Editor's note: This story was written by Union University.

JACKSON, Tenn. - Just as God shattered the wall between Jews and Gentiles by offering Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for the sins of both groups, so the gospel shatters racial barriers today, Jarvis Williams told the Union University community Feb. 16.

“Preach the gospel to whomever will listen to you, regardless of whether your audience is black or white or red or green or purple. It doesn't matter. Preach the gospel,” Williams said. “Don't you dare believe the lie that there's a black gospel and a white gospel. There's one gospel. It's the gospel of the Jewish Messiah Jesus Christ, and that one gospel is the power of God unto salvation for Jews, as well as for Gentiles.”

Williams, assistant professor of New Testament and Greek at Campbellsville University, spoke in a chapel service in the G.M. Savage Memorial Chapel and preached from Ephesians 2:11-22.

He stressed to the Union audience that their identity in Christ is more important than their racial identities, and challenged his listeners to embrace the reconciling power of the gospel and give their lives to proclaiming it to others.

“We should seek to proclaim the gospel and live out the gospel among those who are not like us,” Williams said. “All Christians, regardless of ethnicity … (have) been recreated by God through Christ into a new race in Christ.”