** The following are my notes from Larry Osborne’s portion of the second breakout session at Exponential 2014. This session included 3 perspectives on rethinking evangelism. **
Larry Osborne
Years ago, Larry became harshly critical of those who were not wired like him.
His concept of evangelism perfectly fit who he is.
We call it gift projection.
We assume the gifts, calling, and personalities of others should be like ours.
Larry’s wife, Nancy, will not confront anyone. She is not wired that way.
Tom was a born salesman.
He had tons of intentional relationships.
He was always ready to share the gospel.
Nancy had a greater impact in the church than did Tom.
She invited people to church, lived simply, and people came.
Often the most assertive people do not actually have the best results.
Larry is not opposed to come and see evangelism.
The primary way that people come to Jesus and grow to maturity throughout history has been come and see evangelism.
Come and see is not about special programs.
Come and see as we follow Jesus together.
Why it works.
It gives people time to consider what it will cost to follow Jesus.
People who make decisions on the spur of the moment seldom make decisions that stick.
In every case where Jesus called people to follow him, there was a background in place.
It takes 5 to 7 encounters to help someone decide.
It provides a system for instant follow up.
If people are bringing friends, they follow them up.
Friends follow up friends.
It is something everyone can do.
You can be any kind of person, and you can invite.
North coast church
No marketing or advertising or special programs Everything we do is aimed at Christians.
We never aim anything at the one not yet following Jesus.
We do make sure that everything is understandable.
Everything is about Christians, to Christians, but clear for all.
The retention rate at the 3 year mark is 75 %.
The people who come are given time to know what they are getting into.
3 assumptions about our people:
1. Our people know non Christians
2. They want their friends to know Jesus.
3. So, if they are not bringing their friends to our churches, it is our fault, not theirs.
He illustrated with sushi.
If people do not like sushi, you do not invite them to a sushi restaurant.
If you think they will not like something about your church, you will not invite them to your church.
You cannot expect come and see evangelism to work for someone who drives over 20 minutes.
When we assume Bible knowledge on the part of all who listen, we have made the lost unwelcome.
We need to be very clear.
Sometimes our special events and special series scream out to our people that they should wait for the big event until people come and visit.
When you talk about inviting people to a special service, you train your people not to invite people to regular life.
It makes people very uncomfortable if they hear it.
Taking God at His Word – A Review
Kevin DeYoung. Taking God At His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me. Wheaton: Crossway, 2014. 144 pp. $13.31.
Kevin DeYoung has done the church a fine service by writing a brand new book that challenges and helps Christians to truly love, trust, and understand the Bible. In Taking God at His word, DeYoung opens the doctrine of the Scripture in order to help us see what a great and reliable treasure the Bible is.
This book is short, easy-to-read, and full of truth. DeYoung helps readers to understand what it means that the Bible is really inspired by God. He shows us that the bible is truly sufficient for our lives. He helps us to see that the Bible is clear enough that any believer can look into it to find out what God expects of him or her.
More than simply spelling out the systematic theology of the Scripture, DeYoung’s book aims to help believers actually love and appreciate the Bible. DeYoung both begins and ends the book with chapters devoted to showing us the love for the Scripture that is evident in the words of the authors of Scripture and how the Scripture truly changes our lives.
As a pastor, I would wholeheartedly recommend Taking God at His word for just about anyone. Believers looking for a brief study on the Bible itself would benefit from this work. Christians with questions about the doctrine of Scripture would certainly be helped by reading it. Individuals who have questions about how we should think about the Bible—how seriously should we take it—would definitely find some wonderful points to help them on their way. Younger Christians could be encouraged and inspired by this book to truly dive into God’s word.
I received a free audio copy of this book as part of the reviewers program at ChristianAudio.com. The quality of the recording is excellent, as always from ChristianAudio. Lee DeYoung is the reader of the book, and is not my favorite narrator that I have heard from this company. Early on in the narration, he appears to over-inflect. However, as I listened further, I found that the narration became much smoother. I would definitely still recommend this audio work to anyone who likes to listen to books.
Some Thoughts on Responding to Suffering (Job 4:7-8)
Job 4:7-8
7 “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut off?
8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.
The words above are those of Eliphaz the Temanite, one of Job’s “friends” who came to “comfort” him during his time of distress. Immediately after Job spoke of his misery, his pain, his depressed desire to have never been born, Eliphaz offered Job a rebuke. Eliphaz just knew that Job was in the wrong, and he was going to straighten him out.
In verses 7-8, we see Eliphaz respond to Job with the same teaching that is often connected with the prosperity gospel on the one hand and an over-developed sense of God’s punishment on the other. The logic goes something like this: God always blesses the faithful; you are not blessed; therefore you must not be faithful. The funny thing is, God declared in chapters 1 and 2 of Job that Job was indeed faithful. Job’s suffering had nothing to do with him failing God in any form.
What’s the big problem? The problem in verses7-8 is a foolish view that the faithful people of God should not and will not suffer in the here and now. This has never been the message of Scripture. Yes, God made promises to Israel that, if they obeyed him as a nation under his special covenant, he would grant the nation great success and prosperity. However, that promise was not an all-inclusive, no-holds-barred, name-it-and-claim-it promise that no person who follows God will ever have a hard time. God has quite often seen fit to challenge his people with hardships in order to allow them to experience his faithful comfort, support, and provision as well as to prove their faith in him by something more than a good thought or simple lip-service.
Christians, if you see someone, whether a godly or ungodly person, going through a hardship, please be wise. Do not ever assume that you know the reason why God allowed this to happen. You do not. Let me say that again: You do not! God is good. God’s purposes are perfect. And God’s reasons are his own. Why did God allow that sickness, that accident, that earthquake, that tornado, or that financial collapse? You don’t know. He is wiser than you. He is greater than you. And for you to tell another person, city, or nation that you know that the reason something happened is for you to communicate a false gospel, one of good behavior leading to perfect ease in this life.
I’m not at all suggesting that you do not warn people of the consequences for sin or for foolish choices. If I choose to eat too much, I will be unhealthy—simple cause and effect. If I choose to spend more than I earn, I will have financial difficulties. But, if I get sick or am in an auto accident, you cannot faithfully argue that this is because my prayer life was not up-to-speed or because God is actively doing this or that in my life. Yes, God is sanctifying me, even through my hardship, but that is all you can know for sure. And, the only reason you know that for sure is because God has told us in Scripture that he is using all things worked together to conform me to the image of Christ (cf. Romans 8:28-30).
I know that we often want to help a hurting person by telling them about what we know to be God’s intent. We want to make suffering make sense. But I’ve never seen it help. How about, instead of telling someone about what you believe is the reasoning behind something, just care. I’m not saying that there is no reason to bring Scripture to bear here. Of course you comfort people with the Word of God. Of course you may remind someone that God is good and in control. But, as I have heard John Piper teach, the hospital room is not the place to teach your people theology. If they do not have a solid theology of suffering put in place before the tragedy, you will not help them by trying to bring them a theology of suffering in the middle of the pain. Weep with those who weep. Express your sorrow for them that they are hurting. But, please, avoid a smug assertion that you know what God is up to. Love will go much farther than explanations in many cases.
What about you? What has actually helped you when you experienced suffering? How would you want someone to respond to you in the midst of pain?
A Kind of Legalism (Matthew 23:4)
Matthew 23:4
They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
The concept behind this verse has been something that has been challenging me for a while now. Do we do this that Jesus condemns? How? Why?
(To give proper credit here, some of the thoughts that I will share below are much more clearly articulated in Larry Osborne’s book Accidental Pharisees.)
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were not a people who wanted to destroy the faith of others. In point of fact, they believed that they were serving God and helping his cause. For sure, some of these men were wicked, irreligious, fortune-seekers; we have such people in every religious community. But, I think it is safe to argue that many of these guys got so excited about the rules of law out of zeal. They wanted to follow God even better than the way God commanded. They wanted—to risk using a modern term—to be radical.
Do we, out of zeal and a desire to be radical, place burdens on others that God did not design? What would it look like if we did?
Imagine that you find a standard or cause in Scripture that you are very excited about. It can be anything, big or small, popular or unpopular, man-made or actually biblical. You want people to get this point. You really want them to care. But the problem is the standard is not something we can fully describe pragmatically. Perhaps the questions would arise, “How much is too much,” or “In what way do we do this,” or “How long should I spend?” Imagine these questions are not answered by a biblical order. What do you do?
Here comes the real danger for what Osborne calls an accidental Pharisee. Do you leave it to the person and the Holy Spirit to determine the lines, or do you help God by drawing the lines for the poor folks who don’t see this issue as clearly or desire it as passionately as you do?
In order to avoid any appearance of me banging on someone else’s pet project, let me offer a fictional example. Let’s pretend that there is a verse which says, “Watch, therefore, no movies which are overly girly lest your own manhood be compromised” (2 Opinions 3:12). This is a good verse, and should be obeyed. But how? How do we help men obey this verse?
Perhaps we have a conference on it. We have men watch Gladiator, Tombstone, and Saving Private Ryan. We show them manly movies in all their glory. But then we also prescribe some helpful applications for them. We tell them things like:
· If anyone cries, the movie you are watching is too girly.
· You should watch at least 1 manly movie per month to keep yourself appropriately manly.
· If you even see an actor like Hugh Grant on a TV interview show, you must turn the channel immediately.
· Prominent chick flick actors and actresses are to be avoided at all costs.
· If a movie lacks gunfire or explosions, it is likely inappropriate.
· If a movie has dramatic violin music and subtitles, it is very likely out-of-bounds.
Obviously, we have a good set of rules. These rules will help someone keep the commandment of 2 Opinions.
But, does the 2 Opinions commandment really say not to allow someone to even watch an interview with a chick flick actor? Does the 2 Opinions commandment actually say that there is a monthly movie mandate? What if you just don’t like movies? Then what?
Or, what happens if a more radical kind of 2 Opinions follower emerges? Perhaps this person says that it is all well and good to watch 1 manly movie per month, but it is far more radical, far more truly sold out, to watch 1 per week. Hey, what about a group that is ready to go on a 40 day mission of manliness watching 1 per day? Is that group better or worse than the one that is sticking with the monthly mandate?
Wait. The commandment only told us to avoid overly girly movies. There is nothing in the command at all about how often one is to watch manly movies. In fact, there is nothing in the command to watch manly movies at all. The manly movie mandate is an applicational tool made up by the leaders of the conference to help men to learn to be manly movie connoisseurs.
Does this illustration hit the mark for you? Can you see how, if we are not careful, we will take our good ideas about how to follow Scripture—not even scripture itself—and apply those ideas to others to “help them?” Do you see how we can, if we are not careful, begin to look down on others who do not practice our personalized plans as somehow less radical, less committed, less sold-out for Jesus?
Goodness, notice, in my fictional command, that there is not even a definition of what actually is an overly girly movie? There is some sappy romance in a Spiderman flick. A purist might want to warn us off. And the command says nothing about explosions or subtitles.
The point here is that we need to be more careful not to take the commands of God and add to them. We need to not weigh people down with extra burdens that they cannot lift. We have no right to demand that others live up to our expectations if those expectations are not clearly God’s expectations. Nor do we have the right to demand that everyone buy into every good cause or big idea with our own degree of passion.
I do not desire that we would stop trying to make modern application of actual Scripture. What I do want us to consider, however, is how we often go beyond Scripture to lay burdens on others that God did not design. Battling sin and temptation, loving God, leading a family, holding up in a tough workplace, honoring Jesus the whole time, these are all tough enough. We do not want to add to God’s calling rules that weigh people down with more guilt for things that are not in the rules in order to supposedly help them keep the rules.
Some might argue, by the way, that this kind of talk is risky. If we say stuff like this out-loud, people will take grace for granted. They will start to believe that God does not require obedience. If we aren’t careful, people will turn to lawlessness. Can I simply point out that this is one of the complaints people were clearly raising against Paul, and he was obviously preaching the true gospel.
No, I’m not into cheap grace. I’m actually a believer in the fact that there is no salvation apart from the lordship of Christ. But, I do believe that there is salvation and even honoring Christ that can happen apart from anybody applying standards to others that are not actually in Scripture.
So, how does this apply to you? Are you someone who adds burdens to others? Are your burdens biblical or man-made? Or, are you on the other side, ignoring even God’s commands in the name of supposed “freedom,” an equally deadly sin. Where are you tempted to make up the rules for what others should do, avoid, or care deeply about? Where are others doing this to you? How can we live for Jesus without adding burdens to others that we cannot help them budge? How, at the same time, can we call others to live for Jesus and obey his commands?
Sovereignty VS. Responsibility (Matthew 18:7)
Matthew 18:7
“Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!”
This verse shows us an interesting balance between sovereignty and responsibility. Jesus makes it plain that it is “necessary” that temptations come. Thus, temptations are going to happen. it is unavoidable. It must happen. Thus, under the sovereign decree of God, temptations come. At the same time, these temptations are not from God, caused by God, the responsibility of God, etc., because we know that God does not tempt us toward evil.
Yet, God clearly pronounces woe on the one who brings the temptation. Even though the temptation will come. Even though it is necessary for temptation to come. The one who , by his own choice, brings that temptation—that sovereignly decreed temptation—is someone who will very righteously receive woe, a curse, from God.
One point here is that we cannot ever, under any circumstances, make excuses for sin under the guise of the ultimate sovereignty of God. God is just. He is sovereign. He can actually, in his sovereignty, say that something like temptation is necessary. Yet, at the same time, God can justly punish the one who brings that sovereignly decreed temptation.
This topic is a tough one for us to wrap our brains around. In fact, we cannot fully grasp the ways of the Lord. But this we can say for sure: God is sovereign and man is responsible for his own actions. We cannot be freed from responsibility by pleading the sovereignty of God. Neither can we accuse God of doing us wrong, as our own actions are always by our own choices. Yet, when we do rightly, we can also be assured that any right we do is a mercy granted to us by God, and this to his glory.
A Simple Pro-Life Thought (Ecclesiastes 11:5)
Ecclesiastes 11:5
As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
Without overemphasis, I want to make a simple pro-life argument from a verse that I have never seen used for that purpose. Ecclesiastes 11:5, in making the point that we do not understand the ways of God, points out to us that we have no idea how God gives “the spirit” to a child in the womb. We do not know how a living soul is put into the flesh of a child, and so how can we possibly know the ways of the Lord.
Now, here is the simple argument that comes to me this morning. If we do not know how God gives life, the soul or spirit, to a child, how dare we destroy it? If we are going to make a mistake here, the mistake simply must be on the side of the preservation of life. There can be no credence given to any argument that declares a child only alive or only to have value when it is of a certain size, a certain age, or in a certain location (outside its mother’s womb). No, as we do not know anything about how God gives “the spirit” to a child in the womb, we must make it our choice to protect all children in the womb. Babies have life (“the spirit”) given to them by God. WE must protect that life as we protect all people who are created in the image of God.
Of course there are more arguments, clearly biblical arguments, for the protection of human life. This one could even be much better formed. However, it is another fascinating truth to be held to by the people of God as we strive to honor God in every arena of life.
John’s Doubts and Our Suffering (Matthew 11:2-3)
Matthew 11:2-3
2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
I’ve always found this question from John the Baptist fascinating. John had seen the Holy Spirit of God come down and rest upon Jesus at his baptism. John knew that this was the sign promised to him by God that he would prepare the way for the Lord’s anointed, the promised Rescuer from God. Yet, here John asks Jesus if he was right. Was Jesus really the one God has promised?
Why would John ask this? John was suffering. John was in prison. John was about to be executed. An evil human ruler had put John in jail, would soon take off his head, and was facing no apparent consequences. The man John had proclaimed as the coming King promised by God was doing nothing to put a stop to this.
Why was John confused? He wanted Jesus to turn the world upside-down. He, like others of that day, wanted to see Jesus set up an earthly kingdom that would set right the wrongs of the world and put down the oppressors of God’s people. John knew that Jesus was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” However, John did not know how this would all work out any more than did Jesus’ disciples who showed constant confusion about Jesus’ ultimate plan until his resurrection. John was confused, because things did not at all work out like he had hoped.
Jesus responds to John’s messengers with the reminders of the way that Jesus was pushing back the darkness in the world. Jesus was healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, healing those who could not walk, and even raising the dead. IN all that he did, Jesus was defeating the effects of the fall of man. Jesus was bringing the Kingdom of God, but in a different way and in a different timing than John expected. But, John was not to doubt, Jesus is exactly who John had proclaimed earlier, the Promised One from God.
There is something that we should consider as we think about John’s question and his predicament. John knew Jesus. He proclaimed Jesus. Jesus himself would declare that John was among the greatest born of woman. Yet, for all this, John suffered. John’s life did not go smoothly. He was abused. He was eventually murdered. No matter how faithful John had been, he did not find the payoff in this life.
The truth is, we will not always have it easy. Some faithful Christians suffer greatly. Others suffer in small ways. For some, ministry is a joy. Others suffer great hardship and pain. Some see churches grow. Some feel the betrayal of those they have trusted. Some live in financial peace and give to kingdom causes. Others suffer poverty. Some are free. Some are persecuted. Some have big families. Some never find a spouse though a family is their desperate desire. Some are healthy. Some are sick. Some seem to succeed. Others never seem to get it together.
Christians, knowing and loving God is no guarantee of ease in this life. Suffering is often part of the life of a believer. This is not a sign that Jesus is not who he claimed to be. Jesus always told us that we would suffer for the sake of the kingdom. Until Jesus returns and sets everything right, finally right, we will wrestle through hardships and joys, tragedies and triumphs, as we march on toward the promise of the Savior.
John was discouraged and a little confused. Jesus reminded him that John’s original view of Jesus was correct. Even though John suffered, Jesus is still the Savior and the Promised Rescuer. We too need to press on and continue to trust Jesus, even when things do not find our picture of how life should go.
Dangerous Privacy (Proverbs 18:1)
Proverbs 18:1
Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire;
he breaks out against all sound judgment.
In our modern culture, the concept of privacy has become a coveted and protected “right.” However, in the words of scripture, clinging to privacy is a very dangerous thing.
I think particularly now about a friend of mine who has been a friend for a long time. I can always tell when he is doing well and when he is doing poorly. How? The more private he becomes, the more in shambles is his Christian walk. The more open he is with me, the better he is doing. Rest assured, I do not believe that I am any sort of deciding factor in his life. But, the truth is, when he tries to keep things to himself, to hide from others, to drop off the edge of the planet, it is generally because he is also hiding sin and foolish behavior about which he does not want to be confronted.
And, the truth is, I am also similar. If I’m being foolish, I try to hide it. If I am leaning away from godliness, I often turn inward. I don’t want to share my life with friends who might show me that I am heading in a wrong direction.
The point of this proverb is obvious. Are you one who hides his or her actions? If so, you are in danger. Are you one who relies on your own counsel alone? You are foolish. You need Christian friends around you to help you to grow. You cannot make it in this life alone; you were not designed to. Find a church. Find Christian friends. Be open and honest. Do not fight for privacy. Tell the truth. Walk with others. This is the path of wise Christian living.
Our Golden Calf (Exodus 32:4-5)
Exodus 32:4-5
4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.”
The scene of Israel worshipping the golden calf is one of those moments from the Old Testament that many Christians have been taught since children’s Sunday School. It is familiar. And, we are glad to know that we are not like those people who did all that stuff. We are glad to know that we would never make a golden calf and worship it in place of God.
Of course, you likely also know that many will take this story as an opportunity to talk to Christians about their modern idols. We love self, fame, pleasure, money, reputation, success, leisure, or something else to the point of distraction. If we are not careful, we will bow down to our own little idols. This is almost always applicable teaching for the idols of the heart.
But I want to take this account in one other direction this morning as I think it through. The words of Aaron and the people in the passage above have my attention. They are terrifying. After the people give their gold and the golden calves are fashioned, they declare that these are the gods who brought the people up out of Egypt. That has always really bothered me. But then, Aaron declares something else that totally stuns me. Aaron says that tomorrow, the people are going to celebrate a feast to the Lord.
Do you get what just happened? Aaron is presenting the calves, the idols, the golden statues as the Lord. This is worse than I used to imagine. I used to simply see in this story that the people were taking the credit rightly due to God for leading them out of Egypt and giving it to the statues. Now, however, I see that Aaron is taking the statues and declaring them to be the Lord. This is not the people redistributing the credit for getting them out of Egypt; this is Aaron redefining who God is for the people.
Now, if we grasp that a major part of what is going on here is that Aaron and the people are bowing to a created and falsified picture of who or what God is, we see a much better application for our lives than simply not to let career or sex be idols for us. The application that I am seeing here is that it is a terrible thing to give people a false picture of who the Lord is. Not only is it terrible, it is tempting. However to do so is to dishonor God greatly.
When you depict God for others, how do you picture him? Do you picture him as a strong bull? Do you emphasize his strength, his anger, and his toughness? Do you tell people that God is somebody you had better get to serving and not make excuses? Do you show fellow Christians that they are never pleasing him and are in danger of having him trample them? If so, you may have fashioned a golden calf.
Or, perhaps you depict a God who is very shiny and sleek. Perhaps you are showing people a picture of God as someone who is full of wealth and desperately desirous of giving that wealth to them if they will only have the confidence to claim it. Perhaps your picture of God is one who is truly golden and ready to share if only they will put on a big enough smile or pray with enough conviction or give first so that they can receive in return.
Perhaps the picture that you have painted for others of God is one of the bull’s horns. There is harshness and hardness. You cannot just ask such a God for help, you must beg. You cannot just serve such a God, you must bleed. You cannot love him without doing more and more and more.
You know what the problem is with these pictures, they are neither all wrong or all right. The people chose golden calves likely because those animals made them think of the strength of the deity who led them out of Egypt. They had seen God trample over Pharaoh and his chariots. They knew him to be strong and fierce. Golden calves seemed about right. And, they had a piece of the truth in them.
The problem is, golden calves are not nearly enough to depict God. God is mighty and fierce. He is also the God who is so loving toward sinners that he sent his only Son to die to pay the price for people who would never and could never live up to his standards. This is the God who loved children enough to let them come to him even when the disciples tried to push them away. This is also the God who was calm enough to sleep during a raging storm on the lake. And it is the God who was fierce enough to turn over tables in the temple and who was fiery enough in his stare not to have anyone try to stop him. This is the God who raised the dead son of a widow simply because it was the kind thing to do. This was the god who made extra wine at a wedding feast to keep the family from being shamed. This was the God who destroyed all life except a remnant in a flood. This is the God who will return to earth on a white war horse with a sword in his teeth and blood on his robe. This is the God who also said of Nineveh that he did not wish to destroy so many people who were so ignorant, even though his own prophet hated their guts—and with good reason.
No, a bull or a calf does not do enough to depict God. But you know what, neither do many of our own descriptions of God. If we are not careful, we will paint for others a picture of God that is so flawed as to be no better than a golden calf. Let us be cautioned, especially those of us who preach and teach. Let us tremble at what picture of God we may bring. Let us never depict him apart from holiness and power and wrath and mercy and grace and whatever else the word of God has shown us. Let us be faithful to the text of Scripture as we show the people who hear us a portrait of the Lord we worship.
Romans 1-7 For You – A Review
Timothy Keller. Romans 1-7 For You. Purcellville, VA: The Good Book Company, 2014. 208 pp. $17.85.
I loved Judges For You by Tim Keller, and was very excited to get my hands on a copy of Romans 1-7 for You as soon as it came out. In no way was I disappointed. Tim Keller is a pastor who is well-respected for thinking big thoughts and communicating those big thoughts in very clear, very understandable, very impactful ways. Keller does this kind of thinking and communicating well in this latest work.
In this brief look at Romans 1-7, Keller speaks with depth and clarity. This book is not a scholarly commentary and thus does not bog its readers down with tons of Greek phrases or textual criticism. However, this book is also not a fluffy little modern Bible study. Keller goes deep. He makes powerful application. In short, he does exactly what I would want the author of a popular text walking us through Romans to do.
There are far too many high points in this work to share in a brief review. I will say that Keller’s handling of the concept of propitiation was very helpful. He helped his readers to understand that, because God’s wrath is perfectly satisfied in Christ, he need no longer punish those who are under the grace of Christ. This concept alone would be worth the purchase price of the book for readers who do not understand it already—and many believers do not think deeply enough about this issue.
Keller also does a great job of handling difficult passages in Romans 1-7. When there are questions of interpretation or even translation, he does not shy away from them. Keller is honest, but not cowardly. He will clearly state what he believes a passage to mean. But he is also fair, often explaining that others interpret a passage in a different way.
After reading Romans 1-7 for You, I eagerly await Keller’s finishing of the Book of Romans. I heartily recommend this volume to any Christian who would like to understand the Book of Romans better. This book would make a fine expository Bible study for home groups or classes that are looking for a 3 month study.
I received a free audio copy of this work from ChristianAudio.com as a part of their reviewers program. The audio and reading quality was very good, as I expect from this fine company. Christianaudio does not influence the content of any of these reviews, but simply asks for an honest review of works they publish.
Pastor Travis Peterson 