Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity (it did not need changing)! Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God! ~ Richard Rohr.
The common reading of the Bible is that Jesus “died for our sins”—either to pay a debt to the devil (common in the first millennium) or to pay a debt to God (proposed by Anselm of Canterbury, 1033-1109). Historic Christian doctrine makes God out to be something I don't believe God is: a meanie. Does God need a violent sacrifice to love us? It's hard to think that God would need some sort of payment to love and accept God's beloved children. A meanie would demand retributive justice. But Jesus proclaimed and gave restorative justice - our divine grace. |
And Richard Rohr writs, "God never merely reacts, but supremely and freely acts--out of love. Love is the beginning, the way itself, and the final consummation...God does not love us because we are good; God loves us because God is good." Nothing we can do will either decrease or increase God’s eternal and infinite eagerness to love!
To me, that's the good news.