No Partiality
We are all one race, descended from Adam and Eve. In Christ, we are all one. The concept of “race” is a foolish way to describe differences in appearance. There are ethnicities, not races.
Acts 10:28
And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.
Now, whether saved or unsaved, regardless of color or creed, we are now to “treat others the same way you want them to treat you” (Luke 6:31). No disrespecting or thinking less of someone because of their standing with God, their ethnicity, wealth, education, or anything else.
THE DIVERSITY OF HEAVEN
Physically, there is a single race: the human race; we are all descendants of Adam (Acts 17:26). Spiritually, there are two races: believers and unbelievers; the children of God through Christ, and the children of the devil (1 John 3:10).
His Word tells us that in heaven there will be a “great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes” (Revelation 7:9). All nations and ethnicities will be represented in heaven.
UNITY AND VALUE AMONG PEOPLES
No nationality, ethnicity, or social status is inherently sinful. Christian writer Thomas Coutouzis wrote: “when you show personal favoritism you are in fact looking at those whom you don’t favor as having no value... Nationalism says that people within their own nation have greater value than those who live outside of it.1”
The past histories of many countries are marked by hurt and pain in interactions between different nationalities, creeds, and ethnicities. As theology professor Owen Strachan put it: “Whatever our past holds, the biblical way forward is to find oneness in the finished work of Christ. If we cannot find unity in our union with Christ, we simply will not attain unity. We will remain divided.2”
CONCLUSION
All people everywhere are now called to “repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Let us forgive and be forgiven (Matthew 6:15), rather than hold on to hatred and discord. Let go of the past, forgive and be forgiven, and follow the Lord with your brethren, no matter what ethnicity or nationality they may be.
https://twitter.com/ThomasCoutouzis/status/1315351966483181569
Owen Strachan, Reenchanting Humanity: A Theology of Mankind, (LifeWay Christian Resources, 2019), p. 240