If your understanding of God feels abusive, it’s time to exchange that image for one defined by unconditional love.
For too long, many Christians have been taught that the cross was a “cosmic transaction”—a blood sacrifice God supposedly demanded to forgive humanity. This idea, often called substitutionary atonement, wasn’t preached by Jesus; it developed centuries later. Let’s be honest: a God who requires violence to grant forgiveness is operating with the logic of the empire, not the logic of compassion and love.
The cross wasn’t about God’s wrath; it was the empire doing what it always does: silencing a voice that threatened its power. Jesus was executed because his life was such a radical, full expression of love that it unsettled the status quo.
The resurrection wasn’t about paying a debt. It was Love itself declaring that while you can kill the messenger, you cannot kill the message. Love always rises.
Perhaps the cross is not about God’s anger at all, but about Love standing up to violence and refusing to be buried. If your faith paints God as demanding and abusive, choose the image of Love instead. Let your love be louder than violence.
Shalom, Paul