Book Review: Jesus Wants to Save Christians
Listened to on 3/11/2010
Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell, Don Golden
The first thing I noticed about this book was that in true Rob Bell fashion, it was creatively read like a conversation between the two authors without the rigidity of a “professional” reader.
The first couple chapters cover the meta-narrative of scripture. What I mean is the big-picture story of the Bible. The book spoke to me about how our God is a god of the poor and the broken, always providing for them through His people. (Ex. 22:21) I have been thinking and praying about this A LOT lately, including doing a preaching series for our youth and our “big church” services. This was more confirmation that our God uses the weak to show His great strength. He used the nation of Israel who were the outcasts and were not even faithful to Him. He used kings that committed adultery (King David). He used prophets that were mere men and had their own sets of issues (Jeremiah) in order to call the nation to turn back to God! He used a humble teenage nobody to be the mother of the only perfect human being to walk the earth. Through Jesus, we now are reconciled to God. He is our intermediary! (1 Tim 2:5) And then he uses lowly servants like you and me, that just want to see His name glorified and not our own.
This is a quote from the book’s website…”Jesus wants to save us from shrinking the Gospel down to a transaction about the removal of sin and not about every single particle of creation being reconciled to its maker.” This is a great truth that we need to digest. We have made the Gospel a formulaic endeavor that gets us out of heaven. And therefore, we get people that accept Jesus as Savior in our churches, but they do not accept Him as Lord of their life!
Finally, Jesus Wants to Save Christians uses the Old Testament Exodus from Egypt as an allegory for Jesus leading a New Testament Exodus from our present day Egypt. So, my final point here, is directed at you, the reader. Is there a “cruel bondage” (Ex. 6:9) that you might be in? Do you need a leader to come in on your behalf and say to the leader of that cruel bondage, “Let my people go!!”? This present day Moses is a man we know as Jesus Christ. He will lead you from your cruel bondage of sin to the promised land. But don’t be mistaken, the promised land is not some great life that you now get to live and be rich and prosperous. That is a modern day, cultural distortion of the Gospel. Jesus came to free from sin and then use YOU to further His Kingdom, for His glory! NOT your own glory.
“But, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matt 6:33
Grace and Peace,
-AOD
