What does Tribe teach about sin and forgiveness?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on sin and forgiveness starts with a diagnosis that is blunt and personal. Brian Hunter traces sin all the way back to the garden, where humanity chose independence from God, and says that choice infected the whole human race. As Brian puts it, "this condition of sin has infected all of us, and it's terminal resulting in death, which is separation forever from God's family." The problem is not just the big, obvious evils in the world. It is also the selfishness, pride, envy, and rebellion that live inside every person.
Brian is equally direct about what it takes to be counted a sinner: "If you commit one sin, if you break one of God's moral laws, you are a sinner." He has used the image of a rotten egg cracked into an omelet to make the point stick. It does not matter how many good eggs went in before it. He has also used a tightrope stretched between mountain peaks to say that trying to be a good person is not sufficient, because the human condition means no one can hold on indefinitely. No accumulation of good deeds changes the consequence, which is permanent separation from God.
The answer to that diagnosis is what Isaiah 53 describes and what Christmas makes concrete. God did not leave the problem where it landed. He already had the remedy in mind before the garden scene had fully unfolded, and he sent his Son to live as one of us, die in our place, and pay what we could not pay. Brian has used a courtroom picture to get at this: a man condemned to death, a stranger who walks in and dies in his place, and a guilty man who walks out free. The resurrection is what makes the story complete. "Hidden beneath human rejection is God's redemption" is how Brian frames the whole arc of Isaiah 53, and it holds for the whole arc of the gospel as well.
Taught from Isaiah 53:1-12 · Isaiah 9 · John 3:16 · Leviticus 17:14 · Luke 2
“Hidden beneath human rejection is God's redemption.”
From The Lord's Good Plan
The passage taught · Isaiah 53:1-12
1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.
4 Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- September 6, 2026 The Lord's Good Plan Brian Hunter walks through Isaiah 53 to show why Jesus taking our punishment is not a burden to resist but the best news a person could ever receive.
- December 25, 2024 The Story of Christmas Begins in a Garden Brian Hunter traces the story of Christmas from a garden to a manger, explaining why he believes Jesus came, what he accomplished, and why it still matters.
- December 25, 2022 The Story of Christmas Begins in a Garden A Christmas Eve outdoor service in Jackson Hole where Pastor Brian Hunter traces the story of Christmas from the garden of Eden to a manger in Bethlehem.
Mentioned along the way
- February 23, 2025 Finding Jesus in Leviticus A pastor and congregation wrestle with Leviticus 9-10 and Hebrews 9 to ask how a holy, consuming God can love sinful people without ever compromising his holiness.