If I Judge Others on the Basis of Race

On what basis do I judge other men?

There are seven principal grounds that I could occupy as vantage points for criticism, 

• but all of them are condemned by the Word of God.  
• They are race, civilization, wealth, education, culture, ethics, and religion.

Let's look at the man who judges on the basis of race.  

• In the light of the Bible I must tell myself, 
• You are inexcusable, whosoever you are that judges, 
• because you have come from Adam as has the man you judge.  
• You are made of the same earth.  

For God says that He has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth (Acts 17:26).  

• The same curse is upon all of the race, 
• and when you die to dust you shall return.

To open lips of clay 

• to declare that there is some superiority attaching to the bones and meat of a given body, 
• or to the nature of its skin pigmentation, is to speak words of clay.  

If I were to thus speak, God says, 

• You are inexcusable.  
• It is wonderful to have a fine, healthy body, 
• but you did not beget it nor conceive it.  
• The difference between you and the man who lies in a home for the terminally ill is a germ or a virus often too small for the microscope to find.

And if the judgment of race be on the grounds of my ancestry, the reply of God is still the same - 

• I am still the same - I am inexcusable.  
• I do not minimize the advantage of a fine heritage, 
• and the Bible itself sets forth the blessings that come upon the children of the godly.  

But the moment I take the snobbish attitude of criticism of another human being on the basis of superiority of blood line, 

• I confess that I have a human blood line.  
• The Word of God tells me that those lines pass through Noah to Adam 
• where the race came under the condemnation and wrath of a holy God, 
• and that spiritually I died in Adam.  Therefore, 
• I confess myself inexcusable.

Adapted Excerpt From Romans, vol 2: God's Wrath

Donald Grey Barnhouse