After he delivered a message urging an end of segregation for African Americans, a member of the British Parliament asked Dr. King, “Isn’t your real goal intermarriage for Blacks and whites? To that Dr. King replied, “Sir, we want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother in law.” Sadly, the fear of racial intermarriage still prevents many of God’s people from having genuine Christian fellowship with one another. And the consequence of this isolation often can weaken the church’s testimony to the outside world. Unbelievers can miss the truth that we are all children of God by faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Bible defines the new identity that faith in Jesus Christ makes: In Galatians 3:28 we read “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ.” And Peter’s rooftop vision recorded in Acts chapter 10 not only opened Peter’s eyes to who Gentiles were in God’s eyes, it gave him a better understanding of who he was. Though God used him, he realized he had no room for pride of race or pride of grace. He, like all members of God’s family, is but a sinner saved by the grace of God.
