If you are like me, you loved the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics this week. What an incredible sight it was to watch all of the athletes from different nations parade into the London Olympic stadium. Each nation showcased their beautiful colors and is present in hopes of personal and worldwide glory.
As I viewed the stadium after all the nations were in place, I turned to my wife and said, “That reminds me of what heaven is going to be like”. Why? The word, “nations” in the Bible is from a Greek word from which we get the English word, ethnic. For example, Jesus commanded us to “make disciples of all nations” literally meaning every ethnic group in the Great Commission, Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV).
In Revelation 7:9 we get a little glimpse into heaven when we read, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb”. If we are not careful, we might think that this scene in heaven has all of these different ethnic groups divided into different sections around God’s throne. Most likely that is not true. I’m sure these ethnic groups are mixed all together rather than segregated. There will be all kinds of ethnicity in heaven!
In Christ, we all have the same identity regardless of our ethnicity. We are sons and daughters of God. Our ethnicity no longer defines us. Jesus changed all of that at the cross. “For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in Himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of His death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.” Ephesians 2:14-16 (NLT) Let me put this in modern terms. In Christ, there is neither Jew, Arab, European, African, Latin, Asian, black, white, brown, yellow, red, mulato, etc. We are either in Christ or in Adam.
Let’s all pray that God’s will “that what is true in heaven will be true in our lives”, meaning that, we will see every Christian through the eyes of their identity in Christ instead of their ethnicity. What an incredible blow that would be to Satan’s theology of prejudice! When Jesus freed us FROM sin (Romans 6:6) and FROM the Law (Romans 7:6), He freed us TO love! We need Him to live through us to see every brother and sister in Christ not according to our skin color or ethnicity, but as those who are one with us in Christ! We also need to see those outside of Christ as those we want to invite into God’s family regardless of their ethnicity. Why don’t you ask God to show you if you have an issue with prejudice? If He says, “Yes”, confess your sin to God, accept your forgiveness, ask Jesus to live through you to love without regard to ethnicity and ask God to bring you a friend who is of a different ethnic background.
Live Free In Christ,
Mark Maulding, President and Founder
www.GraceLifeInternational.com
All Content Copyright © 2012 Mark Maulding
As I viewed the stadium after all the nations were in place, I turned to my wife and said, “That reminds me of what heaven is going to be like”. Why? The word, “nations” in the Bible is from a Greek word from which we get the English word, ethnic. For example, Jesus commanded us to “make disciples of all nations” literally meaning every ethnic group in the Great Commission, Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV).
In Revelation 7:9 we get a little glimpse into heaven when we read, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb”. If we are not careful, we might think that this scene in heaven has all of these different ethnic groups divided into different sections around God’s throne. Most likely that is not true. I’m sure these ethnic groups are mixed all together rather than segregated. There will be all kinds of ethnicity in heaven!
In Christ, we all have the same identity regardless of our ethnicity. We are sons and daughters of God. Our ethnicity no longer defines us. Jesus changed all of that at the cross. “For Christ Himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in Himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of His death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.” Ephesians 2:14-16 (NLT) Let me put this in modern terms. In Christ, there is neither Jew, Arab, European, African, Latin, Asian, black, white, brown, yellow, red, mulato, etc. We are either in Christ or in Adam.
Let’s all pray that God’s will “that what is true in heaven will be true in our lives”, meaning that, we will see every Christian through the eyes of their identity in Christ instead of their ethnicity. What an incredible blow that would be to Satan’s theology of prejudice! When Jesus freed us FROM sin (Romans 6:6) and FROM the Law (Romans 7:6), He freed us TO love! We need Him to live through us to see every brother and sister in Christ not according to our skin color or ethnicity, but as those who are one with us in Christ! We also need to see those outside of Christ as those we want to invite into God’s family regardless of their ethnicity. Why don’t you ask God to show you if you have an issue with prejudice? If He says, “Yes”, confess your sin to God, accept your forgiveness, ask Jesus to live through you to love without regard to ethnicity and ask God to bring you a friend who is of a different ethnic background.
Live Free In Christ,
Mark Maulding, President and Founder
www.GraceLifeInternational.com
All Content Copyright © 2012 Mark Maulding
