Know. Own. Change: Journeying Towards God's Heart for ReconciliationMuestra

Change The Story

Around the four hundredth year of Egyptian enslavement, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the Israelites: Moses. God used him to free the children of Israel.

After around four hundred years of silence between testaments, the Lord raised up the ultimate deliverer: Jesus Christ, the righteous. The One on whose shoulders a new government was born. Jesus, the progenitor of salvation.

We find ourselves at another inflection point. In 2019, we commemorated the four hundredth year since enslaved people were introduced into the United States of America. Starting the long night of racial injustice and grave evil.

The Lord is raising up a new kind of deliverer: the Church. The Church, standing on the gospel, boldly declaring the truth therein—that God has created all people in His image and in His likeness. Today, the Lord is raising up reconcilers willing to go, lead, and partner with him in establishing his kingdom on earth.

Leverage Our Power

Jesus held all power in His hands. Yet he didn’t count that as a thing to be grasped. Instead Jesus leveraged His power through His humility and obedience to the cross. We too must consider the ways in which we can leverage the power we have in this life to attain the best interest of others.

We can ask ourselves: In what ways can I leverage the power I possess—my time, talent, and finances—to secure just outcomes for others?

Leverage Our Position

Jesus is 100 percent God and 100 percent human. In the condescension, Jesus put on flesh to walk among and ultimately redeem humanity. He leveraged His position as God by coming as a holy and righteous sacrifice on our behalf. He leveraged His position as human in that He was tempted by sin in all the ways that women and men are, yet He never succumbed to them. He is the sinless Lamb of God.

Leverage Our Privilege

Being God’s Son, being part of the Godhead, possessing all power, certainly Jesus had privilege when He came to earth as a man. He never reduced His status as God, but He emptied Himself—meaning in the condescension, He submitted Himself, according to His own will and the desire of the Father to the work of the cross. Jesus leveraged His privilege to secure salvation on our behalf.

A giant in the church and a champion of racial reconciliation, Dr. John Perkins defines justice as: “any act of reconciliation that restores any part of God's creation back to its original intent, purpose or image. When I think about justice that way, it doesn't surprise me at all that God loves it. It includes both the acts of social justice and the restorative justice found on the cross.” When we choose to leverage our power, position and privilege for the flourishing of others seeking to undo the evil of racism, we join with Christ in his work to redeem and restore humanity. This is just. It is merciful. This is the way of the Kingdom.