Jonathan Leeman, editorial director for 9Marks, says "identity politics," explicitly including critical race theory, help Christians understand the Bible better during a lecture at the 2020 T4G conference. The name of the concept he relates to Jer. 64:6 is Interest Convergence.

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Identity politics does not offer an alternative truth to the Bible, but it does point to people's experiences, which sometimes might help us to see things that are in our Bible a little better, a little more clearly. Let me give you an illustration. I'm sure I must have read Psalm 55:21 a number of times over the years. Here it is: "His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords." But I don't know that I ever gave much thought to that particular verse, at least until one day, or over a period of time, I found myself involved in a marital counseling situation with a verbally abusive husband + an abused wife.

Now with me + the other pastors involved in this, this man's speech was "smooth as better." It was "softer than oil." So, frankly, it was easy to believe him. His wife would describe how awful things were at home, but then we would listen to him + say, "What, him? Really?" Meanwhile, this wife knew all too well that, according to the verse, there was "war" in her husband's heart + that his words were not soft oil. They were "drawn swords," and it took the pastors a while to figure that out and how bad it was. Gratefully, by God's grace, we eventually did. I remember one day a counselor showed her Psalm 55:21, and she could say, "That's it. God gets it. Even when my pastors don't get it, God gets it." And through hearing her experience, that verse actually helps me now understand the perspective of an abused or oppressed woman in a way, frankly, until I had gone through that experience, I just didn't.

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Let me remind you of a few verses from scripture about sin. Psalm 51:5: "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." Or Isaiah 64:6: "All of us have become like one who is unclean and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." Or Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond pure; who can understand it?"

I confess I am a little surprised when Christians get defensive around some of the topics highlighted by identity politics, because as these three verses teach us, our doctrine of sin affirms that were sinful at birth + that we sin pervasively. Not that we're as bad as we can be but that it touches every area of our lives + that our sin deceives us.

Listen again, Psalm 51:5: "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." Now, I don't want to charge that little white boy in the suburbs eating a four-square meal with racism per se, but if he is indeed sinful at birth, is it not least worth considering the possibility that he'll structure his life in order to give advantage to himself + become sinfully partial toward whatever groups he occupies, from his high school vs. other high schools, from the nation he lives in to other nations, to his socioeconomic class compared to other classes, to his skin color vs. other skin colors? To me that seems like a pretty basic application of Psalm 51.

Or Isaiah 64, again: "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." So when a critical race theorist comes along + says that white people pass laws like the Civil Rights Act not out of altruism but out of self-interest, well, on the one hand I want to affirm common grace + the fact that non-Christians certainly can love + certainly do desire to do justice, but I also want to affirm total depravity + say, "Yeah. Of course. Even our righteous acts are filthy rags."

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We as Christians should be willing to admit that maybe, just maybe, we are more self-interested + less loving than we think, even as we give ourselves doctors' notes that say "Racism-Free." Let me be clear about this. I'm not asking you to think about government policy, at least not in the first instance. I'm asking you to think about the posture of our hearts as Christians. So not policy, the posture of heart. That's the conversation I'm trying to have here.

And friends, identity politics is an unexpected ally because it asks us for at least a moment to view people within their group identity + to ask whether they've been oppressed or at least under-recognized, under-loved, under-affirmed, under-encouraged, under-promoted in comparison to people who look like us. It's an ally because it reminds us that we're sinful from birth, Psalm 51, it wears camouflage, Isaiah 64, and it deceives us, Jeremiah 17. Elements of identity politics that is to say helps us to affirm the very doctrine of sin that we affirm.

Source video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMFWy6MIKoo

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