Pastor Aaron Brown

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” – Galatians 3:26‭-‬29

The teachings of Jesus are pretty clear that the love of God has a nasty habit of erasing the lines that divide humans into opposing forces. The only “us” and “them” that the gospel leaves room for is this…

Us: Those who have been relentlessly pursued by the unconditional love of God, who have received his forgiveness, and who have been adopted into his family forever.

Them: Those who are yet unaware of, or uncaptured by, the all reconciling love of God, and who are knowingly or unknowingly waiting for an example of, and an invitation into, this redeemed way of being human.

If you truly follow the ways of Jesus, there are no other categories worth mentioning here. He made it perfectly clear in his life, and his death, that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. No human hierarchy, tribalism, or value system can stand in the way of the ruthless reconciliation that is the love of God. God’s love welcomes us, even compels us, into right relations with himself.and with others. Any dividing line that sabotages our view of the other as anything but an already, or not yet, child of God is a lie from the pit of hell. There is no them, just us waiting for reconciliation. There is no human enemy.

“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. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:16‭-‬20