What Does the Bible Teach About God and Humanity, and How Does It Differ from Liberalism?

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To understand the Christian gospel, we must begin with two foundational truths: who God is and what humanity is. These are not abstract or optional doctrines but essential components of the biblical message. The gospel—that God saves sinners through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ—is incomprehensible without these truths. As this article argues, modern liberalism diverges from biblical Christianity precisely at these foundational points. It substitutes the biblical view of God with an immanent, often impersonal presence, and redefines humanity as inherently good rather than sinful. This theological shift transforms Christianity into something else entirely.

The Knowledge of God: Essential, Not Optional

Modern liberal thought, echoed today in popular spirituality, often claims that defining God is unnecessary or even harmful. Religion, we are told, is not about dogmas but about feeling God’s presence. This mystical approach, prevalent in mindfulness movements and spiritual-but-not-religious circles, disconnects faith from objective truth.

But Christianity rejects this sentimentality. Knowing God requires truth about God. Just as meaningful human relationships depend on knowing the other person’s character, so does our relationship with God. To love a god of our imagination is no more noble than to love a fictional friend. Jesus did not commend vague emotion; he called people to repent and believe in the truth (Mark 1:15), a message grounded in the reality of a personal, knowable God.

Jesus’ View of God: Personal, Transcendent, and Revealed

Jesus affirmed God’s self-revelation in creation (Matthew 6:28–30), moral conscience (Romans 2:15), and Scripture (Luke 24:44). Liberalism often dismisses these sources, insisting that God is known only through Jesus. But this undermines Jesus’ own teaching. Jesus built upon the Old Testament and assumed his hearers knew who “God” was. When he said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), he was not introducing an unfamiliar deity but confirming the identity of the one true God—the holy, personal, transcendent Creator.

In Jesus’ day, theism was assumed; today, it must often be defended. While Jesus did not present philosophical arguments for God’s existence, Christians today may benefit from rational theism—the belief that one supreme, personal God exists—especially in an age dominated by atheism, pantheism, and naturalism. Christianity is not agnosticism wrapped in religious sentiment. It proclaims a God who exists apart from the universe, yet who acts within it.

Liberalism’s God: Impersonal or Pantheistic

Modern liberalism increasingly replaces the biblical God with a vague, cosmic force. God becomes the life force of the universe, the energy of nature, or the collective spirit of humanity. This mirrors ancient pantheism, not biblical theism. Even when liberal preachers use the word “Father,” they often do so without conviction, clinging to the term for its emotional warmth rather than its theological truth.

But “Father” in the Bible is not a generic title. It is relational and redemptive. God is Father to the redeemed—those brought into his family through Christ (John 1:12; Romans 8:15). While Acts 17:28 speaks of humanity as God’s offspring, it is a bridge for evangelism, not a doctrine of universal spiritual sonship. The Bible’s view is clear: God is Creator of all but Father only to those who are in Christ.

God’s Transcendence: The Creator-Creature Distinction

Scripture maintains a vital distinction: God is not the world. He created it (Genesis 1:1), sustains it (Hebrews 1:3), and governs it (Psalm 103:19), but he is not part of it. Isaiah 55:8–9 proclaims, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares Jehovah.” Christianity’s God is both transcendent and immanent, but never confused with creation itself. Liberalism blurs this line, often treating God as identical with the cosmos or as the divine spark in each person. This theological shift undermines worship, reverence, and repentance, replacing God’s majesty with cosmic sentimentality.

The Doctrine of Man: Fallen, Not Fundamentally Good

If the liberal view of God misrepresents his nature, its view of humanity is equally distorted. Christianity teaches that humanity is created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), but fallen (Romans 3:23). Sin is not a psychological defect or a social construct but rebellion against God, bringing judgment and separation.

Modern liberalism denies this. In Machen’s time, it was masked by optimism in human progress; today, it is reinforced by self-esteem culture, therapeutic ideologies, and social justice narratives that externalize blame. In liberal thought, human beings are victims of systems, not sinners before God. But this inversion is fatal to the gospel. If we are not sinners, we do not need a Savior. The gospel is not self-help; it is divine rescue (Colossians 1:13–14).

Sin and the Need for Grace

Christianity begins with the broken heart, not self-celebration. The Christian is one who knows he stands guilty before a holy God, condemned not only for societal failures but for personal sin—pride, greed, lust, envy, and rebellion. This is not self-hatred but spiritual realism (1 John 1:8–10). Liberalism, whether in the early twentieth century or in today’s progressive Christianity, cannot accommodate this truth. It replaces repentance with affirmation, grace with growth, and salvation with self-actualization.

Yet, as this article affirms, sin must be named and faced. The gospel’s light shines only when the soul sees its darkness. Preaching must confront sin—not to crush, but to heal. And believers must model holiness, not as moral superiority but as evidence of transformation (Titus 2:11–14).

God’s Law: The Mirror of Sin

To recover the consciousness of sin, we must proclaim God’s law (Romans 7:7). The law is not merely a relic of Israel; it reveals God’s standard of righteousness. It crushes human pride and prepares the heart for grace. In Machen’s time, some sought to avoid “minor” sins to appeal to war-hardened men; today, churches avoid traditional morality to reach younger audiences. But every sin matters. Sin is never trivial. It is cosmic rebellion—whether it manifests in a violent act or a careless word (Matthew 12:36).

Yet, only God’s Spirit can awaken a sinner to this reality. No human strategy, no cultural relevance, can produce repentance. The work is divine (John 16:8). The modern church’s error, then and now, is trying to flatter the proud into belief. But Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). We will not surpass him by trying a gentler method.

Conclusion: The Gospel Stands on the Truth About God and Man

Biblical Christianity begins with a holy, personal, transcendent God, and a fallen, dependent, sinful humanity. These truths are not negotiable. They are the framework within which the gospel makes sense.

Liberalism, by contrast, blurs God’s personhood and erases sin, offering a message that cannot save. Its optimism may comfort the flesh, but it cannot raise the dead. The church must reject this substitute and return to the truth—truth that humbles, convicts, and then heals through the grace of God in Christ.

As Paul wrote:

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).

This is the gospel’s foundation. Without a right view of God and man, there can be no gospel at all.

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About the Author

J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937) was a prominent American theologian and New Testament scholar, known for his staunch defense of orthodox Christianity against the rising tide of theological liberalism in the early 20th century. His works continue to be influential among conservative Christian scholars and lay readers alike.