The Spirit Sounds Like Jesus – Greg Boyd

If the Spirit sounds like Jesus, how could God say to Commit Genocide?

How do we know it’s God? It’s one of the most common questions people ask. In Scripture, the answer is clear: the Spirit sounds like Jesus. Everything the Holy Spirit says today is consistent with what the Living Word, Jesus, has said and done. Tragically, this hasn’t always been understood, and the consequences have been dire.

In this episode, I talk with pastor and theologian Greg Boyd from Minnesota, USA. Greg is an internationally recognized theologian, preacher, teacher, apologist, and author of more than 20 books. Across all his writing, one central theme emerges: God is like Jesus.

In the conversation you’ll hear about:

• Greg’s personal story of how God freed him from a pornographic addiction, leading him out of a legalistic approach to faith and into a broader understanding of God’s love.

• A recent ministry initiative at Greg’s church led by an atheist, who hosts monthly parties for people with disabilities and those who are neurodiverse. At these gatherings, labels are set aside, and profound love is experienced—pointing to the truth that God is love, even through someone who doesn’t profess belief in Him.

• The most important question we can ask: What is your mental conception of God?

The only god you can know is the one you experience between your ears. So your love for God is never going to outrun the lovability of your mental conception of God. We are all transformed into the image of whatever god we’re worshipping. Everything hangs on how you conceive the divine being.

• How to discern God’s voice. The Spirit always sounds like Jesus—and most specifically, like Jesus suffering on the cross. This means the ultimate test is love: self-giving, others-oriented, enemy-embracing love (1 John 4:8; 1 John 3:16).

• How the Spirit convicts of sin—never with shame or condemnation, but always with love.

• What to make of difficult Old Testament passages, such as those where God appears to command genocide. Greg unpacks the importance of reading all Scripture through a cruciform hermeneutic:

Jesus is the centre of everything God is about and the cross is centre of everything Jesus was about so that should be the lens that we should discern everything else in Scripture. Jesus said, all Scripture points to him.

• How the Spirit reveals truth throughout the Old Testament as people walked more closely with God, a process that mirrors our own journey of being led by the Spirit into a fuller revelation of who God is.

• A God-conversation Greg had about the Holocaust, which shed light on the nature of evil and God’s grace in the midst of it.

• The role of the imagination in being open to the Spirit—what church tradition calls the inner sanctuary.

The following books that touch on this topic the podcast by Greg Boyd are highly recommended: 

God Looks Like Jesus: A Renewed Approach to Understanding God

Seeing is Believing: Experience Jesus Through Imaginative Prayer

Cross Vision: How the Crucifixion of Jesus Makes Sense of Old Testament Violence