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What if the truest picture of power we'll ever see isn't a throne or an army, but a baby who can't lift his own head—or a man nailed to a cross who refuses to fight back?
In this Summer Series conversation, Tim Stewart welcomes Kenneth Tanner, pastor of Holy Redeemer in Rochester Hills, Michigan, theologian, and author of the new book Vulnerable God: How Jesus Upends Our Assumptions About God—and Shows Us How to Be Human, releasing September 29 with a foreword by Brian Zahnd.
Kenneth makes the case that we shouldn't start with abstract ideas about God's power, sovereignty, or holiness and then try to squeeze Jesus into them. We should start with Jesus and let his life rearrange everything else. Tim and Kenneth talk through what it means to call Jesus "the human God," why weakness and humility aren't the opposite of divine power but its actual source, and how the incarnation—from the vulnerability of an infant to the vulnerability of the cross—reveals a strength the world rarely recognizes as strength at all.
The conversation moves into what it means to be truly human. Kenneth reframes salvation less as rescue from an angry God and more as restoration of an image already present in us, borrowing Athanasius's picture of a master restorer cleaning centuries of grime off a painting to bring the original colors back to the surface. He also challenges the popular idea of a "sin nature," arguing instead that our nature is good and has been infected by sin—a disease with a cure, not an identity we're stuck with.
They also dig into some of the Bible's hardest passages, including violent Old Testament stories, and why reading every text through Jesus—rather than reading Jesus through every text—changes the questions we're even allowed to ask. Kenneth shares two deeply personal stories: one from the day the Challenger shuttle exploded, when a grieving professor's words reshaped his entire theology of suffering, and another about sitting with a family after a young man drowned, that together show what it looks like to trust a God who suffers with us rather than one who causes our suffering.
In This Episode
- Why we should start with Jesus, not an abstract idea of God, when we ask what power really looks like
- What it means to call Jesus "the human God"
- Why a woman healed by touching Jesus's robe and a baby lying in a manger reveal the same kind of power
- How Athanasius's image of a master art restorer reframes salvation as restoration rather than rescue from wrath
- Why Kenneth rejects the popular idea of a "sin nature"—and what he says instead
- How Irenaeus's mosaic-floor illustration changes the way we read violent Old Testament passages
- What Kenneth learned about God and suffering the day the Challenger shuttle exploded
- How to sit with someone who's suffering without becoming one of Job's unhelpful friends
- Why Kenneth believes Jesus was inside the water with a young man who drowned, not just watching from the shore
If this conversation gives you a new way to see Jesus, follow or subscribe to the Impact Nations Podcast so you don't miss the rest of the Summer Series. Please share this episode with someone who has ever wondered where God is in their suffering, or who could use a more hopeful picture of who God actually is.
Featured Resources
Vulnerable God by Kenneth Tanner (releases September 29 — foreword by Brian Zahnd): Baker Publishing Group: https://bakerpublishinggroup.com/products/9781540902771_vulnerable-god Pre-order on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Vulnerable-God-Reviving-God-Us/dp/1540902773
Kenneth Tanner on Substack: https://substack.com/@kennethtanner
Kenneth Tanner on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kentanner/
Holy Redeemer (Kenneth's church): https://www.holyredeemer.us
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