament calls this family “the body of Christ.“
When a person places their faith in Jesus, they are spiritually reborn into this new family. This change overrides every earthly distinction.
Dr. Mosley explains there are “two human races on earth; one human race is where Adam is the head and the last Adam (who is Christ) is head of the second human race.”
To be saved is to be transferred from the first, fallen human family into the second, redeemed family where Christ is the head. Within this new holy family, earthly labels lose their power, and all become equal.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). This is the ultimate expression of unity in the body of Christ. In God’s eyes, and therefore in the church’s eyes, racial and ethnic divisions are done away with.
We are unified as equals before the cross.
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Loving Thy Neighbor
At the core of Jesus’s teaching is the command to love. When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus said to love God with all your heart and to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).
And who then is our neighbor?
Jesus made it clear in the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) that our “neighbor” is anyone in need, especially those who are different from us or whom society rejects.
Loving thy neighbor is the active antithesis of racism, which asserts that because we are different in form, we should fear each other and hate each other. Love, though, says, ever so gently, that because we are all persons made in God’s image, we will value each other and treat each other with dignity.
This love is a choice to act for the good of others, just as Christ did for us. Choosing prejudice over love is a clear example of being blinded, deliberately wearing blinders, and missing the truth that every person we meet is someone Christ died to save in his infinite mercy.
If you want to understand more deeply why racism is a spiritual blindness and how the gospel provides the only true cure, Dr. Julius Mosley II’s Living Life with Blinders On is an essential read.
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