“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

~Galatians 2.20, NLT

I remain baffled at the continued power of race in the lives of believers despite our conversion to Christianity.  We pride ourselves on our new life in Jesus Christ and testify that we are new creatures in Him, boldly confessing the words of Second Corinthians chapter five and verse seventeen: “Therefore if anyone be in Christ, they are a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”  But, when we begin to talk about race and the history of racism in America, it is as if nothing has changed and worse still, that people can’t change.

My grandmother Eva Mae used to say, “The things I used to do, I don’t do no more and the places I use to go, I don’t go no more.”  She was declaring the triumph of the will of God over the will of her flesh.  God had changed her inclinations, passions and desires.  This sentiment is also expressed in a song that observes, “I looked at my hands and they looked new.  I looked at my feet and they did too.”  The Christian conversion experience allows us to begin again, to start over no matter where we ended up before coming to Christ.  Still, there are some parts of the old self that remain, that we hold onto and don’t want to let go of when it comes to race.  Despite our new hands and feet, we continue to see ourselves as the world sees us and consequently, practice our faith through the paradigm of race.

Our conversion does not change our conversation about race.  We continue to practice and pass down the its traditions.  We continue to avoid people and places because of race as opposed to changing our behavior in response to Christ’s love, grace and unconditional acceptance of us.  Though born again, we still see each other as racial beings instead of brothers and sisters in Christ.

But, the old self has been crucified with Christ, which leads me to wonder about the supremacy of race.  What of blackness/whiteness/redness/brownness/ yellowness /beigeness remains?  Certainly, we aren’t colored children of God.  Does race’s sinful designation of humanity and the prideful mindset of those who assert omniscience through its stereotypes not die on the cross with Christ?  There are no majority and minority, privileged and powerless, center and marginalized people groups in Christ; instead, we are one in Christ.  The social order of race does not trump that of God’s divine order.

And what of the scripture, “Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12.2)?  How can we say that we love God with all our mind when we secretly harbor hate-filled prejudices there?  When we refuse to think any other way because our feelings about race are stronger than our faith in God?  But, can the nails that held His flesh in place not hold our convictions firm when we are provoked by the actions of race?  Does the blood of Christ not atone for the sins of race? Can His prayer for the forgiveness of those who crucified Him not reconcile us to each other?

And what of Christ’s resurrection?  Race– this demonstration of temporal hatred does not compare to the the eternal expression of the love of God through the sacrificing of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Once we are baptized and thus buried with Him, we are raised up in those waters of new birth.  The old self, the racial self is crucified with Christ and we no longer live but Christ lives in us.  Race did not rise with Christ as it did not exist in his day despite our 21st century adaptations and redactions that would suggest otherwise and it should not rise with us because race has no resurrection power.