Reparation

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3)

As I started to write, the King was in Samoa, and the issue of reparation has come up. I was mulling over what it means, and in the context that I missed the deadline for the Mayfield magazine article, I realised that it is to do with putting right the past, or aspects of forgiveness, and of course forgiveness is at the heart of our faith.

Reparation is a sort of repairing. We know from history that our ancestors built the might of the British Empire in no small part on the back of slave labour in our colonies. Huge parts of our economy depended on the wealth coming in from our empire, and it took a huge moral effort to forgo the equivalent of billions of pounds coming to England when a few Christian voices spoke out, and after decades, managed to outlaw slavery. Their efforts inspired Christians in other countries to gradually withdraw from their own addiction to slavery, and the world had to come to a new normality with millions of people having been displaced from where they originated.

There is a 2006 film called “Amazing Grace” about how the slave trade in England was fought and defeated. You see, it took a particular Christian view of the world to see slavery as wrong. Many of our nation do not believe in God, and only have nature as their guide. But “survival of the fittest” would support slavery. If you really believe there is no God – how can you make any case that you ought to treat others with love and not exploit them? Surely you are stronger, and they are weaker!

The concept of “karma” is gaining popularity, “what goes around, comes around”. Those who do bad things in life are destined to have a hard next life. This shows that slaves had done bad things in a previous life. There is no treating others as people just like ourselves.

Self-interest seems to guide many: “The world will work better this way”. But that wouldn’t overcome an addiction to slave trade money.

We have an ingrained Christian morality from English culture, but as folk abandon their faith how can they justify their statements. “How could the people of the slave times accept such a monstrosity?” is a 21st century world view. In the past, right across the world, all people assumed that every country had a right to attack and enslave weaker people. A better historical question would be “why did it ever occur to anybody that it was wrong?”

It is because in the Bible, God created all people equal. That He showed that they were all sinners, and that Jesus died on the cross that we might be forgiven. The wrath of God is to be poured out on the unjust. There is hell to come. Those who feel for the oppressed people of the world can know that God will punish the sinners. But there is hope because the price for sin has been paid on the cross. Those who want to know God’s forgiveness have only to come to Jesus and ask for mercy.

William Wilberforce was born into privilege in the world of colonial slavery. Coming to faith at the age of 26, he started to know the forgiveness of God, and realised for himself that slavery was wrong. He wasn’t the first to realise it, but being a man of power in the British government, he was enabled to make the steps that were to bring about the abolition of slavery. Slavery still leaves its mark, and today’s politicians will make their decisions on how to repair what they can.

But you and I need forgiveness ourselves, for our own wrong attitudes and decisions. Do ask God today for his mercy. Let me finish the quote from John 3 as I finish. What is God’s verdict on your faith?

19 This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Brian Leathers (October 2024)