Statement in Response to George Floyd's Death
With heavy hearts, we grieve the unjust death of George Floyd. While we do not yet know of the motivation, the action of a white police officer exercising unnecessary force over a black citizen that resulted in George Floyd’s death brought images of countless acts of injustice to the community's immediate consciousness, the marginalized and our nation as a whole. The reaction we have seen and to varying degrees experienced is one of grief, anger, and outrage. We lament injustice, sin, violence, and the brokenness in our nation and where we see it in us and in our community.
Our minds and hearts respond in this way because the Bible tells us that God created every person as image-bearers of God equally in his image. All people have inestimable ontological value and dignity before God. We believe that every person deserves honor, respect, and protection. No condition or any other attribute of a person either negates or contributes to that person's worth. Because God is holy, righteous, and just God requires those who bear his image to live justly in the world. Justice includes showing respect to every person.
The Bible tells us that all humanity comes from Adam and thereby, we are all one race. Because Adam sinned and we were in Adam, every human being is born in sin and is guilty of sin. We are all sinners. We believe that racism, the socially constructed dividing of the human race by prejudice, is a sin rooted in pride and malice, which must be condemned and renounced by all who would honor the image of God in all people. Such racial sin can subtly or overtly manifest itself as racial animosity or racial vainglory. Such sinful prejudice or partiality falls short of God's revealed will and violates the law of love. Because of human sinfulness and sin, all cultures, including Christians in the church, at times and in various ways, foster racist attitudes and practices. Treating people with sinful partiality or prejudice is not consistent with biblical Christianity. All of us, from the least to the greatest, are capable of racism, but those who hold positions of authority and power can do the most harm when they commit this sin.
The answer to injustice is the message revealed by God in the Bible concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ—his virgin birth, righteous life, substitutionary sacrifice, atoning death, and bodily resurrection. This message reveals who he is and what he has done to promise that he will save anyone and everyone who turns from sin by trusting him as Lord. God grants this salvation by grace alone received through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. God’s grace and faith alone transforms every believer from an agent of injustice, God unites them to Christ, they are justified, and God adopts them into his family. Thus, in God's eyes, there is no difference in spiritual value or worth among those who are in Christ. Further, all who are united to Christ are united to one another regardless of age, ethnicity, or sex.
As believers, we are to visibly unite with the local church to represent God and his work through Jesus accurately in the world. The church is to worship God through the preaching his word, teaching sound doctrine, observing baptism and the Lord's Supper, refuting those who contradict, equipping the saints, and evangelizing the lost. When the church maintains the gospel of Jesus Christ, it has a positive effect on the culture in which the church, through the gospel, mitigates various societal ills. Because laws or regulations possess any inherent power to change sinful hearts, we must maintain a faithfulness to speak the truth in word and deed to bring unbelievers to salvation.
As Christians, our participation in the church makes a difference in the sanctification of each other and ourselves. Our love for God and each other is a testimony to our neighbors of how diverse people come together in unity. We place our unity and identity in Jesus before any other association, political group, ethnicity, or tribe. Our culture and ethnicity are not lost but brought together in Jesus. Submitting to God in this way is good for the world and God's glory. Through the proclaimation of the gospel God redeems and transforms all aspects of humanity including the rescue of oppressed people.
We seek justice for George Floyd, for the all the oppressed as we come to know and understand justice in Jesus our Lord and Savior.