The Gospel According to Jesus - A Review

In recent months, I have been saturating myself with reading focused on Jesus. When I was offered The Gospel According to Jesus in exchange for a review for Thomas Nelson and Booksneeze, I jumped at the possibility of extending my recent repertoire of the lost centrality of Jesus Christ in our gospel.

This book is not a 'Jesus book' in that it is not a break down of the person of Jesus. In an overly blunt description, this book is about righteousness.

It is not a historical breakdown of Jesus or his teaching, but this book is still necessarily soaked with Jesus Christ as it reminds us of the true understanding of righteousness and justification as only Jesus has defined for his followers.

This is the first reading of Chris Seay for me, and I was able to really follow his writing. At the end of each chapter, he documents a conversation with various Christian leaders including Don Miller, Alan Hirsch, and Mark Batterson. It was a refreshing icing at the end of each chapter to blow each conversation wide open.

A short section of artwork in the middle is a pleasant touch, but not necessary.

If you do not have a strong understanding of righteousness, as it is not a topic we spend an ordinate amount of time to study, this is a great book to pick up. It will walk you through the misunderstanding of righteousness most of us have or have had, and it reveals the true wholeness (shalom) which comes with an accurate understanding of the righteousness which is only gift from Jesus Christ.

I Am Not A Preacher of the Gospel [of]

This quote has been wrecking me the last week: "I believe in justice: but I am not a preacher of the gospel of justice, but the Gospel of Christ who calls us to justice. I believe in love, but I am not a preacher of the gospel of love, but the Gospel of Christ who calls us to love. I am committed to peace, but I am not a preacher of the gospel of peace, but the Gospel of Christ who calls us to peace. I believe in the value of the simple life, but I am not the preacher of  the simple life, but of the Gospel of Christ who calls us to the simple life.

Let us beware of the ultimate plagiarism of borrowing some great concepts from Jesus then running off proclaiming these concepts and not sharing the Christ who embodies and empowers these concepts."

- Myron Augsburger