“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Frederich Nietzsche claimed that God died due to His pity (p. 79). What a statement. At the heart of Nietzsche’s warped assertion is that God is clueless and impotent.
Nietzsche brazenly declares that what killed God is the very reason (when understood correctly) for God sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to live, die, and be raised from the grave (John 3:16).
What do I mean?
Here’s what’s happening: Nietzsche is twisting love into pity. Just before his insistence that God died from pity, he said, “God too has his hell: it is his love of man” (p. 79). For Nietzsche, pity was the antithesis of strength and the height of shame. For Nietzsche, giving and receiving pity is to possess a persistent red face of shame (p. 77). Therefore, according to Nietzsche, red faces go away when pity is stopped.
To be sure, what Nietzsche argues is not an everyday conversation or thought among most Christians. However, Nietzsche’s thoughts have influenced many leaders and justified many causes. It was Nietzsche’s übermensch (superman) that influenced a world leader like Hitler to evilly advance his idea of racial primacy. It is Nietzsche who continues to influence postmodernism’s insistence on mankind willing themselves to power or bootstrapping themselves to triumph.
However, in the final analysis, it is Nietzsche with his misunderstanding and misapplying of God’s love who ironically is the one possessing an eternal red face of shame. For this not to be true, he would have to be God.
Indeed, it is impossible for the created to assert any ultimate truths about the Creator.
What do I mean?
The only way for the created (mankind) to know God or anything about God is by God’s revelation. Simply put, Nietzsche’s assertions are words without substance because they are generated from himself (without innate Absoluteness). Thus, the Spirit of God must make Himself known (1 Cor. 2:14-16). A man may make claims, but they are windy words (Job 16:3) when opposed to the truth of God’s Word.
And this is why Christ came to earth: To express God’s love fully. Not to kill himself as a result of pity, as Nietzsche asserted, but to reconcile red-faced humans to God and eternally remove their shame and give them radiant faces of honor.
Do you see the irony of Nietzsche’s claim?
The shame Nietzsche sought to remove by avoiding pity is the very thing that brings shame. In other words, not only does Nietzsche and every human enter the world with red-faced shame, but the only solution for that shame to be removed is God’s love–the very thing Nietzsche seeks to kill.
God, help us discern the false voices of our day and walk in your truth. Amen.
“I sought the Lord, and He answered me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces will never be ashamed.”
Psalm 34:4-5
— August 27, 2024