I am the grandchild of immigrants. Some came to America legally, and others did not; some came for adventure and others for survival. In our family are runaways, refugees, orphans, and picture brides who, in this fine nation, became mailmen, seamstresses, gardeners, and short-order cooks.
And although Ms. Liberty claimed to welcome them with open arms — “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” — the actual experience was by no means pleasant. Many were incarcerated for months at Angel Island in the shadow of the Golden Gate. Others spent time behind barbed wire at Manzanar for “their own safety.” As the poet Robert Frost once wrote, “Good fences make good neighbors,” but they also keep them distant.
This topic can be contentious for some because our views on immigration too often depend on anecdotal evidence: “They steal our jobs. They bring more crime. They don’t pay taxes.” Yet for every fear-mongering tale, there are stories of success: “Let me tell you about my family. Look at our example. See how America has helped our friends.”
So which stories do we listen to? As Christians, we find guidance in a greater narrative as we filter culture and politics through God’s revelatory Word. To paraphrase Eugene Peterson, “The news headlines are simply footnotes to the Scripture and not the other way around.” In other words, the gospel narrative can and should reshape our views on immigration as we tell our stories as part of God’s good news: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation.
Creation
Christians affirm that all people are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), so we must not curse those in our Creator’s likeness (James 3:9). From the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) to the throne of Christ (Revelation 7), we witness God’s glory in the diversity of his creation.
Fall
Sadly, our world was broken when sin entered at the fall to separate man from God and from one another (Genesis 3). Since the fall, we can rightly say that newcomers to our country might commit crimes or take advantage of the government.
Yet those already in this country are sinners too. A mere glance at our nation’s history shows our failure to love our fellow man. In modern times, politicians across the aisle can’t seem to get along, and churches can be blind to the issues among us. Immigrants face various forms of suffering and many have never heard the gospel of salvation. We experience this broken system because we live in a fallen world.
Redemption
But God has always planned to redeem the nations for himself. As our Savior, he “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time” (1 Timothy 2:4-6). Jesus Christ “is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). His sacrifice is the only way of salvation (John 14:6).
Our greatest need has not been immigration reform or learning how to welcome the stranger, but first and foremost, a relationship with Jesus Christ. We deal with broken thinking and sinful thoughts because we live in a fallen world. We fail to love our neighbors as ourselves because of selfishness at the very core of our souls.
Yet God has made us in his image — created for intimacy with him and with our fellow man. He then saves us by his grace and redeems our relationships as we believe in Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross. Jesus tears down any ethnic or economic barriers to full fellowship in the church since all the redeemed are equal in him (Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 2:11-22). In fact, we all are “sojourners and exiles” (1 Peter 2:11) since “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).
Consummation
Here is the glorious consummation of the gospel story. As Russell Moore has written, “Immigration isn’t just an issue. It’s an opportunity to see that . . . there will be a day when the United States of America will no longer exist. And on that day, the sons and daughters of God will stand before the throne of a formerly undocumented immigrant. Some of them are migrant workers and hotel maids now. They will be kings and queens then. They are our brothers and sisters forever.”
This gospel story must guide the church’s response to love our neighbors (Matthew 22:39), to show hospitality to strangers (Hebrews 13:2), and to seek justice for the helpless (Micah 6:8). No matter our political view, we must always show compassion because the first concern of “the good Samaritan” for a hurting person is not, “Are you legal?” but, “Can I help?”
Truth be told, we all need grace no matter how many generations we have lived in this country. We must recognize that immigrants are just like us: Persons created in the likeness of God (Genesis 1:27), future citizens of this complicated country, and hopeful members in Christ’s spiritual family.
So let us treat them with the dignity and grace we desire for ourselves (Matthew 7:12). Let us sacrifice our earthly treasures for kingdom purposes (Matthew 6:19-21) and remember that “this world is not our home” (1 Peter 2:11).
As Christians, we are all strangers in this world, but we look forward to the day when men and women from every tribe and tongue will join together in worship around the throne of Christ (Revelation 7:9-10). May our love for the immigrant stir in us a greater longing for heaven and for the glories of Christ.
* A version of this article also appeared on the SOLA network.
