Bridgetown Audio Podcast · Bridgetown Church

God is Love - Self-Giving Love

·42 min·3 clips

The speaker declares Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon 'absolutely wrong' about God's wrath, challenging centuries of Christian teaching.

This episode from Bridgetown Audio Podcast examines the nature of God's love, specifically as self-giving love, through a critique of traditional atonement theology. The host, a Christian teacher, directly challenges a historical interpretation of Jesus's crucifixion. The episode opens by quoting John 15 and then describes Jonathan Edwards's 1741 sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," which depicts God's wrath toward humanity. The host states that this portrayal is "absolutely wrong" and not the story scripture tells. A common modern explanation of the cross is presented, where a wrathful Father requires punishment and Jesus substitutes himself to absorb that wrath. The host argues this common story sounds like "divine child abuse" and asserts the Bible never says the Father pours out wrath on the Son. Instead, the cross reveals "God in the hands of angry sinners," where Jesus died at human hands, not the Father's. The host claims the cross shows God absorbing evil and making a way back from the ultimate relational break: killing him. The "Throne of Mercy" art motif is cited, depicting the Trinity unified at the crucifixion. A key insight is that Jesus's actions on the cross—forgiving his executioners, offering salvation to a criminal, and caring for his mother—continuously poured out love, not wrath. The host emphasizes Jesus came to reveal the Father, not correct or satisfy him. The episode contrasts worldly power, seen as destructive force, with God's power, defined as the creative ability to give oneself away in love, as demonstrated by Jesus washing his disciples' feet. The host applies this to listeners, stating that following Jesus means "carrying" a cross, not just believing in his. Self-giving love defies a cultural spirituality focused on minimizing pain and maximizing control. The message is that Jesus died *ahead* of his followers as an act of solidarity, not *instead* of them. A personal story illustrates the difficulty of self-giving love, where the host's attempt to help a stranger was motivated by pride. The episode concludes by redefining God's wrath not as rage against people but as settled opposition against sin, evil, death, and demonic powers. The host hopes God's wrath is *not* satisfied on the cross so it can one day be poured out on these destructive forces. The creation and salvation of humanity are framed as flowing from the Trinity's eternal, other-oriented love. The tone is educational, pastoral, and conversational, blending scriptural analysis, historical critique, and personal narrative. This episode would deeply engage Christians rethinking traditional atonement theories or those wrestling with the concept of a wrathful God. Listeners firmly committed to penal substitutionary atonement models may find the host's perspective challenging or disagreeable.

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