Despite our seeming helplessness and negligent dependence upon race for social support and personal meaning, there are some things and more specifically, some Persons whose very existence exceeds the will, power and pronouncements of race.  Yes, there are some places that race can’t go, where its authority is subjected to a higher power and its plan is without merit.

Race may cause us to question our identity and position but not any Person of the Trinity.  Jesus came to the earth to fulfill the will of His Father not race (John 4.34; 5.30) and was not limited by its stereotypes. The Holy Spirit, our Comforter, is not discriminatory but “blows where ever it will” (John 3.8).  It is not present with some and not others based on the social coloring of their skin.  This divine community is not socially color- coded or racially divided.  Race has no say in the ways of God. God’s ways are not the ways of race and God’s thoughts are not comparable to the thoughts of race.

The identity of God is synonymous with the attributes of God.  We cannot discuss who God is a part from what God does.  God is love and His love is unconditional.  Because God is the supreme expression of goodness, all that God does is done well.  God is omni-benevolent and fair, “raining on the just as well as the unjust” (Matthew 5.45).  God is the standard, His law the basis for our judgments.  But, the love, goodness and justice of race are conditional, dependent upon the social coloring of one’s skin.  There are obvious differences between God and race, spending more time with the former will make the weakness of the latter more recognizable.

Not only is God our example of moral perfection and infinite goodness but God is also omnipotent.  God possesses all power.  There is only one supreme being and it is not human but divine.  There are no supreme colors, cultures or people groups.  There is no will for the world a part from that recorded in Scripture.  There are no pure people save those who have been washed in the blood of the lamb and there is no call for war save the one that has been raging for thousands of years between darkness and light, good and evil.  And this war is fought in the heavens and is spiritual “for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6.12). Human beings fighting for physical and material power that is based on the social coloring of one’s skin is a far cry from the ministry of Jesus Christ and the goals of His Gospel.

God’s power transcends race.  God needs no skin and does not look to color for affirmation of His authority.  God is all-powerful not because of a racialized identity but because God’s power is not limited by race, its prejudices or stereotypes.

God is omnipresent.  God’s presence does not discriminate against persons based on the social coloring of one’s skin.  God’s purpose does not support neither does it work in tandem with that of race.  Race cannot segregate the presence of God though we have attempted to with our Black Church and White Church.  But, this is not reality.  God’s Spirit is with us all at all times.  God’s Spirit does not leave one group in order to be with another.  And because God is Spirit, God cannot be colored in.  God’s presence transcends race.

God is sovereign.  God does not need to be a particular color or a member of a specific cultural group in order to succeed.  God’s will is not predetermined by race or predisposed to its prejudices.  God cannot be subjected to the will of race.  The God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel is not controlled by the prejudices of race.  God takes no orders, instructions or directions from race.  God has no leader and needs no followers.  God is self- sufficient and there is nothing that is lacking in the actions or identity of God.  God’s purpose transcends race.

God’s plan transcends race.  It encompasses more than black and white, is beyond us and them. It is independent of race and does not depend on race for existence. Before race, there was God and after race, there will be God.

God is self- existent.  God did not need race in order to identify Himself.  Race did not create God; therefore, race cannot name God or give God a purpose.  Race is but a word, an expression of our warped and sinful creative ability.   God was before race and God will be after race. Race will never be ahead of God and we need only to follow in footsteps of Jesus Christ to put race behind us.  Follow me as I follow Christ.