What does Tribe teach about how to be forgiven?
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 forgiveness starts with an honest look at the problem. Both Brian's Valentine's Day weekend message and his Easter Sunday message at the Virginian press on the same point: the standard for right standing with God is not being reasonably good compared to other reasonably good people. It is sinlessness, and James makes clear that breaking even one point of the law makes a person guilty of breaking all of it. Every human attempt to close that gap on our own terms, whether through religion, moral striving, or making ourselves the arbiter of right and wrong, amounts to sewing fig leaves.
The answer Christianity gives, Brian argues, runs in the opposite direction from every other system. Instead of man climbing toward God, God came down. As Brian put it on Easter Sunday, "Instead of man trying to climb up to God, God became a man and came down to us." Jesus lived the sinless life no one else could live and died to absorb the punishment that broken law demands. Because he was sinless, the law had no legal claim to keep him in the grave, and he rose.
But Pastor Brian keeps pushing past the point most people stop at. Forgiveness is not the finish line. Because Jesus is alive, his Spirit is available to take up residence inside a person. The offer is not a better version of yourself or a perfect example to imitate. As Brian said, "Jesus stands ready not for you to try to live a life like Jesus does, but for you to lay down your life, so that Jesus can live his life through you."
Taught from James 2:10 · Romans 3:23 · Romans 6:23 · Galatians 2:20 · Genesis 3:6-9
The passage taught · Genesis 3:6-9
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too.
7 Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.
8 They heard Yahweh God’s voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.
9 Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- February 15, 2026 God in Search of Man Brian Hunter explores what it means that God came looking for man, starting in Genesis 3, and why every human attempt to reach God falls short.
- April 1, 2024 Easter Sunday at Tribe A Wyoming pastor uses a glove obstacle course to explain why Jesus rising from the dead is about more than forgiveness. It is an invitation to a whole new life.