Which Jesus do you follow? Is it the Hippy Jesus, who the Doobie Brothers sang about? Postcard Jesus, who we see in the ever-present picture, tanned and quiet? It's a question that has resonated throughout the ages; Jesus Himself asked His disciples "But who do you say that I am?" when they were confronted with various ideas of who He actually was, even in that day.

Jared Wilson's book, Your Jesus Is Too Safe, shows us exactly what kind of Jesus the Bible presents, and what kind of Jesus the early Church worshiped. The kind of Jesus that the apostles died for.

When I first heard about this book, I figured that Jared was going to skewer common misconceptions of Jesus. He does, but that's pretty much over with in the introduction to the book. Instead, Jared takes the high road and shows readers exactly who Jesus really was, how that image contrasts with our contemporary ideas of Jesus, and what it means for us today - how it should impact our daily lives and our walk with Him.

This is the kind of book that could easily turn into a heavily theological treatise, with lots of references to Greek grammar. In other words, it could turn into a book that you'd only read if your professor required it. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Your Jesus Is Too Safe is a book that can be read by anyone - I could see this being used as the fuel for a series at any church Bible study or book club. The writing style is familiar and conversational -- my wife had trouble believing I was reading a theology book because of how often I was laughing (make sure you read the footnotes!). But just because it's easy to read doesn't mean that it's theologically light. There's are outstanding discussions of the nature of the atonement, the deity of Christ, the humanity of Christ, etc., all presented in a way that the concepts can be easily understood, along with the implications for our daily lives.

This is a book that I've been eagerly waiting for, just because I'm familiar with Jared's writing and knew that it would be a good book. After reading it, I'm even more eager for more people to read it, because one of the problems I see in contemporary Christianity is that we're worshiping a watered-down Jesus. We see only some aspects of Jesus - the parts that don't really have an impact on our daily lives, the parts that invite us to hang out and be homies. We ignore the aspects of Jesus that call us to repentance, that expect obedience from us, that call us into service for the kingdom of God. Those are Jesus, too. The point of Your Jesus Is Too Safe is to call the church to the worship of all of Jesus, even the parts that make us uncomfortable or call us to action. When that happens, I think that we'll see a true revival in our churches.

But hey, don't take my word for it. This post is just one part of a blog tour that's been put together for this book. It's going on all week this week, and you can find links to other reviews of Your Jesus Is Too Safe right here.

Posted by: Warren Kelly at 01:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 567 words, total size 4 kb.