Opening Text

“What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one… For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” — Romans 3:9–10, 23

Are All Men Created Equal?

We hear it said — and it is well said in the American system — that all men are created equal. But is this actually true? Are all men created equal by God? The answer, as Scripture shows, is yes and no. There are ways in which all men are equal, and ways in which they are not. The simple statement that all men are created equal is too simplistic to stand as it is.

The Ways in Which All Men Are Equal

First, all men are equally men. It might sound obvious, but it is foundational. No man is a lesser man. No nation is a sub-human nation. No race is only half human, or more evolved than another. All men, from the most technologically advanced civilisation on earth to those living in the deepest jungle — all are equally full human beings, equally created by God, equally descended from Adam and Eve. This truth alone, properly understood, is the total refutation of every form of racial supremacism.

This is precisely what evolution denies. Charles Darwin’s famous book was not only called The Origin of Species — its full subtitle was The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Darwin wrote in his published letters that the more civilised Caucasian races had beaten the Turkish hollow in the struggle for existence, and that at no very distant date endless numbers of the lower races would be eliminated by the higher civilised races. That is racism in its most explicit form, and it flows directly and logically from the doctrine of evolution. Thomas Huxley, another founder of evolutionary theory, wrote that no rational man believed the average Negro was the equal of the white man. The true origin of modern racism is not the Bible. It is the doctrine of evolution.

Second, all men are equally depraved sinners. From the moment of conception, every human being — whatever his nation, colour, language, or culture — is a fallen sinner, shapen in iniquity, bearing the corrupt nature inherited from Adam. Paul establishes this conclusively in Romans 3:

“Both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin… There is none righteous, no, not one… all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” — Romans 3:9–10, 23
“Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” — Romans 9:21

The vessels of honour and the vessels of dishonour are made of the same lump — the same fallen human clay. No nation has a head start on another in the matter of sin.

Third, all men equally return to dust when they die. Death is no respecter of nations. The wisest man and the greatest fool, the most powerful emperor and the poorest slave — all equally give up the spirit, all equally return to the dust from which they came.

“For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever… how dieth the wise man? as the fool.” — Ecclesiastes 2:16
“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” — Hebrews 9:27

The Ways in Which Men Are Not Equal

Having said all of that, the Bible equally teaches that men are not equal in many other respects. Not all nations have the same gifts, the same abilities, the same providential history, or the same opportunities. Some men are born with greater intellect; others with less. Some nations have been more greatly blessed with material and cultural advancement; others have not. Some individuals are born into privilege; others into poverty. God distributes gifts and opportunities as he sees fit, according to his sovereign will.

“For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” — 1 Corinthians 4:7

But none of these inequalities — in intelligence, in ability, in national achievement, in material prosperity — give any man or any nation grounds for pride or contempt toward another. Everything that any man has is a gift from God. The gifted man did nothing to earn his gifts. The prosperous nation did nothing to deserve its prosperity in comparison with a poorer one. All is of God’s free grace and sovereign disposal.

Why Some Nations Advanced Further Than Others

This question puzzles many, particularly those of non-European nations who observe that certain European nations advanced so much further technologically and in certain other ways than others. The answer is not evolution. It is not racial superiority. It is providence — the sovereign disposal of God, who gives to some nations more than to others for reasons and purposes that are entirely his own.

As we shall see in the next sermon, the Lord permitted and directed European expansion across the globe for a specific purpose — not because Europeans were morally superior, because they were not, and not because they deserved it, because they did not. But because the sovereign God of history had a plan for the spread of the gospel to every corner of the earth, and he used the providential circumstances of European expansion as one of the instruments by which he accomplished it.

“For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?” — 1 Corinthians 4:7