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 clear diagnosis before it gets to a cure. Brian Hunter traces the problem back to the garden, where God gave humanity free will and humanity used it to choose independence from him. The result, Brian says, is that sin infected the whole human race. The signs of it are not only the obvious ones like war, murder, and injustice, but also the selfishness, pride, envy, and rebellion that live inside every person. He puts it plainly: "This condition of sin has infected all of us, and it's terminal resulting in death, which is separation forever from God's family."
On what makes someone a sinner, Brian does not soften it. He has described breaking God's moral law the way a cracked rotten egg ruins an omelet, regardless of how many good eggs came before it. The standard he draws from scripture is that breaking one of God's moral laws makes a person a lawbreaker, full stop. And he has used the image of a tightrope stretched between two peaks to say that trying to be a good person is simply not enough, 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 Brian points to is Jesus, and Isaiah 53 is where he goes to show why. He describes the chapter as a picture of God raising up a figure the world despises and overlooks, while underneath that rejection God is doing something redemptive. To make it concrete, Brian has told the story of a man sentenced to death whose place is taken by a stranger who walks into the courtroom and volunteers to die instead. The man walks out free. Brian then presses on what that means: three days later the man who died is walking down the street. That is the shape of the gospel in Isaiah 53, and Brian says the whole Christmas storyline runs along the same line. God promised in the garden itself that one would come whose heel would crush the head of evil, and two thousand years ago he delivered on that promise.
Taught from Isaiah 53:1-12 · Isaiah 9 · John 3:16 · Luke 2 · Leviticus 17:14
“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.