Escape to freedom, my journey to living out my identity in Christ

I’ve always been a Christian, I’ve had no dramatic road to Damascus experience, born into an Anglican Christian family, always heavily involved in the Church, my parents were always keen to help me discover my own faith. I attended a lively and charismatic yet largely conservative Anglican Church for most of my childhood and teens. It was in this environment that the foundation for my faith was established.  As is characteristic for a child I accepted the traditional theology taught to me and it was from this theology my early understanding of the character of God was formed.

In my late teens I became friends with a group of young people from a local Pentecostal free church, Airedale Church, which had grown out the ministry of the late Bryn Jones. I thrived in this environment, free from some of the traditional trappings of religion; and probably more crucially alongside a strong friendship group. However, aside from a few differences in beliefs around baptism, the basic theology was the same.  Even when I visited, and later led, other events and festivals and met with those from other churches the basic theology was the same. To condense to a few bullet points deeply engrained in my psyche were the ideas that:

·       God is inherently perfect and as a human I am loved by God but am inherently bad, a sinner.

·       Jesus had to die so that God would forgive me.

·       You can become a Christian by admitting I’m a sinner and accepting forgiveness by saying a simple prayer.

·       Being a Christian is about being good, not swearing, being sexually pure and living a wholesome existence.

·       The Bible is literal and infallible.

It wasn’t until my late 20’s that a new Pastor, arrived at Airedale Church and slowly started to help me question some of these ideas.  Overtime I refined my thinking, to use the buzz word of the moment I deconstructed my faith.

In this blog I intent to take you through some of the key theologies I have refined, rethought and deconstructed.  I want to make it clear that this is a journey I’m still on; in a few more years I am likely to have rethought, refined and deconstructed these even further. But for now this is where I am and I hope and pray that reading this will help you too to rethink some of your engrained theology. Because I believe if the global Church is to survive, let alone thrive that we all need to fundamentally rethink some of the so called sacred cows of theology. This isn’t a criticism of anybody, I just feel that my eyes have been opened to a deeper understanding of my faith and I’d like to encourage others to think carefully and pray about whether they agree.  I am very aware that some people will immediately read this and brand me a heretic; I am sadly no longer surprised by the hostility I get from some who would profess to be Christians.  What I ask is that you read this with an open mind, that you are prepared to consider the idea that just because you have always believed something doesn’t make it correct. The most progress occurs, in all schools of thought, when brave men and women are prepared to think outside the box and challenge their own beliefs.

In his book “The Great Emergence”, Phyllis Tickle, former religion editor at Publishers Weekly observed that every 500 years or so the Christian faith holds a jumble sale.  It sorts through all that it has accumulated over the centuries and sends the extra baggage to the recycling centre.

If you know your Church history Tickle has these moments as the great collapse of the Roman Empire around 500AD, the great Schsim where the western and eastern churches split around 1000AD and then the great reformation with Luthor and later Calvin around 1,500AD.  500, 1000, 1500, do the maths. We’re due another jumble sale. Tickle describes where we are now around 2000AD as the great Emergence, but exactly what is going to emerge is still to be seen.

Friends, I’ve come to a scary conclusion our faith in all it’s forms is in trouble particularly in the Western World, declining congregations, aging congregations, sexual abuse scandals, financial issues, an increasingly secular society, misconceptions about what we believe and who God is.  However, to quote Brian McClaren author of “A new type of Christianity” I have also come to an immensely encouraging conclusion I believe our faith, in all it’s forms, is also pregnant with possibilities.

In 2015 just 4.7% of England’s population attended Church, I suspect that in 2023 post-pandemic that figure is now even lower. Why is that? When I speak to my non-Christian friends they see church and by extension God as being increasingly irrelevant and out of touch, they struggle to believe in a God that allows the world to be full of so much hurt and we need to own and address the fact that many people have been hurt by the Church.

I believe the Church needs to be a place where everyone is welcomed, affirmed and valued, where they are allowed to ask questions, where they feel comfortable challenging Church leaders. Church needs to be somewhere that that 95% of people can come to and feel listened to, understood and not judged.

I know many people who are embarrassed to admit to being a Christian, not because they are ashamed of their faith and their God but because of the many stereotypes and assumptions that people make. Assumptions sadly often perpetuated by the Church.

Friends can I suggest Something isn’t working anymore in the way we’re doing Christianity and if the Church is to survive let alone grow we need to investigate openly and honestly what that is.

So let’s now spend some time exploring those key ways that my theology has evolved.

Jesus is God

Jesus is God. Not a revolutionary statement in itself, the idea of the Trinity, although not explicitly biblical has been around for well over 1,000 years.  However, my pre-deconstruction view of God was more heavily influenced by the God described by the Old Testament writers; a God who was often angry and vengeful.  God the Son, Jesus, then allows himself to be killed to save us from this angry God the Father and allow us to be forgiven.

The cornerstone of my new understanding is the knowledge that the most accurate picture we have of God’s character is the Character of Jesus. In John 14 when Philip asks Jesus to “Show us the Father” it reads from the NIV:

“Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.

If we have seen Jesus we have seen the Father. Jesus came to Earth as a Human to reveal to us the true character of the Father. Jesus is the most accurate view we have of who God is.  The problem this creates though is how do we explain the apparently angry, vengeful God we read about in the Old Testament (and places of the new). Whether we like it or not the teachings of Christ contradict other parts of scripture. So where this conflict occurs what do we do? Often the so called traditional or “biblical” way of thinking aligns more with our own world view and it’s far easier to follow the more traditional teaching. Well to me the answer is clear Jesus’s word is the final word. I’m a Christian, not a Mosian or an Abrahamian!  Let us not forget that Jesus himself regularly corrected the Old Testament.

Matthew 5:38 NIV:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”

Matthew 5:43 NIV:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, “

That’s really clear to me a direct instruction from Jesus, no buts, no context necessary or get out clauses. Love your enemy.  However, for centuries many Christians have ignored this and taught an eye for an eye. It wasn’t long after Jesus walked the Earth that the Church was murdering so called blasphemers on a huge scale. Why is this? Because it’s easier, it takes great strength to fight back with love and not with hate. The world has conditioned us that when we get things wrong we deserve punishment. Then Jesus says: “But I tell you, love your enemies”.

In Luke 9 on the mount of transfiguration as Moses and Elijah faded from view a voice from heaven came and said “This is the Holy Bible of which I am proud read it”. No.

Luke 9:4 NIV

While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” 

We need to read the Bible through the lens of Jesus, not Jesus through the lens of the Bible. When we realise that Jesus is the perfect representation of God and we start to view Scripture and teachings through this lens it begins to change everything.  I would really recommend reading the excellent book “A more Christ Like God” by Bradley Jersak if you’d like to explore this idea further.

You can’t mix Grace and Law

To understand Jesus we have to understand Jewish culture and this is a large part of why the Old Testament is so valuable. The pillars of the Jewish faith were the Law and the Prophets. Let’s return to Luke 9 for a moment.

28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)

34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” 36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

In this beautiful part of Scripture Moses represents the Jewish law and Elijah the Prophets, between them the cornerstone of Jewish faith. What God is revealing here, by Jesus being the only one who remains, is that Jesus supersedes all that was in the past.

Matthew 5:17 NIV

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus isn’t replacing the Law and the Prophets, he himself is the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets. Everything that has come was leading up to this moment, the moment when God in all his glory became a human, allowed himself to be executed and then rose from the dead.

This is explained well by Paul in Romans 8

 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Through the law we could never fully realise who God has made us to be. For us to understand more of the character of God and to realise that sin has been dealt with it was necessary for God became Human as the fulfilment of the law.

A significant portion of the New Testament, particularly Paul’s letters, spends considerable time convincing Jewish converts to not return to the old ways of the law and legalism and to live in the freedom Christ has bought them. The group of people who come in for the most criticism from Jesus wasn’t the criminals or the “sexual sinners” but the Pharisees.  The Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day had got so caught up in rules and regulation that they had lost sight of God.  Sadly I think much of the modern church suffers from the same affliction.  We try to balance the history of the Church with the views of Christ and end up with a mix of the law of religion and the grace of Jesus.

There can be no mixing of grace and law, by God’s grace the law is fulfilled and all that is left is Grace. Did John set down lots of rules before his baptisms? Did Jesus set out a list of restrictions and requirements before bread and wine could be shared? Did Christ insist that people changed their ways before he would forgive them or meet with them?

All of these traditions and customs which have become rules and regulations begin to separate us from God.  As the Pharisees did they add conditions for who is worthy enough to take part in certain rituals and place barriers in the way of our faith. We need to get back to basics and simplify what we believe, remove the baggage of the law in our jumble sale and emerge preaching grace and grace alone.

Jesus went out of his way to include everyone, it deeply saddens me that Church often goes out of its way to exclude people.

I am worthy

Over the millennia as the Faith became more and more entwined with the State; religion became more about control and fear than love and grace.  A simplified version of the narrative is that “The King has been appointed by God, you’d better do what he says or God’s going to hurt you”. To achieve this a hierarchy was created God at the top, the ruling class slightly below, then the clergy and finally, at the bottom, the people.  This was achieved by restricting access to Scripture, legislation and blasphemy laws and doctrine. All law and very little grace in complete contrast to the upside down Kingdom described by Jesus in Luke 6.

To aid this narrative it helped if you regularly told people that they’re unworthy and inherently bad and the only the way they can rectify that is through the God represented by the State. This is typified by the infamous 1741 sermon by the preacher Jonathan Edwards known as “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. Somehow this passage has become a common piece of writing to study in American schools.

“The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.”

Compare this to John 3:

16 “God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him. 18 People who believe in God’s Son are not judged guilty.

It staggers me how anyone familiar with the Bible could believe Edward’s text is what God thinks about us.  The contrast between this picture of God and the God of love revealed to us by Jesus couldn’t be stronger.  American Pastor Brian Zahnd explorers these themes in his superb book “Sinners in the hands of a loving God”.

I recall at a children’s summer camp being taught Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of the Lord” we sung it to the tune of Tony Christie’s “Is this the way to Amarillo”.  Yet we completely ignored verse 24:

 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

The Church is obsessed with Sin, God is obsessed with Love. We have been forgiven, sin isn’t a barrier for God, but we make it barrier for us.  “I’m not worthy enough to be a Christian”, “I’d set on fire if I went into a Church”. Jesus was all about forgiveness and building people up, the Church uses Sin as a tool to make people feel useless and broken.

Jeremiah tells us that God doesn’t even remember our sin, to him it didn’t even happen.  Yet we keep on going back to it, in church services we are asked to dwell on and remember it, to spend time reminding ourselves how rubbish we are. God may have forgiven us and forgotten about it but we need to dwell on it? Yes we can and should learn from where we get things wrong, but that’s different to holding on to the shame.  Traditional doctrine often not only tells us to hold onto the shame but uses it against us as a label for the future.  All I can say is I’m glad that’s not how Jesus operated as he wouldn’t have any disciples left never mind the Apostle Paul and his failings as Saul.

I return to the aforementioned Paul and Romans 8.

There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit, which brings us life in union with Christ Jesus, has set me free from the law of sin and death.

God thinks you are worthy, you are forgiven no matter what you have done. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

Bad things are not from God

During the Covid Pandemic I lost count of the number of times I was told the pandemic was God’s way of teaching us something, or that he must have caused the pandemic for a reason and some good would come of it. Now I do believe that God wants to partner with us to make good come from even the darkest of situations, but we must be clear, God does not make bad things happen.

COVID 19 is an attack of the enemy, it is not from God. God only brings good. James 1:17 says

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”.

As we have established Jesus is God and Jesus only brought good things to the world, it was no coincidence his first miracle was to turn water into wine! If we are saying that the pandemic, used to represent all bad events, was from God then it must fit into one of two categories (assuming we ignore the idea that God did it for fun!) either it is a punishment or it is to teach us something.

On punishment Jesus could have used his power to punish those who wished him ill, he could have refused to heal sinners but that’s not who he was. Jesus was so committed to his non-violent, non-vengeful unconditional love that he died for his ideals. The Cross dealt with sin, it is a degradation and flippancy to the power of Christ’s sacrifice to suggest that the Cross wasn’t sufficient and some extra punishment is now needed. There are passages of Scripture that refer to God’s discipline but God’s discipline isn’t punishment when we get things wrong but a getting alongside us and helping us to make the right choices.

If we were to say bad things happen to teach us something then using the pandemic as an example you then have to say that God is happy for thousands to die to make his teaching point. This idea of God using cannon fodder is to be frank quite insulting to his character.

The next natural question then is a lot more challenging: If God is all powerful (omnipotent) then even though he doesn’t cause bad things he has the power to stop them. Even though God doesn’t cause suffering is he complicit with it? There’s the age-old adage either God must not be all powerful or he must not be all loving to allow suffering to take place. Well that doesn’t fit with the all good God of love portrayed by Jesus. So there must be something more.  I think a good way of looking at it is like this: In allowing free will God has chosen to give up some aspects of his omnipotence.  If humans have the capacity to love we must also have the capacity to hate.  If we have the ability as a species to produce Mother Theresa we must have the ability to produce Hitler. Love not power is God’s primary concern; love trumps power every time. So God has chosen to give up some aspects of his power in order for us to have love. It’ not that God chooses not to intervene with the suffering; rather that he cannot intervene with the suffering because to do so would be to remove free will.

That argument works for me for the consequences of human action or inaction.  Where it is less clear cut is in cases where the suffering is from a natural source. For example: disease, earthquakes, flooding, or the pandemic etc. Now again you can, successfully, argue that things like flooding and famine are at least in part caused by human fault in global warming or inequality.  You could even argue that some diseases are as we have the medical abilities we don’t share with the developing world. But there are certainly cases such as earthquakes, tsunamis etc that are completely random and could in no way be caused by human activity. These so called “acts of God”.

My conclusion is that God made a perfect world without any of these sufferings. But because of the choices of humans starting with Adam and the apple (whether you take that literally or metaphorically) we bought death and suffering into the world.  This is where I think we become really arrogant to think that we understand how the Universe works. Clearly the workings of the spiritual world are, at least in part, beyond our understanding. There are forces in play that we have little knowledge of, at least until we meet with God in heaven. Here we have to accept that we don’t understand it all. Quite how natural disasters (or pandemics) are a consequence of sin, the mechanism behind it if you will, is beyond us. However, one analogy that may help a bit is in a similar way to God gives us free will nature also has free will. In all of this though it is imperative that we remember always that God feels our pain so deeply and is with us always even when we don’t recognise it.

God is not in control

Yes you heard me right. God is NOT in control. All my life when bad things have been going on I’ve heard this well intentioned phrase, “Don’t worry God is in control, he knows what he’s doing”.  A phrase intended to comfort in difficult times.

Let’s examine this phrase and look at why, if we think about it, “God is in control” is actually not that comforting at all.  Take the pandemic we were just referring to; if we are to say that God is in control of it we have to believe that God created it. We have to believe that God has deliberately made a virus that has killed hundreds of thousands and made the lives of millions a misery. Is God really in control of this? Of course not!

So if God isn’t in control who is? Well the answer is a bit disconcerting God has delegated control to mankind. In Genesis 1:26 says:

 “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

God has delegated control to us. But now here’s the good bit, instead of controlling humanity God wants to work in partnership with us to make the world a better place. Control is a fear-based response, partnership is a love-based response. The abusive partner exercises control through fear and oppression. The loving partners work together. We know which has better results.

Referring to my profession people often ask me how “do you keep control your class?” My answer is I don’t want to control the children; I want to work in partnership with them. I want to show them that making the right choices makes life better for everyone. I don’t want them to do what I ask because they are scared of me. I want them to do what I ask because they trust me and see the benefit in completing the task.

For some the revelation that God isn’t in control may be dis-empowering, are we just meant to then succumb to the world? No, this isn’t dis-empowering it’s empowering. It give us a role, an invitation to work with God to use all the power of heaven to make the world a better place.  We are no longer spectators to a battle between good and evil. No longer helpless victims of a spiritual power struggle.  We are powerful beings, active participants.

This idea that God isn’t in control is perhaps the “Holy Cow” which some Christians have the most trouble reconciling. May I suggest the reason is because it means we cannot just be bystanders. It means we have power and as the great philosopher Peter Parker once said “With great power, comes great responsibility”.  Perhaps it is easier for some Christians to say “God is in control” because it abdicates us of responsibility.

Using this phrase isn’t comforting, it reinforces the belief that the suffering is caused by God.  To some it says that we’re not good enough, that the suffering is deserved, that the suffering is a consequence of our sin. It’s dis-empowering, it removes us from the narrative making us pawns in God’s Calvinistic game. On the face of it it’s a meaningless soundbite, deep down it paints a dangerous picture of God. Can I suggest that a better response to suffering would be “God feels your pain, he is there with you and wants to work in partnership with you to make it better”.

The cross

The Cross is the absolute centre point of our faith, the fact that Jesus who was fully man and fully God was executed and rose again defeating sin and enabling our forgiveness is something that, I hope, we can all agree on. But some of the other theologies surrounding the cross have been the subject of my deconstruction.  Before I go any further though it’s important to recognise that the fullness of what  Christ achieved and suffered on the cross is beyond any of our comprehension. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to understand it.

The question that caused me to think the most was “why did Jesus have to die?”  As I stated in the introduction the classic narrative goes like this humanity is bad God is good, if we were to mix with God then we would contaminate his goodness. So in order to reconcile us to God he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross to take the punishment that we deserve so that we can go to heaven.

But the more I thought about it the more uncomfortable I got with that traditional narrative, the more holes I found in it and the more it contradicted the character of the God of love revealed to us by Jesus. I have massively rethought my theology around the cross and I’d encourage you to do so as well.

What is traditionally taught and what I described earlier is called Penal Substitution theory.

Wikipedia defines it as:

The penal substitution theory teaches that Jesus suffered the penalty due by God the Father wrath for humanity's sins. Penal substitution derives from the idea that divine forgiveness must satisfy divine justice, that is, that God is not willing or able to simply forgive sin without first requiring a satisfaction for it.

The God I know is both willing and able to forgive as demonstrated by Jesus repeatedly forgiving sins. If you believe in penal substitution then you have to believe that either God is unwilling to forgive us (until he has received a blood offering) or God is unable to forgive (without a blood offering).

Mark 9 says this:

Jesus got into a boat, crossed the sea, and came to his own city. 2 Some people brought him a paralyzed man on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Cheer up, friend! Your sins are forgiven.” 3 Then some of the experts in Moses’ Teachings thought, “He’s dishonoring God.” 4 Jesus knew what they were thinking. He asked them, “Why are you thinking evil things? 5 Is it easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”

When the man is bought to Jesus, does Jesus first demand a blood offering? Does he ask him to sacrifice 2 doves, 3 beetles and a dodo? No he just forgives him. Does that present to us a God who is either unwilling or unable to forgive?

Is there anywhere in Scripture when Jesus gives the impression that he is unwilling or unable to forgive?

Luke chapter 5:

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came to him who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he bowed down with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 13 So he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

I am willing, be clean. There had to be no exchange, no conditions, no discussion, Be clean immediately. Let’s not forget that leprosy was thought of as a sin in Bible times it made you ritually unclean and required an elaborate cleansing ritual. But Jesus just said “I am willing, be clean”.

Jesus is God, Jesus is clearly both willing and able to forgive sins without a blood offering and if Jesus is, God is.

If we believe God is unable to forgive without a blood offering. We are placing constraints on God’s power.  Does God say “Well I’d like to forgive you, but I can’t until I’ve paid off mother nature”. Is there some greater power than God that constrains him, is there some “deep magic” that even God has to obey? No of course not. Whether God forgives or not is completely upto him.

So then we have to ask is God able to forgive but refuses to unless someone dies “I will forgive you, but not until he dies” some people call this the monster God theology, the idea that God is angry and that Jesus saves us from God well Jesus is God, so explain that to me.

When Jesus died on the cross, God also felt that pain and suffering. In William P. Young’s “the Shack” Mack the protagonist says to God, how could you let him (Jesus) die? To which God holds up her hands and shows the scars she too carries and says “we were there together, I never left him and I never left you”.

Penal Substitution wasn’t actually around as a theory for the first 16 hundred years of the Church, it was only in the 16th Century during the reformation where Martin Luthor and John Calvin, popularised it.  The Eastern Orthodox church has never adopted it. Since the 16th century many notable theologians have spoken out against it, CS Lewis described it as “Extremely unethical”. Yet in modern time many notable evangelicals have been severely criticised for daring to say that penal substitution is incorrect.

Well let me say it now, penal substitution is incorrect. It does not reflect the character of God revealed to us by Jesus.

So then, what are the alternatives?

Penal substitution arose as a theory out of St Anselm’s satisfaction theory from the 11th Century, Anselm said that Jesus suffered as a substitute for humans to satisfy God’s honour.

For me though we have to go back to the 5th Century and the ransom theory proposed by the fathers of the early church and popular for 500 years before the reformation of Luther and Calvin.

“The theory teaches that the death of Christ was a ransom sacrifice, usually said to have been paid to Satan, in satisfaction for the bondage and debt on the souls of humanity as a result of inherited sin.”

In 1931 Gustaf Aulen published a book where he reimagined the ransom theory into what is now commonly called “Christus Victor”. Aulen says that the cross should not be seen as a business transaction but as a rescue.

As we discussed earlier Christus Victor says that God delegated authority over the Earth to humans and when Adam ate the apple, when humanity decided to sin, we then gave Satan authority over the Earth. The cross was a decisive victory over Satan forcing him to relinquish that authority over anyone who exercises and believes in the power of the cross.

I like this way of thinking Genesis clearly says that God give man dominion over the Earth, numerous verses talk about the Prince of the World Satan then tricking us into giving him authority.

2 Corinthians 4:4

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

You see the only authority Satan has is that which we give him. Over the centuries we have yielded more and more authority to Satan. Can I suggest even authority to change our view of the cross and use a moment of beauty to convince us that the God of love is a monster.

Jesus’s death on the cross, was necessary and inevitable as soon as sin entered the world. Because Jesus’s message of love was so contradictory to the world powers that he had to die. The cross was not necessary for us to be forgiven but it was necessary for us to realise our forgiveness. Zahnd puts it like this:

God did not require Jesus’s death but the sinful systems of the world did. When the angry crowd were shouting “Crucify him, Crucify him” that crowd represents the world system of which we are all a part. We are all complicit in upholding the world order that craves violence and promotes inequality. The world order where Satan is the Prince. The cross shows us that the violent system of the world is so evil that it would even kill God and once we realise that and repent of it we can be free from it.

Colossians 2:15

There at Calvary he disarmed the cosmic powers and authorities and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross

On the cross Jesus famously is quoted as saying “Why have you forsaken me”.

Matthew 27

45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

Why was there darkness for the last 3 hours of Jesus’s life? Well who’s the light of the world? When Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness Luke 4: 13 says:

When the devil had finished every test, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

I believe those last 3 hours on the cross were that opportune time.  I believe the cross is far more complicated than any of us can understand.

John 14:30 says:

“I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me.”

The prince of this world is Satan. During those 3 hours Satan threw everything he had at Christ he tried to convince him that God had abandoned him. Jesus was fully God, but he was also fully human, be under no illusion that he was protected from the pain of the torture of the cross. When Jesus was at his weakest Satan moved. As he often does with us. Satan realising what was happening would have tried to convince Christ to get down from the cross. Satan knew that the cross could make us realise he holds no power over us. The devil did not want to relinquish that control.

The author Herb Montgomery puts it like this:

“Imagine with me the amazement the angels felt as they witnessed the Savior’s struggle with the Enemy. Satan in these hours had only one goal: to break the will of Jesus at any cost. But why? Satan hoped he could force Jesus into a psychological corner where Jesus would choose to abandon you and me to him in order to save Himself. In that thick darkness, the Accuser hid the Father’s presence from Jesus. And in that dreadful hour, Christ was made to feel as though He were completely alone without the comfort of knowing the Father was with Him.”

That is why Jesus says “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”. But God was there. The enemy plays the same tricks on us now. He hides God from us in our darkest moments. God never left Jesus and he will never leave us. In The Shack God says “Never think that what my Son chose to do didn’t cost both of us dearly”.

What amazes me though is whilst all of this was going on during this battle what did Jesus do? He looked down at the solider with the hammer that pushed the nails through his body and he didn’t see the hammer or the solider he saw the man and said “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Zhand says “Only God could take a symbol of violence and make it a symbol of peace.”

The Podcaster Mike McHargue puts it like this:

“The cross was not God’s invention - it was ours. In all our need for an eye for an eye, I have to wonder sometimes if God listened to us cry for blood and offered his own - if Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was not to sate God’s wrath, but to show God’s response to ours”

Why did Jesus have to die? God didn’t demand blood, Jesus’s blood, God wasn’t unable or unwilling to forgive without blood. Jesus had to die because the world in which Satan had authority demanded it, The Cross was what Jesus endured as he forgave. But Jesus knew, God knew, that his death would show us that Satan’s lies about our unworthiness about our true identity are just that lies. Jesus knew his death would show us violence is never the answer. Jesus knew the cross would be the focal point the symbol of his victory. The symbol that turned violence, blood and evil into love, grace and peace. Christ was and is the victor.

All are worthy

Perhaps this is the most difficult of all of the points for some to come to live out. Even if you have come to the conclusion that you believe that you are worthy in God’s eyes, it’s difficult to set aside the religious and world view that likes to constantly whisper into our ear about our inadequacy.  What is even harder for some is to see others the same.

In Acts 10 God speaks to Peter in a vision and tells him to get out of his head the Jewish law that some people are ritually unclean. Not long after the vision a Roman Centurion Cornelius visits Peter, Cornelius was a Christian but not of Jewish decent and didn’t follow the law therefore he was considered by the Jews to be unclean. Under the law Peter had no business associating himself with Cornelius, but God had taught him otherwise and he says this:

  “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.

We have been forgiven what God has cleansed he has cleansed, let’s not try under legalism to dirty it again.

John 15:3

3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Some Christians seem to see the faith as more of a social club which gives them some moral and ethical superiority. By saying a sinners prayer and “becoming a Christian” we are free from condemnation.  “But look at him”, “he’s a sinner”, “I can’t associate with her”.  Some Christians have a real issue with believing that others, particularly none Christians are also seen by God as being worthy. Let’s return again to Romans 8

There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit, which brings us life in union with Christ Jesus, has set me[a] free from the law of sin and death. 3 What the Law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did. He condemned sin in human nature by sending his own Son, who came with a nature like our sinful nature, to do away with sin. 4 God did this so that the righteous demands of the Law might be fully satisfied in us who live according to the Spirit, and not according to human nature.

There is no condemnation for those that are in Union with Christ. But the argument then goes if there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ there must be condemnation for those who are not in Union with Christ. That’s how this passage has been sold to me in the past.  In other words, another way for so called Christians to go, I’m better that you, I’m not condemned because I’ve said a sinners prayer but you, you are condemned.   You’re a worthless sinner condemned to eternal torment in hell.

That wasn’t Christ’s attitude and it mustn’t be our attitude but let’s think about that for a moment in context of this verse.

Who is not in Union with Christ? If we’re not careful here we get caught up in legalism very quickly. Is the union reserved for Christians? What makes you a Christian? Does saying a sinners prayer once unite us with God? Do we need to be baptised? Does it need to be full immersion? What about confirmation? Do I need to have done an Alpha course? Under grace there is no need for us to draw that line of distinction. Law and religion require that line this is where Calvin got so caught up in his own arguments, there has to be a line of right and wrong otherwise how can we judge people. Funnily enough, the line is always drawn with the one doing the drawing on the right side of it.

Let me suggest that if we preach solely grace and not law there is no need to judge anyone, or draw a line at all. Jesus is quite clear that’s it’s not for us to judge.

Matthew 7:1

“Judge not and you shall not be judged”

To me scripture is simple God has dealt with the sins of everyone, he sees all of humanity as being clean and worthy. To be in Union with God Jesus says we need to obey his teaching. Does that mean one moral slip up destroys the union? Well Jesus doesn’t say we need to obey the law and keep a list of rules, nor did he say we need to obey John Calvin, or Revd Billy Bruce Bruce. His teaching was simple to know you are loved and forgiven and then use that knowledge to love and forgive others.

However, whilst God seeks union with everyone there are people who have chosen themselves to reject that union so is there condemnation for them? And if so where does that condemnation come from? It can be implied from Romans 8 that those outside the union are condemned but can I suggest implying anything from Scripture is dangerous.  If Paul had wanted to say that “those who reject God are condemned” he would have said it but he didn’t. To take this passage that is about building people up and to turn it into one that puts people down takes an impressive reading, one that comes from a place of deep insecurity in our identity as God’s child.

Having said that though there is often condemnation for those both in and out of the union, can I suggest that those who use these verses to condemn others are actually under this curse of condemnation themselves. But what is crucial is I don’t believe the condemnation comes from God. The life of Jesus shows us that he forgave people, some of them had to ask for that forgiveness others just got it anyway, but he forgave people. He didn’t condemn people whether or not they were in union with him didn’t matter. Not once did Jesus say that someone was going to hell because they got something wrong.

The condemnation my friends comes from within ourselves and from the world. Unless we truly believe deep down inside ourselves that Christ has made us whole we hang onto that guilt and it becomes part of us. We all make mistakes, we can all learn from our mistakes, we should all try to not make mistakes but we mustn’t walk around with the guilt and accusations that come from those mistakes. If the Cross showed that God has forgiven us it should be enough for us to forgive ourselves and others.

If the Church is truly to meet the needs of society it needs to be seen as a place of grace and not judgement.  When the church gets caught up in making moral judgements rather than loving, when the theology based on societal values and prejudice becomes bigger than the love of Jesus. That’s when the church goes out of its way to make people feel excluded, worthless and guilty. Which is strange because Jesus went out of his way to do the opposite.

The Church should bring life. As the body of Christ we should go out of our way to make sure that the marginalised, the outcasts and everyone else knows they are loved and forgiven. Yet too often we go out of our way to condemn and criticize.

There is nothing wrong with, lovingly and graciously, getting alongside someone and helping them deal with an issue.  This is how Christ dealt with the disciples on many occasions.  The issue is motive are you pointing out some one’s faults to make you feel better about yourself? Are you prepared to help the person make better choices?

In the eyes of God all have been made worthy, Christians  and the Church need to see everyone through the same eyes.

Conclusion

In the introduction I listed some inherent beliefs which have taken years for me to rethink and process.  I would like to finish by stating what I now believe to be the core beliefs of our faith.

·       God is good, all the time he loves me and all of humanity extravagantly, equally and unconditionally.

·       Jesus was the perfect representation of God in human form and the Spirit is the fullness of God living in me.

·       I have been forgiven, God sees me (and everyone else) as worthy.  I need to see others in the same way.

·       Being a Christian is about knowing God wants to partner with us to make the world a better place, restoring it to how he originally made it.

·       The Bible is a tool to help us understand who God is.

The Global Church is at a cross roads, the traditional institutions, often mean well but are too full of centuries of law to be what society needs them to be.  The evangelical right is also caught up in it’s own set of law where politics has got mixed up with religion and spends more time saying what it is against than what it is for.  Both streams of our faith have many good points and overall I believe the world is a better place because of them. But, for the Church to move forward, for it to be relevant to the 21st Century we need a jumble sale.  We need to reconsider some holy cows, get back to Jesus, remove the law and preach only grace.

I believe the Church will leave this “great emergence” bruised and battered having sadly lost many good people along the way. But the what is left will be the spark needed to transform the world with the power of love.

Notes:
This is the culmination of many years of thinking and reading, I have tried to credit people where possible but I have likely taken influence from others not credited, sorry if that’s you and happy to correct if contacted.  I would also like to thank the following friends and preachers crucial to the journey: Geoff Newton, John Mastrogiovanni, Eileen Jackson, Fraser Leach, Wayne & Lillian Deakin as well as my beautiful, intelligent and ever supportive wife Keldene.