Black Man Theology

By Pastor Samuel Jones

Growing up, I was told I was never going to be more than a mistake, I was never going to accomplish anything of value, and that I didn’t matter. During my formative years, these words overshadowed the truth in scripture.

I was struggling in my youth to find significance. I was making all the mistakes that go with that, from anger to being promiscuous, and headed in the wrong direction. I was trying to silence those words or either live up to them.
It wasn’t until I came into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ that the truth in scripture entered my heart. The Holy Spirit placed a hunger and thirst in me for the word of God and led me to study the book of Romans, where I read this verse:

“ For whom he did foreknow, he also predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31 What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be] against us (Romans 8:29)?”

When I consider this appeal—my soul sings. When this truth permeates our mind, we take on faith and a confidence that we are created by God on purpose. He shaped us to be like Him—to carry out an assignment that was inherent in the reason for making us in His image in the first place.
He called, he justified, he glorified, and the icing on the cake of His creation is the promise that even though others speak against what God has created, HE IS FOR US!

This knowledge helps me walk in responsibility. Carrying the image is not enough. Every human being has an image. That’s why all lives matter. Our responsibility is in our willingness to surrender to the call of God and to be CONFORMED into the image of Jesus Christ.

In conclusion, I want to ask… are you struggling to see who you are? Here is my advice, read the word of God and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth to you.
In 2 Corinthians 2:4, the Apostle Paul writes:

“In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

Brothers, it’s your time to walk in the light. It’s time to be conformed into the image of God.