A Church Girl Confesses - A Minute of Presence for Women
A Church Girl Confesses
I was probably in my teens before I realized God might not be a Baptist. (Kidding there, but not by much.) Shortly thereafter, I discovered he wasn’t constrained to being Protestant, either, or English speaking. God’s family is remarkably diverse. Its members have a single common denominator: Jesus. Our allegiance should not be to any person, country, or creed but to a King and a Kingdom.
The scarlet thread that declares our allegiance to that King and his Kingdom is the blood of Jesus Christ. The key to inclusion in the family of God is nothing more and nothing less than the shed blood of his sacrifice applied to sinners of every ilk. “God,” says John Piper, “is no respecter of persons in salvation or in damnation. The human race—and every ethnic group in it—is united in this great reality: we are all depraved and condemned. We are all lost in the woods together, sinking on the same boat, dying of the same disease. . . . If I am among God’s elect, it is owing entirely to God’s free grace, not to my distinctives.”a
In a climate where many would seek to divide us, I conscientiously object. I don’t mean to ignore our differences. They exist. But for the church, what binds us is infinitely stronger than what might segregate us into superficial camps. One great day we’ll be united in a single, overriding allegiance that will make our differences not divisive but lovely, rich, and true.
Christ is our common ground. We are his body. Because I’m a church girl from way back, I’ve experienced the richness of the body of Christ at work there. But not just there. I’ve seen his body united in vacant lots and makeshift clinics and backyard barbecues. I’ve seen it around my own dinner table too. In Jesus, we’re all grafted into a big, multifaceted, diverse (and yes, occasionally dysfunctional) family. Let’s spite the devil, confound the world, and glorify the Lord together. Let’s love one another, whatever the cost.
In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free.
1 Corinthians 12:13, ESV
a John Piper, Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011), 135, 144.
