MARCH 2018 1

resigned to our fate—this won’tend well.

Thoughts are racing through ourminds with each and every step ofour death march. God has cut us somuch slack over the years, maybehe has lost his patience and he istired of us taking advantage of him.Maybe this time he just can’t lookthe other way. We broke his lawsand now his laws will break us.This time we’ll have to pay for oursins.

God the Father, the Lawman, hashad it “up to here” with bad guyslike you and me who keep breakinghis laws. Sure, we’ve been told theFather loves us, but Father God hasto make us pay because he enforceslaw and order.

When the distance between usnarrows to about thirty feet, FatherGod stops. We stop. The time hascome.

We’re staring death in the face—death in the unflinching, stern faceof the Lawman whom we havebeen told loves us so much.

This showdown at highnoon is God’s love? TheLawman loves us somuch that he will kill usand send us to an ever-burning inferno of eternal hellfire?

Did God Kill Jesus?Suddenly, wearing a whitehat, Jesus, the Son of God,jumps out from an alley.

Just as the Father fires on us, Jesusjumps in front of us and takes thebullet. We can’t believe it—we lookdown at Jesus who is lying in a poolof blood that would have been ours.The Father turns his back and walksaway, returning back to his office inthe jail.

The penalty has been paid. Jesustook our place. Justice has beenserved. The law has triumphed.God the Father intended to kill us,but Jesus took our sins on himselfand God killed him instead. Jesus saved us—from God!?One thing is sure. Jesus is dead.

We can see that. But now ourthoughts are racing about themotive and the reasons behind hisdeath. God the Father killed Godthe Son so that justice could beserved and the penalty could bepaid?

But God doesn’t sin. Killing is asin. If God shoots down Jesus inthe streets of Dry Gulch, orcrucifies him in Jerusalem, thenGod the Father is killing God the

PLAIN TRUTH ®

w w w . p t m . o r g

Continued on page 3

insideThe Universal Body of

Christ p2

Pascha! Victorious Cross,Empty Grave

and Living Lord p5

Fearful Places p7

Quotes & Connections p8

MARCH 2018

Volume 83, Number 2

t’s high noon in Dry Gulch.Two lone figures are walkingdown the dusty street, gettingcloser and closer to their inevitable face-off.

According to religiousinterpretations, God the Father isthe good guy on the streets of DryGulch. God is the Lawman—thequickest and fastest draw ever.Nobody ever gets the drop on God.

The bad guy? That would be,according to religion, you and me.God the Lawman has said “enoughalready.” He has called us out andwe are approaching the gates ofhell.

Our mothers told us if we didn’tchange our ways, we would pay asevere penalty. Our pastors andpriests warned us about God’swrath. This is our Judgment Day,and Father God is the judge, juryand executioner.

The badge on the Father’s chestreflects the noonday sun—lightning bolt flashes of intenselight momentarily blind us. We are

CHR I S T I AN I T Y W I THOUT THE R E L IG ION ®

IBy Greg Albrecht

Who Killed Jesus?

Son and punishing Jesus for crimeshe never committed.

God is one—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—who perfectly andharmoniously love each other—sowhy would Father God kill God theSon? Does the Father love us or isJesus really the one who loves us?Fine—“what a friend we have inJesus.” But is the Father our friendtoo? This is confusing. God theFather seems like the embodimentof the saying, “With friends likehim, who needs enemies?”

Is an outraged and wrathfulLawman more in love with his lawthan he is with us—leaving Jesus tobe the one who really loves usbecause he sacrificially took thebullet with our name on it?

We stumble away from this awfulscene of bloodshed and walk intothe whitewashed church at theother end of town. We find apriest/pastor—and we ask him totell us what just happened becausewe can’t figure it out. We listen, asthis religious authority provides aninterpretation of high noon in DryGulch: “God the Father killed God the Son,

who willingly took your place so thatGod the Father’s wrath would besatisfied. The Father would have killedyou and been justified in doing so butJesus took your place. Justice is served.The penalty is paid. Blood has beenshed.”

The pastor/priest continues: “Yousee, the cross of Christ is all about thelegal demands we have failed to keepand the penalty Jesus paid in our stead.”

We walk out of that churcheven more perplexed thanwhen we entered. Are we tobe assured that God’s anger isappeased because the blood ofJesus flows in the streets ofDry Gulch/Jerusalem? Can wenow really believe God lovesus, and will never, ever againgo ballistic and lose his coolbecause he took out his wrathon his one and only Son?

The Cross of Christ—Anger or Love?This is essentially the religiousinterpretation of the cross calledpenal substitution—God’s lawwas broken, he was offended, hegot angry and someone had todie. Thankfully, Jesus was our substitute. It’s a warpedand twisted idea isn’t it?

The vast majority of NorthAmerican churches today teachtheir members that the cross is theultimate symbol of God’s anger.God is angry with us because of oursins, they say—and since the wagesof sin is death then we deserve todie. But Jesus, thankfully, came tostand between us, so that we wouldnot be tortured forever in hell bythe wrath of God.

Consequently, much ofChristendom has corrupted thecentral meaning and focus of thecross. If you buy into penalsubstitution as a way ofunderstanding the cross of Christ,you must believe that God theFather puts his love for laws aheadof his love for us. That’s

preposterous—but that’swhat many churchesteach!

But when you fullycomprehend the gospelof Jesus Christ, yourealize that the gospel isgood news because Godis love—he never has losthis cool, he never hasgone ballistic, and hisprimary inclinationtoward you and me isnot anger and wrath butlove and grace.

What is the Significance andMeaning of the Cross of Christ?

Jesus died, but the Father didn’t killhim. Jesus died, willingly, as a lambled to the slaughter, because of thehatred and vengeance of humanity.God the Father did not kill Jesus.Jesus did not save us from the wrathof the Father. People killed Jesus.

Human civilization killed Jesusbecause he was such a threat to thestatus quo. Rome and religionkilled Jesus. Human authorities,civil and religious, killed Jesus.Jesus revealed the fullness of God—he revealed the Father and all hislove. Out of the united andsupreme love of Father, Son andHoly Spirit Jesus accepted allhuman hatred, lust, violence andbloodshed for all time—absorbingit without retaliation or revenge.

On his cross, God (in the personof Jesus) opens his arms toeveryone—to every warmonger,every racist, every addict and all thehomeless, diseased and dying. Godspreads his arms on the cross inwelcome to the poor, the prophets,the prostitutes—even to thepompous priests who arranged forhis brutal torture and execution.

Theologian Jurgen Moltmannpoints to the cross of Christ, tellingus “This is God and God is likethis.” God is not Pilate requiringan execution of Jesus. God is notorganized religion demandingthe crucifixion of Jesus.

When we look at the Cross ofChrist we are looking at the perfectand beautiful love of God—Father,Son and Holy Spirit. This is the loveof God who returns good for evil.

Continued from page 1

…the Lawman hashad it “up to here”with bad guys like you and me who keep breaking his laws.

3

When we look at theCross of Christ weare looking at the

perfect and beautifullove of God…

4 PLAIN TRUTH

“Father, forgive them, for they donot know what they are doing”(Luke 23:34).

Who was it on that cross? It wasGod in the person of Jesus on thatcross. Who killed Jesus? The Fatherdidn’t kill Jesus because God(Father, Son and Holy Spirit) isultimately and absolutely definedas love. God did not kill God.People killed Jesus.

Our Loving Father We humans can easily fathom andget our heads around God asperceived through the prism of lawsand punishment. That is the mostpopular perspective andidentification of God withinChristendom. Throughout all worldreligions, “the gods” are seen as thejudges and we humans are viewed asshameful, guilty perpetrators.Christendom at large characterizesGod as disenfranchised from andangry with us, because we are sinnerswho will never measure up to hisholiness and justice.

On the other hand, the gospelreveals God more accuratelyunderstood as our heavenly Father,who truly loves us beyond ourwildest expectation or imagination.The intimacy and bond of lovebetween parent and child is therelationship that by far and awayprevails when God reveals andillustrates the way he feels about usand the invitation he offers us.We’re not talking about anger—

we’re talking about love. In the parable of the Prodigal

Son, God is portrayed as a father,not as a judge. But although theson received his father’s love, hedidn’t expect it, did he? When theson decided to go home, he startedto rehearse the speech he wouldgive to his father when he finallyarrived home.

He would tell his father he hadsinned and he was not worthy tobe his son—the son decided to askhis father to just accept him asa hired servant, a day laborer,and give him a job so that hecould pay off his debt.

If the father of the ProdigalSon was the God that much ofChristendom would have usbelieve, then when the sonreturned home, the father inthe parable would have said,“Your sins need to be paid for.Right now you are no son ofmine. Get out there in the fieldsand work and pay off your debt.Then maybe when you realizewhat you turned your back on wemight talk about you being myson again.”

But the father didn’tmention one word about sin—the father didn’t mentionanything about the sonpaying off his debt—nothingat all about signing a contractguaranteeing he would neverbe a foolish son again.

No, instead of bringing out

overalls, boots and a shovel, thefather brings out a robe and a ring.Then the father throws acelebration, replete with eating,singing, drinking and dancing.

What happened on the cross wasan epic, once-and-for-alldemonstration of the greatest lovestory ever told. God in the personof Jesus took human hostility andhatred, he absorbed it with all ofthe torture and violence humanscould dish out. Jesus turned theother cheek. Jesus did not respondwith retaliation—nor did hebecome angry. God was not, is notand will never be filled with andidentified by wrath.

In return for torture, beating andgruesome execution, Jesus gaveforgiveness. In return for humanabuse, Jesus offers his open arms inembrace. In return for evil, Jesusresponds with love and goodness.

So I ask you, the cross of our LordJesus Christ—was it all about thewrath of God and the penal-substitution he “needed” to satisfyhis laws? Or was it all about thelove of God revealed through JesusChrist? q

In return for torture, beating and gruesome execution,

Jesus gave forgiveness.