Key Takeaways
1. Our Image of God Shapes Us
“Whatever knowledge you have about God is just pure nonsense—cultural nonsense. Depending upon what kind of culture you are in—it is that kind of God, isn’t it?”
Idols of our making. We often create images of God that are glorified projections of ourselves, shaped by our temperament, traditions, and cultural assumptions. These "un-Christlike images" can include God as a doting grandfather, a deadbeat dad, a punitive judge, or a Santa Claus blend, each reflecting our highest expectations and deepest disappointments. Such distorted views lead to a "toxic theology" that can make God seem capricious, cruel, or even demonic.
Becoming what we worship. The danger of these false images is that we inevitably become like the God we worship. If our God is primarily willful and punitive, we tend to become judgmental and self-righteous. Conversely, if we perceive God as distant or passive, we may feel abandoned or compelled to control our own lives. This cycle perpetuates a faith that is often "mean and foolish," driving people away from the church and obscuring the true nature of God.
Cleansing our palate. To break free from these damaging distortions, we must cleanse our spiritual palates. This involves recognizing our biases and saturating ourselves in the beauty of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels. Instead of purging faith with cynicism, we can embrace "the living water of Truth" to wash away bitterness and prepare our hearts for a clearer, more Christlike vision of God.
2. God is Exactly Like Jesus
“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
The decisive revelation. Jesus Christ is the perfect and decisive revelation of God's true nature. The apostles testified that "all the fullness of the Godhead lived in a human body" in Jesus, making him the "exact representation of God's being." This means God is, was, and always will be entirely Christlike, embodying self-giving love, humility, and mercy.
God's unchanging nature. This isn't about God becoming Christlike, but about Jesus revealing God's eternal character. Archbishop Michael Ramsey stated, "God is Christlike, and in Him there is no unChristlikeness at all." This challenges any notion of a two-faced God—one of wrath in the Old Testament and one of love in the New—insisting instead on a consistent, loving divine identity.
Beyond human projections. By accepting Jesus as the definitive image of God, we move beyond anthropomorphic projections that reduce God to human flaws. Jesus' life, ministry, death, and resurrection unveil a God who is compassionate, inclusive, and radically forgiving, contrasting sharply with the "monster-god" often conjured by fear or misinterpretation.
3. God's Power is Kenotic, Not Coercive
“What if kenosis—self-emptying power, self-giving love and radical servant-hood—expresses the very nature of God!”
Self-emptying glory. The Greek term kenosis, meaning "self-emptying," describes Christ's divine nature not as a surrender of power, but as its ultimate expression. God's omnipotence is revealed in his humility, meekness, and servant heart, especially in the Incarnation and Passion. This "cruciform power" operates through love and persuasion, rather than arbitrary force or coercion.
A strange kingdom. Jesus' kingdom is an "upside-down kingdom," where true sovereignty is demonstrated through servanthood, not imperial dominance. He came as a "lowly king," riding on a donkey, not a warhorse, and his reign is established through sacrificial love, not conquest. This challenges worldly ideas of power, which often equate strength with control and violence.
Love's reign. When love reigns, the will becomes self-giving, leading to genuine freedom from self-centeredness. This is exemplified in marriage and parenting, where sacrificing one's own desires for the sake of another leads to flourishing. God's rule is active in the world, but exclusively through this kenotic love, inviting willing participation rather than demanding submission.
4. Divine Wrath is God's Consent to Consequences
“Wrath is a metaphor for the intrinsic consequences of our refusal to live in the mercies of God.”
Intrinsic consequences. The "wrath of God" in Scripture is often a metaphor for the intrinsic, self-destructive consequences of human defiance and sin, rather than active divine punishment. God's love grants authentic freedom, and his "passive wrath" is his consent to allow the powerful, often painful, results of these choices to take their course. This means sin carries its own penalty, woven into the fabric of the universe.
God's enduring mercy. God's mercies "endure forever" and are never withdrawn. When "mercy gives way to wrath," it is because humanity has chosen to "hit the off-switch" and rebuff God's grace. This perspective reframes suffering not as God's direct retribution, but as the natural outcome of our actions, which God allows out of respect for our freedom.
Beyond literal interpretations. Many biblical texts describing God's anger and violence are "mythic-literal" metaphors, not literal descriptions of God's character. Reading these through a "cruciform lens" reveals God as a redeemer, not a destroyer. For example, Paul reinterprets Old Testament plagues, attributing destruction to "the destroyer" (Satan) rather than God, who always seeks to save and heal.
5. The Cross Reveals God's Consent and Participation
“God is participating with us—in all of it—the good and the bad!”
God's active presence. While God consents to the free play of natural law and human freedom, he is not a passive spectator. Through the Incarnation, God-in-Christ fully participated in human affliction, bearing the sins, sorrows, and tragedies of the entire race. The Cross is the ultimate expression of God's solidarity, where he "drank our cup of suffering" to heal humanity from the curse of sin and death.
The cosmic and historic Cross. God's consent and participation are evident from creation to redemption. In creating the universe, God "died to being all there is and controlling all that is," making space for authentic existence. On the historic Cross, Christ willingly relinquished control to human autonomy, enduring our violence and rebellion. These "Crosses" are not momentary events but reflect God's ongoing, self-giving love that spans all of history and creation.
Bridging the abyss. The Cross bridges the "gaping abyss" between God's perfect goodness and human misery. It offers an "anti-theodicy," not explaining away evil, but demonstrating God's presence within it. Christ's co-suffering love means he identifies with our pain, even our experience of his absence, and grafts our suffering to his divine love for redemption.
6. Christ's Victory is Through Self-Giving Love
“Hell received a body, and encountered God. It received earth, and confronted heaven.”
Triumph at Calvary. Christ's victory (Christus Victor) is a central theme, demonstrating his decisive triumph over Satan, sin, and death. This victory is achieved not through violent conquest, but through the self-giving love of the Cross. Paul states that Christ "disarmed the powers and authorities... triumphing over them by the Cross," by canceling our legal debts and forgiving all our sins.
Resurrection's assurance. The resurrection confirms this victory, particularly over death and Hades. As St. John Chrysostom proclaimed, "He has destroyed death by undergoing death. He has despoiled hell by descending into hell." Christ's resurrection is the "first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep," assuring that death, the "last enemy," will ultimately be destroyed.
Love as the ultimate power. This victory is now ours, with God's "all-powerful might" identified as love itself. Paul declares that "neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons... nor any powers... will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." This Cross-shaped love is the relentless force that brings all things into willing surrender and worship, transforming the world.
7. Justification is God's Gracious Declaration
“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.”
Righteousness by grace. Justification, in Pauline theology, means being declared righteous before God, not by our own efforts or law-keeping, but "freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." God knows "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," so he takes the initiative to justify us, giving us Christ's righteousness.
Substitution without appeasement. While Christ died "for us," this substitution is not about God punishing Jesus to appease His own wrath. Instead, God "was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting our sins against us." Jesus "stepped into the ring" as our substitute, taking the "bullet" of death and sin, but God is not the one holding the smoking gun.
The great exchange. Christ's death initiates a "great exchange": he takes our curse (death, sin, hell) and gives us his blessing (life, righteousness, heaven). Through his identification and participation in our humanity, he becomes the locus and mediator of this transformation. Our "Adamic nature" is exchanged for a "Christ-nature," making us partakers of the divine nature.
8. The Gospel is a Story of Relentless Pursuit
“God is always toward you; this love never turns from you.”
God's unwavering orientation. The "Beautiful Gospel" reveals a God who, unlike the "modern Western version," never turns away from humanity, even in sin. When we turn from God, he relentlessly turns towards us, seeking, finding, and welcoming us with grace. This is exemplified in parables like the Prodigal Son, where the Father runs to embrace his returning child without shame or condemnation.
Healing, not punishment. This gospel portrays God not as a condemning judge, but as the "Great Physician" who heals our brokenness and rescues us from the disease of sin and death. Jesus' ministry was a continuous act of seeking and saving the lost, healing the sick, and restoring the outcast, demonstrating God's active love before the Cross.
Love stronger than death. Even when humanity rejects and crucifies God in Christ, his response is "I forgive you." When we experience the "wrath" of our own self-destruction and fall into death, God's love pursues us "all the way into death," conquering it and holding the "keys to death and Hades." This "pure fire of divine Love" is always longing for us, transforming torment into joy for those who receive it.
9. Beyond Literalism: Reading Scripture with Christ-Cleansed Lenses
“Perhaps the Bible itself would seem like a more Christlike book if our interpretation reflected the self-revelation of the living God who came in the flesh.”
Cruciform hermeneutics. A "Christ-focused lens" is essential for interpreting Scripture, especially passages that seem to portray God as violent or wrathful. This "cruciform hermeneutics" recognizes that many biblical descriptions are metaphors or reflect the limited understanding of ancient authors, rather than literal attributes of God. It challenges "mythic-literal" interpretations that get stuck in childish understandings of faith.
Unwrathing God's narrative. This approach helps "unwrath" God by reinterpreting instances of divine violence or judgment. Instead of seeing God as actively commanding genocide or causing natural disasters, we understand these as metaphors for the consequences of human sin, the actions of "the destroyer" (Satan), or God's consent to the laws of nature and human freedom. The Bible's trajectory moves from primitive understandings to the full revelation of God in Christ.
Transformation through understanding. A clearer vision of the Christlike God moves beyond mere doctrine into transformative action. By understanding God's enduring mercies and kenotic love, believers are empowered to become more Christlike themselves, engaging in "empowered cruciform discipleship." This involves embracing humility, self-giving, and radical forgiveness, reflecting the true nature of the God they worship.
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