This is going to be a little different from my typical posts.  You might have noticed I’ve been a little quiet about the racial tensions of late.  Silence isn’t always a bad thing.  It can have a number of causes.  In my case, it’s been because behind the scenes I’ve been working on getting this shareable…

What Does the Bible Say About Race?

See, when racial tensions kick up, I can’t help but think of what the Bible says, in Romans:

“And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth…” (Acts 17:26a, NKJV)

Diversity is good.  God created it.  But underlying it all is an even deeper truth — we’re all a single people.  There are many tribes and nations, but there is only one race.  The entire human race is one blood, all equally descendants of Adam.

The Church, too, is representative of this — one Body, many members.  All brought together by the blood of Christ.

Seeking a Song

But what I found, working through the hymnal, was that this huge, fundamental truth is not well-addressed in hymnody.  It’s mentioned in the final verse of a song here or there, where we read about every tribe and tongue before the throne.  But nothing I could find really emphasized the unity-with-diversity that characterize God’s creation and, especially, the people of God.

So I wrote one — lyrics for one, anyway.  But I don’t do music, so I’ve needed some help to get it finished and shareable.  And that’s what this post is all about.

A friend, Frank Aiken, wrote the melody for this.  You can find him at The Real Frank Aiken, and The Lunch Break Hymn Sing podcast.  My husband made a few tweaks to the music and arranged and played it for me in the video you’ll see below.

Biblical Inspiration

Before I get to the song itself, I just want to share a few of the verses that most heavily influenced the lyrics.

“And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth…” (Acts 17:26)

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matt. 28:19)

“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit…And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” (1 Cor. 12:13, 26)

“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named…” (Eph. 3:14)

One Blood — the Song

The Lyrics

V. 1
One blood – the source of all mankind;
One blood, who all in Jesus find
An equal offer of complete
Atonement at the mercy seat.

CHORUS
One blood comprises Adam’s race,
And one atones for all, by grace.
One blood that courses through us all,
And one that rescues from the Fall.

V. 2
One Body, unified, partakes
Of wine and bread, and others’ aches.
One Body works in harmony
To share the news of victory.

V. 3
One faith unites one family.
One Father draws us all so He
Can glorify His gracious name
Through a people who all share the same.

V. 4
Each tribe and nation, every land,
All baptized into one vast clan,
Will worship, voices ever raised,
As at His feet, we bow, amazed.

This work (the song, not the blog post) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.