God is Not Our Enemy

Today is Good Friday, the day we remember the crucifixion of Jesus. Many of us were taught that because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, our sins are forgiven.

A popular theory as to how this works is that because humans are totally depraved we are worthy only of God’s wrath, therefore God sent his own son to take the punishment for our sin to reconcile us with God so we can go to heaven when we die.

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I realized this week that it’s this characterization of God and understanding of salvation that I’m fighting against.

Jesus did not come to save us from God. God is not our enemy.

I think this idea of God as an all-powerful being bent on destroying us if we don’t say a magical prayer, hold up a cross, or do all in our power to eradicate sin, is what is fueling the anger and hate that many of us are concerned about today.

Theology matters. What we believe, or don’t believe, about who God is and who we are in relation to God, drives how we understand the world and our fellow humans.

If we believe that God hates our neighbors because they believe differently than we do, then we have permission to hate them, too. If we believe that they are deserving of God’s wrath, then we can become convinced that we are the instruments of God’s wrath. If people have been taught to worship a god who is filled with rage, then of course they’re angry. If they serve the god of war, then war is always justified.

But the Bible says…

Anyone can quote Bible verses to support just about anything; that is why I believe that Bible study is so important. Bible study that welcomes healthy debate and inquiry helps us to seek the truth and acts a guard against believing everything we’re told by people in positions of authority.

Which leads to my current theory as to why Jesus “had” to die on the cross.

As I’ve begun to explore the idea of Christianity as a resistance movement, I’ve become more aware of all the power dynamics at play in the Gospels and throughout Scripture.

Let’s move the conversation away from heaven and hell and focus on what actually seems to be happening in the story. It seems evident to me that, at least part of what Jesus was offering salvation from, was what we might recognize today as narcissistic systems.

The world has long been ruled by narcissists and bullies.

Whereas the wrathful God described in penal substitution atonement theory (above) seems to be just another narcissistic bully like the pharaohs, kings, and caesars, I believe the biblical narrative demonstrates that God is not one of them, but stands in opposition to them.

I’m not convinced that his death was “God’s plan” so much as it was the inevitable outcome of resisting both Roman and Temple power structures and exposing the injustice inherent in narcissistic systems.

He did not come to replace those corrupt systems with a different narcissistic power system, though the Church has often done just that, and I think that’s what we see in the rise of White Christian Nationalism today.

If God was fully revealed in the person of Jesus, then God does not suffer from narcissistic personality disorder and following Jesus, being a Christian, is the call to resist such systems of power and injustice.

Resistance is maintaining agency. It is not allowing ourselves to be bullied and it is helping others to find their voice. It is giving sight to the blind and helping the lame to walk.

But what about our sins and hell and all of that?

I suspect that we read into these stories ideas of heaven and hell that developed outside of Jewish and Christian traditions. That doesn’t mean that they’re not real, but the people of Jesus’s time seemed much more concerned with how they were treated in this life because of their perceived sins, just as we are today.

Sin was (and is) used as an excuse to create hierarchies of power, to bully and condemn in this life. When the people with power used the law to crucify an innocent man, it broke the power the system had. The system of condemnation proved itself to be unjust.

Jesus did not have to die to satisfy the wrath of an angry God; God wasn’t the problem. The problem was (and is) the men who claim to act on God’s behalf.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that much of our theology has little to do with people earnestly seeking after God but was built around men’s pursuit of power.

This is why we should always question the authority and the teachings of men in power. That’s what Jesus did and that’s what got him killed.

Go in peace knowing that your sins are forgiven.