In what is here called the “true gospel,” Jesus’s death is not seen primarily as atonement for sin, as if a loving Father could not, or would not, forgive human sin “apart from shedding of blood” (Hebrews 9:22), as many Christians insist. This gospel challenges that idea, insisting instead that the Father is not “small, nor envious” (Gospel of Truth I 42.5); on the contrary, he overflows with compassionate love. Here, then, Jesus’s suffering and death, like our own, are no longer seen as punishment for sin. Instead, they are simply the necessary cost of entering into human life, motivated by
...more
