Love does not require a sacrifice on the cross because Love simply forgives

 I think somebody will appreciate the invitation to think out of the box (tradition). Let's consider these questions.

Why would 'you' need grace from a God that is love? WHEN would LOVE have ever stopped loving? Are you sure that you have a clear understanding of what grace is all about? Love would simply forgive! NOT require a son on a cross!

These questions raise a pertinent point about grace because "grace" has often been used in a legalistic way in the christian circles. To some preachers, grace is like having a transaction with God, such as "God gives us his grace only when we give God our faith" or "God needs to punish Jesus to fulfill the law in order to give us his grace and forgiveness". That is not grace; that is legalism disguised as grace because the law is always conditional whereas grace is always unconditional.

Teachings that represent God/Jesus as a vindictive and vengeful divinity are actually anti-Christ because revenge and retribution are against his loving, gracious and non-violent nature. Jesus himself taught people not to return an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, but to love their enemies. It is amazing to think how much the mainstream christian teachings that propagate a picture of a judgmental and vengeful Jesus have the gospel upside down that is contrary to his true nature.

The cross simply demonstrates Jesus' love, compassion and forgiveness. He had said "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do". If he had wanted revenge, he would have said something that was condemning.

Since God is love, and love keeps no records of wrong, then it does not make any sense for God to punish or require a sacrifice to atone for people’s wrongs. The “atonement for sin” theology therefore is man’s theology. I think Jesus came to help people repent (change their mindset) about God – that the idea of “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” is not compatible with God’s love (which keeps no records of wrong), and that God’s heart is to love one’s enemies. He also came to show us that we are already innocent and perfect/complete, for the kingdom of God (innocence/righteousness, peace and joy) is within each of us.

This also answers the question “If God doesn’t require sacrifice for “sins”, then why did Jesus die on the cross?” because Jesus’ suffering and death was to demonstrate what Jesus himself taught in the sermon on the mount – he did not return an eye for an eye when he was beaten, and instead he blessed those who cursed him, and prayed for those who persecuted him. The cross is a demonstration of the love of God which keeps no records of wrong, and not to atone for so-called sins (which man-made religions have mistakenly taught).

I believe there are people who will appreciate the invitation to think out of the box and question religious traditions, so as to find their own freedom from any kind of bondage of fear and condemnation imposed by organised religions, and experience peace within themselves and with others.

Related posts

Once you start seeing The Love of God, Hell Won’t Make Sense ~Dr. Michel W. Jones
Progressive thoughts on why Jesus died on the cross and whether God’s justice is retributive or restorative

Seeing our divinity with unveiled eyes

Someone said:  

"The word "evil" means "to veil"... All destructive behavior is born of our failure to see our divinity and to accept our divinity... I'm not a Christian and neither was Jesus, but the whole point behind forgiveness of sins is to remove this veil... this obstacle keeping us from loving our self... Most Christians completely miss the whole point of the Gospel entirely... they go on hating who they are and creating destruction as a result... The word Gospel means good news and yet most Christians have found a way to turn it into bad news."

It is interesting to see the word evil meaning "to veil", which hinders a person from seeing one's own divinity. It may explain why Jesus described the Jewish generation as evil because they failed to see their own divine nature. Jesus may have tried to unveil their eyes by telling them that their true identity is the light of the world. Perhaps the law had blinded their eyes to see the truth of who they are because they had thought they had to do something in order to become righteous. 

I am thinking that in Luke 11 when Jesus described whether their eye is single or evil, he could be referring to whether their inner eye/vision is veiled to see their own divinity. 

34 The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also isfull of darkness.

35 Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. 

36 If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.

(Luke 11:34-36)

To me, darkness simply means ignorance of one's own divinity. Jesus came to bring light to dispel people's ignorance of their divine identity, hence darkness is overcome by light. Sin in the Jewish context also refers to ignorance or amnesia of one's true identity and forgiveness of sin means unveiling of one's true identity, as pointed out by the post. Back then, the Jews and Pharisees failed to see their own divinity and hated themselves and became destructive, to the point they tried to kill Jesus too. Similarly, as noted in the post, many people in Christian circles fail to see the gospel or good news of their own divinity and so they hate themselves and others, seeing themselves as sinful and unworthy. Even though they may be taught to see Jesus as their covering with the robe of righteousness, and know they are crowned with glory, the underlying message they get from institutional church is that there is nothing good in them and only Jesus is their righteousness. But that is the old covenant mindset because the Jews put themselves under the law. The law is the one that condemns, not Jesus/God. God has all the while seen everyone as innocent and perfect/complete because he/she/it made us in divine image and declared us very good. The gospel of inclusion therefore unveils our mind to see the truth of who we are and see our original glory in the face of Christ our true identity. We will have single eye that sees our body as being full of light, knowing we are the light of the world.

The gospel is about the indwelling Son, not the indwelling "sin"

Jeff Turner & Sound of Awakening Ministries

"If a sermon seeks to expose indwelling sin in the saint instead of the indwelling Son in the saint, it is not the Gospel. Period. You are not sinful, but Sonful." - Jeff Turner

Yes, the gospel is the good news that proclaims the sonship in saints, who are all of us, as the gospel unveils the loveliness, perfection, beauty and innocence of every man and woman because we are all made in the glorious image of the indwelling Son. Any other message that seeks to expose so-called indwelling "sin" is not the gospel but merely man's opinions based on the knowledge of good and evil. "Sin" is an illusion, which only exists in religious mindsets. The gospel is born of the Spirit (of God/Love) which gives life, whereas man's religious doctrines are born of the flesh which ministers condemnation.

The gospel is also good news for everyone because every one is a saint, regardless of whether they believe in a particular religion because we are all made in Love's image and Love keeps no records of wrongs. As Love is perfect and glorious, so are we in this world.

1 John 1:9 was written to the Jews, not Us

I understand the context of the verse 1 John 1:9 in terms of John writing to the Jewish audience, so he was only speaking their lingo, since they held on to this sin theology.

For us, there is nothing to confess, because we are not "sinners". I think this sin-consciousness comes from the religious mindset, that mistakenly thinks one has failed to obey a so-called god, and that subscribes to the illusion of separation.

Hence, I don't agree with the popular notion that people are born "sinners" or use the explanation that the world is messed up because of some sin Adam committed. My take is that the world is messed up because people have forgotten who they really are - that we all are already perfect, complete, blameless, innocent and beloved.

I have come to see the bible as a Jewish old covenant book, and while I may learn some truths from it, but many of the things in the bible, such as the sin theology, do not apply to me because I don't belong to the Jewish religious system, which has already been done away in AD70.

Someone may ask, "Then why did John write that 'If you say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us?'"

My answer is: Precisely because John was writing to his Jewish brethren who were under their law system, they were counted as "sinful" simply because their own man-made laws condemned them. We learn that "By the law is the knowledge of sin", so that is how the Jews became sin-conscious. This man-made law system was put to an end by AD70, marked by the destruction of the Jerusalem temple.

We are not under the Jewish law system. When there is no law, there is no transgression of law either. That means there is no such thing as sin.

In short:

No law = No knowledge of sin

No law = No imputation of sin

No law = No transgression of law

No law = No knowledge of sin

No law = No consciousness of sin

What is our conclusion then? When we change our mind (repent) from the law mindset to the grace mindset, we realise that sin is only an illusion - the illusion of separation. Sin doesn't exist in reality.

Jesus' parable of the lost son exemplifies this truth. The younger son returned home, and before he could finish "confessing his sins", his father embraced him and welcomed him home warmly and unconditionally.

What does this tell us? Is God waiting for his children to confess their sins? No. The father did not even bother to listen to the son's rehearsed confession. As far as the father is concerned, the son is always perfect and innocent in his eyes.

Similarly, as far as God is concerned (whom I believe is our highest self), we are perfect and innocent. May we all continue to see ourselves the way our highest consciousness sees us - beloved, complete, innocent and blameless.

"A good Father doesn't think of His children as evil, and His love won't even keep a record of our wrongs. So, He sends us the Comforter to bring us a real sense of security--the very thing that our theology stole from us."- Dr Michael Jones

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A metaphysical interpretation of 1 John 3:9-10 by Matthew Michaud

(1 John 3:9,10) Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this are the children of God manifest ........

Another verse underneath says; everyone who loves is born of God and knows him. To be born of God would be in one way to wake up from the lie of who you thought and have been told you are (a sinner and an individual seperate from others and God), and to come to the realization that you are "the image of God" "Christ in you the hope of glory".

You are an extention of the Father who is love; therefore his Love for all humanity is who you and I are. Yet we are not seperated in this, rather we are one (connected). When you find that you are "Love", you can then understand why you cannot sin. 

Before this we all feel condemned, guilty, and ashamed. Yet when you see that you are who you are (the true you "love"), then you also see that who was leading you was actually not really you but none other than the carnal thinking which believes the outward lies it sees and what it has heard over the years. That's what forms this false image and identity which we all at first embrace. Until we see that is not us and embrace we are what God has called us. 

Sin from what I know is not your actions as much as it is of, mising the mark, falling short of the glory. That would simply be us forgetting who we really are and embracing a lie. So how can one sin when he knows that sin is only another name for "forgetting that you are the body of Christ" who was with God before man was ever formed. The Holy Spirit is bringing all things to our memeory and renewing our true idenity to our minds. 

When sin is revealed for what it is or who it is (the created ego/opposer of God) and we see we are not him, the love that we are (our true identity), will cover a multitude of sins... [multidude - the many false identity's/ego's which are created lies and illusions. New Covenent is God remembers no more an illusion. We are his only begotten Son, as many members but one Son. He loved so much he gave his love in the form of us to each other.....

Another thought that came that is interestning is; Sin = just simply a lie in your mind that you are an individual apart from God, alienated from God but only in your mind/thoughts. That would drive an anxious mind to become god for himself. That would be living in an illusion where the mind is now a law creator, judge, and then condemner. 

The whole time we are sleeping to the true us. He gives the laws "good/evil" based on illusions he sees and misinterpets, lusts for them, then accuses you of being him. It is a cycle to keep you blind, absorbed, and desending into a lie (the carnal mind), to keep you hidden in him and thinking you are him. He is Sin, so sin would be to think we are him rather than us "Christ"...

- Matthew Michaud

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Yes, to be born of God isn't the same as "to become a christian", unlike what mainstream christianity teaches. I agree it is to awaken to the truth of who we are - we are already children of God - and once we realise our true identity, it is impossible for us to "sin" (or to forget our true identity anymore). In fact, that verse was addressed to the Jews, so it would make sense to them in their context because they were still under a religious system (since "sin" is a religious concept and doesn't exist in reality). We know that we live after the religious law system was made obsolete in AD70, so the concept of "sin" doesn't apply to us anyway, but nevertheless it is good to understand John's gospel in the light of our identity. :)

Sin is just a religious concept

Sin is just a religious concept. The reason people come up with the idea of "sin" is because they attach certain ideals and moral values to their own religion (whether be it christianity or judaism or islam, etc). The moment they do that, they become aware that they fall short of their own ideals or standards, which they attribute as "sin".

Thus, the very attempt to meet a certain criterion that they created in their own religion condemns them to failure because of their sheer humanness. After all, who can consistently keep doing "right" or thinking "right" or believing "right" every second, every minute, every hour? But oh, they keep on trying, thinking that one day they might become righteous or remain righteous. Some may think they have arrived. Some may think they may never arrive. So, who is right and who is wrong?

My answer is: Be done away with religion, and there will be no need for any self-imposed condemnation when one thinks one fails to meet the criteria, nor will there be any self-exaltation when one thinks one manages to meet the criteria, nor will there be any sense of condescension towards others when one thinks others have not managed to perform as well as one does. Without religion, there will be no sin issue. The only thing left is our identity as Love and Perfection, which remains unchanged regardless of our actions or belief systems.

Knowing the fullness of God’s love and Debunking the myth of hell (Video transcript) – Part 1 of 2

I have decided to transcribe my message about the fullness of God's love and the myth of hell that I shared in a video in January 2011 so that it can be read at any time. Besides, I don't exactly speak in Queen's English, so my video might not have appealed to as many people as I would have liked to. Here is the transcript for the first half of the message. I have added subheadings where appropriate to summarise the main points in my flow of thoughts. Enjoy. :)

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Hello, I’m here to share the good news, and the good news of Christ is something that we need to hear again and again every day – we need to renew our minds, if we can.

Sometimes, faith comes by hearing. Sometimes, faith comes by reminding ourselves, wherever we are, because we are living in a world where there are condemning voices around us, if not from our own conscience, it can be from other people, whether we know them well or not. Sometimes, intentionally or unintentionally, the way they treat us, the way they say something to us, we may all feel a sense of condemnation, or a sense of being judged. But that is life; that’s how life on earth is.

Maybe as children, we were not so conscious of that, but as we grew up, we all tend to be more sensitive and more conscious of how other people perceive us. It may come as early as in our early teens, or in fact, children can be very sensitive towards that. And of course, when we were very young, when we were still babies, we probably were not that conscious because all babies probably have only two fears to begin with – the fear of falling down and the fear of being abandoned. But all other fears are learnt, as some psychologists might observe.

The Good News is about the Love of God

So, as we grow up in this life, we all need to have a sense of acceptance, a sense of being cared for, because after all, God created us to be loved. Out of that love, can we love ourselves and love other people. So, it all starts with God. We can’t start with ourselves, no matter how much we try to psych ourselves, or how much we try to meditate, or refer to self-help books. But these only are temporary solutions.

There is a deeper need in us, in every one of us, that God created heart-shaped vacuum within us that can only be filled and satisfied with the love of God. The good news is really about the love of God, and that love is really beyond our understanding or human knowledge, that Paul said that we might know the love of Christ – the length, the depth, the height, the width – that passes knowledge. That love is something that our human knowledge cannot grasp fully without the help of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit has been poured upon our heart to know the love of God. And we need the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth regarding how much God loves us.

Questioning the traditional concept of hell

Mainstream Christianity or traditional Christianity has made it seem like God loves everyone BUT… There is always a “but” at the end. For example, those who don’t believe in Jesus Christ, they will be seen as forfeiting the love of God, and the ultimate consequence for rejecting that love of God by not believing in Jesus Christ would be to end up in a place called “hell” or “the lake of fire” in the book of Revelation, but is that really the truth?

Because as we think about the love of God that transcends understanding, the love of God that passes all knowledge, would it be possible that such a loving God would want, or would allow, or would even create a whole time frame where finally all those people who have not believed in Christ, or have not heard the gospel therefore they did not have the chance to believe in Christ, would end up in a place called the lake of fire where they would be tormented day and night forever and ever? Is that really the truth? But most areas, most aspects, most parts of the mainstream Christianity seem to subscribe to that kind of teaching, even grace-based church.

So, I want to address that because that is something that has to be… The false doctrine will always hold people in bondage. This kind of teaching, the “turn or burn” kind of doctrine – “believe in Jesus or you will burn in hell” kind of teaching – will always turn other people away, whether believers or non-believers because even some believers will still question, “Oh, maybe there are some parts of the Bible I don’t think is right, but because I’m a Christian, I’d better believe, or else, just in case kind of thing.” Maybe their church elders may tell them “Well, if you don’t believe in hell, then it means you are not really a Christian.” That kind of thing only holds people in bondage.

Do we dare to rock the boat of Christianity?

So, we are here actually, each one of us is born free. Ultimately, we all do not like to be held in bondage in some ways. So, sometimes, we may believe a lie because our pastor tells us so, or we don’t want to question too much, we don’t want to rock the boat, and we are simply satisfied to be just Christians and believe that “Oh, we are saved, therefore I don’t have to bother about that, because anyway I am going to heaven, and I really don’t have to find out more for myself, so that I can share the good news in a more accurate way with others, and whether others believe in Jesus, I don’t care. They can end up in hell for all they want.”

But that kind of belies a certain self-righteous attitude no matter how much we try to excuse ourselves because I came from that kind of position before. I was self-righteous. I came to realise that God’s love is much more than that. If I were to just ignore this set of doctrine, ignore this false teaching on hell, and just live my life like any other Christian in the evangelical or mainstream circle, I would actually be forfeiting myself of knowing… I would be robbing myself of the full benefits of knowing the fullness of the love of God. And that includes whether God would really allow, or would really want, or would really have in His plan of salvation where some people will ultimately end up in the lake of fire to be tormented forever and ever.

So, how can we reconcile the fact that God is loving, and on the other hand, God, or rather we always say “Other people send themselves to hell by rejecting Jesus Christ?” So, what is hell like? And some people may say, “Well, I leave it to God, you know? Let God do what is just. Some people just don’t believe in Jesus Christ. Well, if that’s so, Lord, let God do what He wants. Maybe it’s torture. Maybe it’s torment in the sense of… whatever it means. Because some may say they are physically resurrected and then they will feel the pain or feel the suffering, and the Bible talks about worms and all that.”

The symbolic language of the Bible

But is that really the truth because the Bible is full of symbolic knowledge? And the book of Revelation is actually full of symbolism using the Jewish apocalyptic language, which unless we are familiar with the Old Testament symbolism, we would tend to misinterpret, and I have done that before. But we are here to know the truth because the truth will always set people free – free from religion, free from condemnation, free from fear, free from whatever that holds people in bondage in some ways that deny them the freedom, the peace of mind that they will feel at any point of time, not just when they are about to die, but any point of time, they may feel a sense of alienation or abandonment or being fearful that God will judge them if something goes wrong in their lives, so we have to settle this once and for all.

So this question of whether hell exists or whether hell is true or what does hell really mean – it does not just apply to when somebody is saved; it applies to even believers today because it will really affect what we believe in about our God – the God that we believe in. Is He the God of Christians only or is He the God of everybody?

What salvation really means

And someone might say, “Well, are you saying that everyone will go to heaven without believing in Jesus?” That is another erroneous question; it’s not even a scriptural question to start with because salvation is not about going to heaven; salvation is about having your spirit, soul and body made whole in every way. The word for “soteria” – that’s the Greek word for “salvation” – it means preservation, health, wholeness, prosperity, deliverance, protection from all dangers, deliverance from every evil in our lives, from lack, from any kind of addiction. So, it’s an all-encompassing word “salvation”. It is not “Oh, one day, we go to heaven.” That is actually the wrong question to start with.

But unfortunately, even in the evangelical world, even in the grace-based churches, “salvation” has that kind of connotation that “oh, you are saved from hell”. But no, it is not that. Yes, we use the Bible as our standard. Yes, we have the Bible… Someone called it the “word of God”, and I don’t want to go into that because the word of God ultimately is Jesus Christ, who is the Living Word. The Bible - we should not take it literally or else it becomes the “letter” that “kills”.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3 that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” and he said the letter is simply when we take the Bible literally, it’s like using it as the law to tell people do’s and don’ts, and that stems from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that is actually bringing condemnation into people’s lives, like you tell them “you have to do this in order to become something”. But the truth of the gospel is that we are already something – we are made in God’s image. There is nothing that we can do to change our identity.

So Jesus came to actually reveal (to) us that identity that has already been all this while, to cause us to remember, to wake up from our amnesia that we are already one with God, and we are made in His image. He has restored (to) us the glory and honour that Adam and Eve used to have. So that is actually the salvation that Jesus has come to give us in our spirit, soul and body.

When we believe the gospel, we will benefit from that. We will enjoy the benefits of salvation in this life. We know our sins are forgiven. And that is another question, I mean, another topic altogether because “sin” is actually referring to, or rather it applies to those who lived in the Old Testament times. They were under the law; therefore, sin was imputed to them. But we are not under the law in the first place because we Gentiles live after AD70, after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, which actually signified the end of the old covenant age.

So we are actually living in the new covenant age, which is also called “the new heavens and new earth” in the last book, in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible – the book of Revelation. So now that we are living in the new covenant age, there is actually no “sin” issue. If you want to talk about “sin”, sin is only a matter of the ignorance of God’s love. Sin is called “missing the mark” or “falling short of the mark”.

So, if you want to talk about sin, the Lamb of God has come to take away the sin of the world. Well, in the Jewish context, it is actually taking away the sin of unbelief, and the sin of not knowing who they are. So, for Gentiles, you can still say the sin of unbelief, but He has taken away that. And even if we don’t believe, God still sees us righteous because 2 Corinthians 5:19 says that God in Christ has reconciled the world to Himself. So we are all reconciled, as far as God is concerned, He no more sees any sinner any more.

It is not as if you say some magic words, and say “Oh, Jesus is my Lord and Saviour”, and then God changes His mind about you. No, what and whether you believe that Jesus is your Saviour or not does not change God’s mind about you. God has already made up His mind that He has loved you with an everlasting love and He has always seen you as His children. It is up to you to believe that. When you believe, of course you benefit from that. If you don’t believe, the truth is still that God sees you as His children.

When you die, whether you believe or don’t believe in Jesus, you will still be with God because the last chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes says when a person dies, his spirit goes back to be with God who gave it. So we will all still be with God forever.

So it is a matter of “now”, here in this life. Salvation is for this life; it is not for one day when we die. I think I covered that in my previous video.

Some Reflections on a Trinitarian View of the Cross

The following is a very interesting article by Bill Nieporte, which refutes the penal substitution view of the cross in a positive way. I can relate to this article because like the author, I used to subscribe to the penal substitution view of the cross, and later realised that this view faces several problems. I think he summarised the main problems of that view well, such as the triune God – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is not separated from Himself or one another, and the fact that Jesus came as a revelation of God as our loving Father.

After all, in the past few years, I have listened to preachings like this: “Yes, God is love, but God is also just. God hates sin and has to punish sinners, so God punished His Son on our behalf at the cross.” Or “Yes, God is our Father, but God is also a Judge. As a Father, He wept for His Son, but as a Judge, He had to turn His back and forsake His Son at the cross – He was forsaken by the Father so that you and I will be accepted by the Father.” I have accepted this view without much questioning in the past, because the preachers sounded convincing in the way they presented this view of the cross. It was also a popular view, as it seemed to be widely accepted by people among the evangelical christian circles.

I guess the penal substitution view might even sound logical to most people because we tend to equate our human sense of justice with God’s idea of justice. In most (if not all) societies, the law court would impose on an offender some form of punishment, such as fine, jail or death penalty, depending on the severity of the crime. But this punishment is mainly retributive and serves as a deterrent for others – it is neither remedial nor restorative. The judge also gains nothing out of it. God, on the other hand, has a different view of justice – He judges on behalf of the poor, the downcast, the oppressed, and the sinners. God is love, and His justice must be viewed from the perspective that His nature is love — love wants the best for us.

So who did God judge at the cross? Not us. Not His Son. I believe God judged the devil, who is the accuser of the brethren, and he is none other than our guilty conscience, so that today, our conscience can no longer condemn us or make us think God is angry with us or out to punish us. God saves us from wrong thinking (which began in the garden of Eden), by sending His Son to open our eyes to the truth of the gospel – through His finished work at the cross, He has cleansed our conscience so that we can have the boldness and freedom to fellowship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who is all the while with us and for us. We can boldly and freely enjoy the warm fellowship and love with the triune God in our daily life.

“The reason I am ‘hung up’ on this (as you put it) is that I am passionate about biblical theology. What is advocated by those who hold ‘penal substitution’ view of redemption is a hermeneutic that is imposed on the scripture from the outside. It does not rise up from the text. I once believed otherwise – but as I have more carefully studied the Bible – I am no longer able to accept the schizophrenic view of God that teaches that Father was dumping anger or wrath out on Jesus when he was on the cross. My foundation has been a renewed understanding and appreciation for the biblical doctrine of the Trinity.

The ‘penal substitution’ view is in error in that it divides God into parts differing personalities, rather than a Triune who share the same nature (LOVE). The early church fathers referred to this as perichoresis – a Greek term that means ‘cleaving together.’ It describes the fellowship (Baxter Kruger calls it ‘the Divine dance’) that exists between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as they embrace and infuse each other. This is more than just intimacy and self-sufficiency. It is also the understanding that the Father, Son, and Spirit are one in being. Karl Barth considers the  doctrine of the Trinity so important that it became the lynchpin of this entire theology. In fact, the doctrine of the Trinity (Barth referred to the ‘one in threeness’ and ‘three in oneness’ or God) was the prolegomena of his systematic theology.

Here is where the problem lies. The idea that one part of God could be angry at us and the other loving toward us is contrary to this core biblical doctrine of the Christian faith. The idea that Father could in any way pour out anger or wrath on Jesus in anathema to a good Trinitarian, as it cuts up the Godhead into separate entities, rather than affirming the unity of the Godhead. This is unbiblical.

Compounding this biblical error is that it serves as a basic denial of the doctrine of the Incarnation which teaches us that Jesus was the perfect expression of the Father in human form (see Hebrews 1:3). In Jesus, God is seen not as some wrathful God of vengeance who must be appeased. Rather God is full of compassion and mercy, as witnessed in Jesus.
What Trinitarians advocate is that the place from which to understand scripture and all doctrines of the Christian faith is by looking at the love and kindness of Jesus, who came to reveal what God was really like (as John 14:9 says, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”) Those who work from a ‘penal substitution’ view say that the discussion about the nature and identity of God begins with ‘the law’ and not with Jesus. In fact, ‘penal substitution’ draws the attention so much to ‘the law’ that even God must submit to its dictates. In this view, God is so uptight about sin (disobedience against the law) that God MUST punish lawbreakers. So, then, the two hermeneutical principles that inform my interpretation of scripture are the doctrine of the Trinity and the conviction that the nature (DNA, if you will) of God is LOVE. Both these principles rise up from the scripture, where as the ‘penal’ view does not. So, while you may disagree with me, please don’t see my objection as merely a visceral discomfort with the notion of God’s ‘anger’ or ‘wrath.’ Rather these ideas (as they are understood from a ‘penal substitution’ viewpoint) are simply inconsistent with biblical theology.

So, then, the logical question is this: “If God was NOT pouring out wrath on Jesus as a penal substitution for us, then what exactly was happening at the cross?” The answer is that the cross is a unified expression of LOVE from our Triune God. Texts that affirm this include 2 Corinthians 5:19 and Hebrews 9:14 which together place Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together, on the cross, bringing all humanity the gift of salvation. Beyond all else, salvation is an invitation to participate in ‘the Divine dance’ (perichoresis).

As I said earlier, God is not schizophrenic. He does not suffer from a multiple-personality disorder. There is not a good guy God in a white hat named Jesus, and a mean God in a black hat called the Father. There is one Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) who loves without condition and has not only forgiven us, but has removed sin from us, and has made a way for full participation in the love relationship the Godhead shares. The word Paul uses is ‘adoption.’ God becomes one of us in Jesus. God takes up our cause. God draws us into relationship. (Ephesians 1:4-5)

Now with this picture in mind, how do we see this concept of God’s wrath? God’s wrath is God’s anger at sin because it hinders our ability to have intimacy with God. As a parent, I have often been angry at my children’s behavior. But I have never stopped loving them. I have never disowned them. Jesus makes this exact point in Matthew 7:9-11, when he says, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” The message of the cross under the ‘penal substitution’ view is that God is angry with you and poured out His wrath on Jesus. The message of the cross from a proper Trinitarian understanding of the scripture is that God loves you. That’s why we call it GOSPEL.”

- Bill Nieporte