Tony Evans Explores Racial ReconciliationExemplo

Identity Theft

One of the biggest challenges today, when it comes to crime, is identity theft. People will steal your identity for their own fraudulent uses. They pretend to be you and take the things that were meant for you to have. Satan is the greatest identity thief in history. He wants to rob believers of all the wonderful things that Jesus has given us. One of the ways he accomplishes this is by confusing us about our identity. This confusion is one of the reasons that racism still exists and reconciliation between races has not occurred. 

We need to stake our identity in the cross of Christ, but Satan will try to get us to pick up other means of identity like race. This is why you may hear somebody refer to themselves as a black Christian, a white Christian, a hispanic Christian, or an Asian Christian. Technically, this phrasing is incorrect because “Christian” acts as the noun and gets modified by the “racial” adjective. This would mean that race modifies who we are as Christians. 

However, our identity is in Christ. That is, our position in Christ makes us a Christian who happens to be black, white, hispanic or Asian. Identity is so important because who you perceive yourself to be will determine your actions. Our identity is to be in Christ first and everything else should fall underneath it. God does not ask people to deny their race or culture, but He asks that those things do not get in the way of our Christian commitment. Embrace your race. Embrace your culture. Be who you are, but never let racial identity interfere with Biblical truth.

How can you prevent your racial identity from distorting the Word of God?