God’s “creation blessing” was given first to the sea and air creatures (Gen 1:22) and subsequently three times to humanity (Gen 1:28; Gen 9:1, 7). The creation blessing reveals God’s intention for creation characterised by flourishing diversity, including a flourishing ethnocultural diversity. The powers of sin and death, which entered the biblical story in Genesis 3, oppose God’s intentions for flourishing ethnocultural diversity. Insights from sociolinguistics are helpful in identifying this in the Tower of Babel story and Exodus 1. God called Abraham and Israel out of the nations as the one for the many, and while the Old Testament focuses on the nation Israel, the nations are always in the background. When the nations are foregrounded, the dominant vision is that they will be beneficiaries of Israel’s salvation. With Jesus, the one for the many became literally one. Subsequently, in the early church there was a rapid moving out from the one to the many, specifically to the nations, in way that the early Jewish church could never have conceived. The early church eventually realised and agreed that people of other cultures could become followers of the Jewish Messiah without becoming culturally Jewish. This radical development means that no particular culture can claim to be more inherently Christian than another, and indeed to do so is heresy. Being “in Christ” does not cancel or diminish cultural identity but rather validates and strengthens in. Through Christ, God’s intentions for a flourishing ethnocultural diversity are fulfilled.