Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian

Book Review by
Jesse Lobbs

In “Bloodlines,” the latest book from John Piper, pastor of preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Piper discusses exactly what the subtitle says: “Race, Cross and the Christian.” Piper has embarked on a pilgrimage to pay his debts from the days of his racist childhood growing up in South Carolina – something every Arkansan can relate to today. He writes to magnify the cross of Christ through the gospel and present the implications of that cross and gospel in regards to race.  

Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian by John Piper, Crossway Books, 2011. “The bloodline of Christ is deeper than the bloodlines of race,” says Piper, which is the heartbeat of this book. As Christians, we have experienced the wonder of the gospel firsthand. 

Piper presents the power of the gospel as dynamite that has the potential to change racist mindsets and create ethnic harmony that greater glorifies Jesus Christ. The gospel is not only the power that reconciles man to God, but also the glory that reconciles man to man. 

The author points to the only one way the world may overcome racism supremely – through the Lord Jesus. Through reconciliation, man overcomes hopelessness, greed, inferiority, self-doubt, fear, pride, guilt, apathy and Satan.  

Actually, the Bible tells us our Lord has overcome the world by the way of the cross. Piper examines further how the gospel relates to each facet of racism and even interracial marriage, which is still a sticky subject in the South. The glory of it all, though, is that Jesus, the Sacrifice, is common access for all nations. Through one blood comes one new man in one new body in one Spirit and for one Lord.  This is a great exposition of Scripture in defense of the unity of the gospel and the God-glorifying diversity of the church.

Jesse Lobbs is a sophomore at Arkansas Tech Univesity majoring in English and communications and is active in Baptist Collegiate Ministry.