Easter Experts: The Cross
How the cross rebukes the accusation of a violent God
Return
Welcome back to The Holy Go!
We’re in week 2 of our Easter Experts series, where we are equipping you to understand the cross, trust the resurrection, and share the story of Jesus with confidence.
Last weeks activation was to write a list of responses to the question, “What does the Easter story reveal about God?” Let me know how you went!
Today we continue this thought as we answer the objection of “God is violent and unsafe.” This line of thinking has shipwrecked countless young peoples faith as they have been exposed to the stories of rape, genocide and violence in The Bible.
However, as we will see again today, The Easter Story reveals the truth of what God is like.
Equip
When I was in Bible College I took an apologetics class on defending the Christian faith. One of the books on the reading list was The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
In it he famously describes the God of the Old Testament as:
“Arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction… a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser.”
Many atheists make the same argument. They point to violent passages in the Old Testament and conclude that God Himself must be violent.
But beneath that accusation lies a deeper question: What is God actually like? Is God good? Can God be trusted?
Christian apologists have offered many answers—appealing to historical context, ancient war rhetoric, and divine justice. But the Apostle Paul took a different approach. He said he resolved to know nothing “except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”1
The cross, it turns out, is the clearest place to answer the question: What is God like?
Jesus Reveals God
For 2,000 years Christians have believed that Jesus reveals the Father. The Apostle Paul calls Him “the image of the invisible God,”2 and the author of Hebrews says He is the “exact representation”3 of God’s being.
If we want to know what God is like, we must start with Jesus.
And Jesus was very clear about violence.
He told His followers to love their enemies, bless those who curse them, and pray for those who persecute them.4 When His disciples tried to use violence, He rebuked them saying, “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.”5
Then Jesus lived out His own teaching.
When Peter attacked a soldier during Jesus’ arrest, Jesus healed the man’s ear. When He was beaten, mocked and crucified, He did not retaliate. Instead He prayed:
“Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”6
At the cross we see the clearest picture of God.
Not violence.
Not revenge.
But self-giving love and forgiveness.
How Jesus Interpreted Violent Scriptures
Jesus also showed His followers how to read difficult passages of Scripture.
When His disciples wanted to call down divine fire on their enemies, (echoing the prophet Elijah), Jesus rebuked them saying, “You do not know what spirit you are of.”7
When religious leaders wanted to stone a woman caught in adultery according to the law, Jesus disarmed the crowd by saying:
“Let the one without sin cast the first stone.”8
The result? No stones were thrown. Not even by Jesus, the only one without sin.
Again and again Jesus redirected people away from violence and toward mercy.9
Easter Experts
So what do we do with the objection of violence in the Old Testament?
We begin with Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
The cross is the clearest revelation of God’s character. When we read Scripture through Jesus, the story begins to make sense. And when people challenge the goodness of God, the cross becomes the most powerful place to point them.
Understanding Easter doesn’t just strengthen our own faith, it equips us to defend it and share it with confidence.
Because if you want to know what God is like, we look to the cross. Because God looks like Jesus.
Activate
This weeks activation is to select a violent Old Testament story. Imagine a friend asks you, “How can God command that?”
Use what you’ve learned about Jesus’ life and the cross to formulate a short response.
Write it down. Ask yourself: Does this answer help me understand God for myself and give me confidence to share it with others?
1 Corinthians 2:2
Colossians 1:15
Hebrews 1:3
Luke 6:27-28
Matthew 26:52
Luke 23:34
Luke 9:51-56
John 8:7
This does leave us with a tricky question though. How do we make sense of the clearly violent passages in The Old Testament?
Christian thinkers have proposed several ways to understand violent passages in the Old Testament, including:
• Accommodating Humanity – God gradually meeting humanity where it was
• Allowing lesser evil – restraining violence in a violent world
• Ancient war rhetoric – hyperbolic language common in ancient texts
Each approach tries to make sense of these passages. But before we explore any explanation, we must begin in the same place Paul did:
Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
This is typically brilliant James!!! Thank you so much for this wonderful unpacking!