Sometimes my heart breaks over the way that we view other human beings. When we see video of hundreds of Muslims bowing down in sync before their god, do we feel revulsion in our hearts? When we see Hindus bathing in the Ganges and bowing before a plethora of colorful and cartoonish gods, do we feel disgusted by them? When we see the devout, orthodox Jew bobbing up and down in prayer at the Western Wall, do we want to lash out and scream, How blind can you be?!? Jesus is your Messiah! How can you not see this? When we see the Islamic terrorist screaming obscenities and spouting hatred towards infidels, do we feel sick inside at the sight of them? Do we look upon such people as being less human, or at the very least, less loved by God and accepted by Him as we are? Sure, we can be disgusted by their behavior, and can feel saddened by their dehumanizing beliefs, but are we disgusted by *THEM*, as people? Ill be honest enough to say, yes, sometimes, somewhere deep in my being, that animal reflex of disgust - which developed over time to keep us safe from ingesting contaminates - is activated, and I feel a certain sense of revulsion. Its certainly not my default position, nor my actual belief, so why then do we sometimes feel this way about people? Because we have been conditioned over time to see anyone who is different from us as being a threat to our way of life, and when filtered through religion, they appear as unclean contaminates, having the power to corrupt the soul and contaminate the spirit. We seem them as being filled and inhabited by hosts of demons and wickedness, and so, deep down, feel a sense of disgust when we see or think of them. Has it ever occurred to us, though, that had we been born in India, or Afghanistan, or Israel, or Africa, or South America, or wherever, that we would have been the very people that inwardly repulse us? We would have been the exact same people that we are now, juts born into a different belief system, but we, as humans, would have been the same. The system into which youre born, certainly, has the power to shape, enhance or corrupt your beliefs and therefore your actions, but the actual person that you are remains the same. Likewise, the Muslim terrorist, had he been born in the Bible belt of the southern United States, would most likely have identified himself as a Bible believing, born again Christian. The Hindu, animist, Buddhist, etc..., would also have told the same story. But simply because they were born in another part of the world, raised in a different system than our own, and taught a different set of beliefs, something in us tends to see them as others, as different, and yes, sometimes, even as something that disgusts us. That disgust has *NOTHING* to do with the Holy Spirit, with conviction or discernment, but is an internal mechanism that identifies anything strange or different as being a threat to our existence and way of life. In the Gospel, however, this mechanism is undone and loses its grip on our hearts. Paul, when speaking of the “new creation”, never uses it as a description for an individual person’s progression from darkness to light, but uses it to speak of the transformation of the human race in Jesus, and how the sight of this transformation impacts our relationships with one another: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:16 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! Notice that the “new creation reality” didn’t only affect his view of one category of humans, but of all people. GALATIANS 6:14-16 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Notice Paul’s statement that the whole world had been crucified to him, and, therefore cultural and religious distinctions, like circumcision and uncircumcision, meant *NOTHING*, the only thing that mattered was the “new creation”. Again, it wasn’t a thing affecting his view of believers alone, but of the world. EPHESIANS 2:14-16 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 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, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. And here Paul states that the wall of hostility torn down in Christ was the Law, a religious device that kept humanity separated into categories marked “adored” and “abhorred”. Paul states that in Christ God has created “one new humanity”, a new creation in which there are no “others”, just sisters and brothers! Dear friends, “new creation” is a way of viewing, not just believers, but the world. Yes, the 2 Corinthians 5 account has the “in Christ” distinction, and that’s a point that can be argued, but even so, verse 16 tells us that it ought to affect our view of all humans. Why? Because it isn’t just a statement about individual salvation, but about the fact that Christ has declared all nations, races and people clean and in. There is no longer a distinction between tribes, or an in group and an out group. You see, the Gospel of Jesus Christ utterly destroyed the separation mechanism. It does away with the idea that we can look at those different from us and pass judgment on them because of said differences. In Jesus we can see ourselves as being on the same level. Valleys have been exalted, and the mountains and hills have been made low. The Hindu, the Buddhist, the Muslim, the Jew, are no different from me. I may have believed the Gospel, but as people, we’re the same, and one who has truly believed the Gospel no longer has an excuse for dividing humanity up into separate categories. There are no “others”!
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 15:28:08 +0000
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