DeYoung: Obedience is Possible

Kevin DeYoung:

I believe with all my heart that we can do nothing to merit eternal life. We are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. God accepts and declares us righteous not because of our good deeds, but because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We cannot earn God’s favor. We depend entirely on his gospel grace

Full stop. Period. New paragraph.

We can also be obedient.

Not flawlessly. Not without continuing repentance. Not without facing temptation. Not without needing forgiveness. But we can be obedient.

Obedience is not a dirty word for the gospel-centered Christian. We are saved from the wrath of God by sovereign grace, and that sovereign grace saves us unto holiness. Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ has redeemed us from all lawlessness to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works (Titus 2:14).

More Spiritual than the Bible

Sometimes in a genuine effort to be honest about our persistent imperfections we make it sound like holiness, of any sort, is out of reach for the Christian. But this doesn’t do justice to the way the Bible speaks about people like Zechariah and Elizabeth who “were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord” (Luke 1:6). Likewise, Jesus teaches that the wise person hears his words and does them (Matt. 7:24). There’s no hint that this was only a hypothetical category. Quite the contrary, we are told to disciple the nations that they might obey everything Jesus commanded (Matt. 28:19-20).

God expects the Christian to be marked by virtues like love, joy, and peace (Gal. 5:22-23) instead of being known for sexual immorality, idolatry, theft, and greed (1 Cor. 6:9-11). No Christian will ever be free from indwelling sin, but we should no longer be trapped in habitual lawlessness (1 John 3:4). “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10)....

...There is no righteousness that makes us right with God except for the righteousness of Christ. But for those who have been made right with God through faith alone, many of our righteous deeds are not only not filthy in God’s eyes, they are exceedingly sweet.

Obedience is possible, prescribed, and precious.

Read the whole post.

Music Video of the Week: The Civil Wars

The Civil Wars - "Barton Hollow"

Glorifying God - What is Glory?

Kevin DeYoung:

Revelation 14:6-7

And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory…” (v. 7)

Starting next week, we’ll look at fourteen specific examples of how we can glorify God in all of life. But first we need to ask more generally, what do “glory” and “glorify” mean? Kabod is the Hebrew word for glory; it literally means “weight.” The glory of God is the weight of all that God is, the fullness of his understanding, virtue, and happiness, as Jonathan Edwards put it.

We glorify God when we throw a spotlight on how great God is. To glorify God is to make much of him–as a mother makes much of her daughter when she fusses and frets over her. To glorify God is to magnify the greatness of his character–not as a microscope magnifies by making small objects look large, but as a telescope magnifies by giving us a glimpse of things that are unimaginably big. To glorify God is to honor his worth–just as I honor my wife by taking her out on an anniversary date when I could be watching the Chicago Bears, demonstrating that she is more valuable and desirable than football.

God’s perfect love, power, wisdom, sovereignty, and grace make him glorious. Pointing others to the majesty of God and being satisfied with the worth and weight of this majesty make us God-glorifiers.

Book Review: Joe Thorn - Note to Self

Genre: Christian Living
Publisher: Crossway/RE:Lit
Publication Date: April 7, 2011

The concept of preaching the gospel to yourself is an important one, and one I’ve been hearing articulated a lot more recently. Christians talk a lot about sermons, evangelism, and other important topics relating to communicating the gospel to others, but we also need to remind ourselves of the truths we say we believe regularly. I’m big on saying we shouldn’t “assume the gospel.” We shouldn’t assume people understand the gospel and move onto “more important doctrines,” and I think that concept applies to ourselves as well. Our daily actions and thought-lives shouldn’t assume the truths of the gospel; we need to consciously remind ourselves.

Joe Thorn’s new book, Note to Self, contains a lot of great examples of how to do just that. Written from a first-person perspective to himself, Thorn tackles all kinds of extremely practical topics and situations as he reminds himself of how the gospel applies to everything in life. Each “chapter” includes some scripture that triggers the thoughts discussed over the next 2 pages. The end result is a collection of 48 “notes” that are great nuggets of truth to meditate on themselves, but also help readers to see how to take God’s Word and work through the practical applications on their own.

I appreciated this book for 2 main reasons. First, it places a significant importance on Scripture. Every note is based thoroughly in scripture. Things get very practical, but every thought finds its foundation in what God has said about himself, us, and the world in which we live. Second, Thorn has a laser-focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ and the fact that we’re saved by faith alone. He discusses the importance of the law and aspects of God’s justice, but he never lets up on reminding himself that salvation isn’t dependent on works. He exhorts himself to good works; the motivation is never condemnation. This is an important balance to get right, and it’s an important distinction for believers to understand as they “preach” to themselves.

My only real criticism of the book (and I don’t really consider it a criticism), is that the chapters are so short and self-contained, that reading the book in one sitting like I did isn’t nearly as helpful. I plan to come back to this book for use as a devotional because there is too much to think upon in each note to fly through like I did. Unfortunately, the only chance I had to read the book was on a flight during a business trip, so I feel like I probably missed a lot of wisdom that requires more thought than I could give it.

Here’s my takeaway: Read this book. Read it slowly. Learn how to take God’s Word, internalize it, clarify it to yourself, swim in it, wrestle with it, and come out drenched with the gospel of Jesus. Don’t “assume the gospel” in your daily life and live on auto-pilot. Force the truth of the Bible into your heart. This book is a great example of how to do that.



This book was provided for review by Crossway in exchange for a review. No expectation of a positive review existed.

What Many Non-Believers Think When Coming To Your Church

7 thoughts from Thomas Weaver at The Resurgence:

Okay I'm not a Christian, but I’ve finally made the decision to come to your church this Sunday. Don’t expect much from me though. If something comes up I might not, but right now I’m planning on it. I feel like I need to go, but I’m not sure why. I want to tell you a few things about myself before you meet me.

1. I'm not going to understand religious language or phrases so be aware of that when we talk. I don’t understand slain in the spirit, God is moving in me, covered in the blood, I need to die to self, you just need to be in the Word, what you need is a new life, etc. If we have conversation filled with religious talk, I'm probably not going to understand half of the words...and maybe think you're a little crazy.

2. When you ask me how I’m doing, know that I don’t trust you. I’m probably going to lie and tell you I’m fine. It’s not that I don’t want to tell you; it’s just that I come from some pain and am not sure if I trust you yet. How about you tell me your story first? If I like you and get the vibe that you’re not trying to capture my soul or anything, I’ll tell you mine.

3. I’ve got pretty rough language and I can be bitter and angry about some things. If I sense in you a mindset of superiority, I’m out. If you are just waiting for your turn to talk instead of truly listening to me, I’m not going to be interested. Don’t expect me to be exactly like you.

4. Don’t make a big deal of introducing me to everyone you know. I understand a couple of people, but please; don’t set up a welcoming line. I’m just there to check it out; I need a bit of space.

5. I’m going to be looking for genuine interest in me. I don’t want to feel like your personal salvation project or be a notch on your “I saved one” belt. If this Jesus is who you say he is, then I’m looking forward to seeing Him in you. That’s how it works, right?

6. I’m going to have questions. I need truth, not your preferences or your religion, so can you just tell me what the bible says?

7. I need to feel welcomed. Is there a time limit or something on my visit before I'm supposed to feel unwelcomed? I mean, I’ve been to other churches and there seemed to be a push for me to make up my mind or something. How long until I’m unwelcomed?

Thanks for hearing me out. I’m pretty sure I’m going to come this Sunday. But I might not.

Children Are A Glorious Inconvenience

Mark Driscoll:

Sweet Guitar Solo on an iPad

The internet really is pretty clutch sometimes. So are the creative powers God gave some people.



HT: Zach Nielsen

Greg Lucas - Wrestling With an Angel

If you haven't read it, I highly recommend Wrestling With an Angel by Greg Lucas. I think it's the best book Cruciform Press has released so far. It's a very quick read, but very powerful. Here's a short video of Greg talking about the the topic of the book, his son.



HT: Tim Challies

Andrew Peterson: Angry Email

Great story from Andrew Peterson about what happened when someone wrote a nasty email to his wife, who was handling some things with order from his website.

Years ago, when I was on the road a lot more than I am now, Jamie called me from home to tell me she’d just been reprimanded by someone. Her voice trembled. In between diaper changes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches she had trudged out to the garage in the freezing cold to fill orders in my absence. Someone wanted to expedite shipping and Jamie sent a sweet email back saying that she didn’t know how to do that. Well, the customer replied with some pretty harsh words and told her how lame it was that our website didn’t offer shipping options, and how they were used to professional websites and thought ours was a giant hassle. She cried.

I got home, read the email exchange, and was ready to crawl through the modem, emerge into this person’s living room as an Obi Wan hologram, and challenge him to a duel. I couldn’t imagine why someone who liked my music enough to order it from my website would then proceed to chew out my wife for not being web-savvy enough. (I’m still surprised by it, to be honest.) So I cracked my knuckles, rolled my head around a time or two, slammed back a shot of sweet tea, and typed a scathing email. I told the person I didn’t appreciate their tone with my sweet wife, I didn’t appreciate their insensitivity to how hard we were working to amend the situation, I told them I was shocked at their insolence, at their brazen belittling of my wife, and—and—well, you get the point.

My mouse hovered over the “Send” button, just long enough for the Holy Spirit to tweak my heart a little. I shrugged it off and sent the email anyway. I stomped back into the house feeling a little guilty and a lot justified, informed my wife that I had just sent the guy an e-whooping, and refilled my sweet tea. I felt good. Except for the part of me that felt kind of dark. I sauntered back to the garage to finish filling orders and checked my email. The person had emailed me back immediately. I opened the email, ready for a fight, and it was immediately clear that the person hadn’t read my e-whooping. The person had sent an unsolicited and sincere apology. They were repentant and kind, and expressed gratitude for Jamie’s hard work. The person had been having a very stressful day, and goofed up. I felt terrible. I was horrified by the knowledge that any second that person would read my angry words. The Spirit tweaked me again with what must have been a holy “I told you so.”

Then an error message popped up. “Message not sent,” it read. “Server error.” (Server error, indeed.) It seemed as though God had reached into the internet, grabbed my boneheaded email, and flung it back into my computer, sparing the other person quite a bit of pain. Ever since that day, which we’ll call Huge Sigh of Relief Day, I’ve tried to wait days, even weeks, before replying to an email that provokes me. I also try to let someone else read it too and offer feedback. Many times after a few days I realize a reply isn’t necessary at all. The world spins on and the rebuttal that once seemed so vital to the maintenance of my honor turns out to be rather dishonorable instead.

A person’s wisdom yields patience;
it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.

Proverbs 19:11

New Francis Chan Book: Erasing Hell

Cannot wait to read this. There's something about Francis Chan's humility and gentle faithfulness to the Scriptures that really draws me. This should be good.

Allegory and Preaching Christ from the Old Testament

Fantastic piece by Jared Wilson on preaching Christ from the Old Testament. Great stuff here about getting to Christ through the Old Testament stories and symbols while not losing the original context of those real, historical events. Longer post, so I won't link the whole thing, but VERY much worth the whole read.

One of the first things we ought to do is ditch the language of "allegory." What we mean is that Jesus is symbolized by Old Testament types, but while allegory is a form of symbolism, they are not synonymous any more than animal and dog are. We armchair exegetes make this mistake all the time, referring to a literary work as allegorical when it is no such thing. The Narnia stories are the most common modern victim. We tend to do to "allegory" what we've done to the word "ironic." (No, Alanis, it's not ironic that you got a bunch of spoons when all you wanted was a knife. Just unfortunate. And weird.)

According to the classical definition, allegory occurs when the original symbol exists primarily as a vehicle for what is symbolized and maintains little to no intent of its own, and/or when what is tangible symbolizes something intangible. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory because his characters correspond to intangible virtues like courage and the like. But Aslan is not allegorical because he does not symbolize an intangible virtue like sacrifice or nobility but is meant to be Jesus, albeit in that other world.

We ought not use the language of allegory in referring to the Old Testament for these two main reasons:

1. It diminishes the original text, treating it as merely a vehicle to something real, rather than real itself. There is a danger in that of turning the Old Testament into folk stories, fables, and myths rather than a history of real people doing real things. Even when Paul interprets Sarai and Hagar "allegorically" in Galatians 4, he is not saying Sarai and Hagar weren't real people. He is using them as an illustration. This is typically not what we do when we begin allegorizing the Old Testament stories.

2. It demonstrates a misunderstanding of the way the Old Testament is the shadow of the things to come (Heb. 10:1). If the shadows correspond to Jesus, then they are not allegorical, because Jesus is not an intangible idea but a very tangible Person.

How then ought we to navigate these brilliant shadows and see Christ in them?

Read the rest of the post.

Jared also links to a post from Erik Raymond called "Fight the Text Before You Flee to Christ." Also very good and worth the read.

Our temptation is to jump into the passage with our Christological veins bulging and neglect the original context. We parachute into the passage, take a quick look around, and then search for the quickest vine out of town into the New Testament. And who could criticize this? After all, you are preaching Christ. Right?

Here’s my issue: those passages have a context. They have a context within the overall context of God’s big story. You have real people in real history. You have got to work in and up from the original context faithfully and find the biblical trajectory, as D. A. Carson would say, that points to Jesus. You have got to faithfully fight your way out of the cocoon in order to fly into the garden of the New Testament. Preachers cannot neglect this crucial step.

City Limits - Timelapse Video

I really enjoy these timelapse videos depicting nature or (in this case) cities. Very cool stuff. And the music from Inception is awesome.

Driscoll: How Can We Be Righteous Before God?

HT: Zach Nielsen

Shallow Small Group

This is exactly what I was going for with ours...



HT: Challies

Jesus is the true and better...

Music Video of the Week: The City Harmonic

The City Harmonic - "Manifesto"

"But for God..."

From I Am Second. Really good to watch one of these every now and then. (Note: Blogger's acting strange, so if you can't see the video, it should be back up once they get things back up completely.)



HT: Desiring God

Keller - The Death of the Mushy Middle

Loved this perspective from Keller on the apparent secular movement of our society.



HT: The Resurgence

Why Won't God Just Tell Me What to Do Already?

Loved this post from Michael Kelley:

Thing is, the Bible isn’t an instruction manual for life, and because it’s not, we see that God is not absent from those small details. The Bible is the means by which we might know God in Christ, not primarily the means by which we might figure out the details of our own lives. God is the main character of the Bible; not me. And not you.

One of the characteristics revealed in the pages of Scripture is God’s desire for intimacy with His people. And perhaps that’s exactly the reason why you don’t find blank pages waiting to be filled in on a daily basis. If that were the case, then where would our relationship with God be? We would reduce Him to a cosmic slot machine who spits out answers when we pull the lever.

And you don’t love a slot machine. You USE a slot machine.

Maybe the reason God doesn’t always just tell us what to do in the details is because in this, He’s doing what He does in so many other areas of life: developing intimacy with us. He’s forcing us to talk and listen. To even argue sometimes. But to know Him rather than just His plan.

That, after all, is what eternal life is about: knowing God. Not knowing the answers.

HT: Zach Nielsen

Book Review: Stephen Altrogge - The Greener Grass Conspiracy

Genre: Christian Living
Publisher: Crossway
Publication Date: April 7, 2011

Having one of the better book titles I’ve heard in a while and addressing a topic very pertinent to my life, I was excited to read Stephen Altrogge’s new book, The Greener Grass Conspiracy. Contentment is something severely lacking in our world, even (sometimes especially) among professing Christians. I count myself among this group, always looking for the next thing to temporarily satisfy my perceived “needs,” give my life tangible meaning, or divert my attention for a few hours from the part of my life I simply endure. I’m prone to complaining and operate from a sense of entitlement much of the time, feeling (although not voicing) that God owes me more than this.

I don’t think I’m alone in these feelings. As Altrogge expertly points out in this book, as humans living in a fallen world with the remnants of sin still clinging to us, we are inclined to selfishness and a longing for what we don’t have. Despite the many blessings we’ve seen God continually pore out on us and the numerous promises of future blessings, we operate from a mindset that subconsciously treats God as a “deadbeat deity” (Altrogge’s term) who we are constantly judging based on our circumstances, situations, and emotional states. God’s just not doing a good enough job running things, we think, and so we aren’t content.

This short treatment on the subject has a very logical flow and the arguments are well-developed over the course of the book, as each chapter builds the case for why contentment can (and should) be found in any circumstance. Pulling from the lives of Solomon, Paul, and his own personal anecdotes, Altrogge builds the case for why simply attaining whatever it is we want won’t lead to lasting happiness. Since happiness can’t be tethered to circumstances or things, it must be latched onto Christ to endure. The argument builds to the middle of the book where the gospel is clearly presented, and then the rest of the book works out many of the practical applications.

My favorite chapter was called “Eat the Meat and Die,” where we see a poignant comparison between the Israelites complaining and subsequent plague from the quail in the desert to our complaining today. The point: God takes complaining seriously. I was convicted by the discussion to do the same with my complaints and see them for what they are: indictments of God and how He’s handling things that affect my life. It’s treason, really.

Altrogge writes with candor, with humor, and with a pastor’s sensitivity that realizes contentment is not easily attained, even if the truths that lead to it are readily acknowledged. His discussion of suffering and contentment was particularly gentle but firm. I found the book enjoyable, convicting, and I will probably go back and read it again to fully digest much of it for my own personal growth (at only 139 pages it a quick read).

My generation is one that operates on principles of entitlement and discontent. Many have even painted discontent as a positive quality, in that we should never be satisfied and should always “push for more.” God’s people shouldn’t lack ambition, but it shouldn’t be motivated by a lack of contentment. Paul wrote to the Philippians that he had learned to be content in any circumstance (which included much more than most of our struggles that lead to discontent). How? Through Christ, who strengthened him. That’s the source of our contentment. This book will help you love Christ more, and in doing so, will point you to the source of true contentment, regardless of your temporal circumstances this side of heaven.



This book was provided for review by Crossway in exchange for a review. No expectation of a positive review existed.

Music Video of the Week: The Lonely Forest

The Lonely Forest - "We Sing In Time"

Book Review: David Platt - Radical Together

Genre: Christian Living
Publisher: Multnomah
Publication Date: April 17, 2011

David Platt came basically out of nowhere with his first book, the New York Times Best-Selling Radical. His themes of abandonment to Christ and calls for serving God is any ways possible connected with people across most demarcations we could use to describe them. As many people’s “American Dream” (i.e. 401k, large home, etc.) crumbled around them, the call to a larger purpose that rejected living for those things seemed to resonate with many.

Now, Platt has followed up that book with Radical Together, intended to help people live out the vision cast in Radical within the context of the church. What does it look like for a congregation to really be “radical”? How can church leaders guide their people in serving others? What does it really look like to live a life of all-out relinquishment of self and submission to God’s call on our lives?

I hadn’t heard of Platt before his first book, but I gave a very positive review to Radical (it actually ended up being quoted in the reviews section at the front of this book). I was motivated by Radical to re-examine my life, values, and goals for what I wanted my life to look like. I enjoyed the book, operating on what I’ll call “the assumption of the gospel.” I know that I’m saved by faith alone by grace alone by the work of Christ alone and that nothing I do for God earns me anything. I filtered everything said in the book through that lens. It wasn’t until my wife read the book that I noticed how much of what Platt said could be taken, and how it could feel so burdensome to people. It can sound like works-righteousness, like you can never measure up, be “radical” enough, and that God is continually disappointed by your life and your ability to live a blessed life while others perish from lack.

Platt doesn’t believe that. But I do think he assumed others knew that when writing Radical at times. I assumed that. I think lots of churches assume the gospel a lot. The result is sermons that provide numerous practical ways to serve God and/or live moral lives, but never mention the imputed righteousness of Christ the enables us to serve. People might feel motivated to obey, but when they fail (as we will), they feel guilty. That’s not the gospel.

With this in mind, I was so happy to see Platt give a full chapter of this new book to “The Gospel Misunderstood” where he explicitly writes to people who read Radical and came away with a low-level guilt that condemned and paralyzed them. He makes it clear that Christ saves us from work and to work. As he states, only Jesus was “radical enough.” He gets the indicatives and the imperatives right and explicit here. We serve in response to grace and salvation, not to earn it. This is vital and without it, everything else said in the book would just be more weight around weary sinners’ necks. With it, we can be empowered to live lives that glorify God and serve others in response to the grace of Christ.

Like Radical, Radical Together is full of stories from Platt’s church (and others who have shared stories in response to the first book) of people responding to the gospel by doing amazing things for God. He lays the groundwork for discussions within churches by simply asking questions about budgets, programs, missions trips, etc. He doesn’t condemn many things churches do, he just points out that we need to be willing to ask the questions. Is that program really the best use of the resources God has provided? It might be, but are you willing to seek God’s answer?

In many ways, Radical Together is very similar to the first book, just taking a more macro view. I think Platt learned from the feedback he received and didn’t assume the gospel this time around. This book is a great resource for church leaders looking to glorify God with their churches, and it’s a must read for anyone who came away from Radical feeling condemned and not inspired. Platt is a fantastic, humble, gospel-driven, young pastor who is still learning and is a much needed voice in American evangelicalism today.

Hallelujah. All I Have is Christ.

Book Review: Trevin Wax - Counterfeit Gospels

Genre: Christian Living/Theology
Publisher: Moody
Publication Date: April 1, 2011

The gospel.

As believers, it should be foundational to our understanding of God, the world, and ourselves. We ought to be able to explain it anytime we need to, strive to live out its truths daily, and we ought to be able to point out error when a false version of it is proclaimed (and be able to use scripture to explain why). Unfortunately, this is not always the case. This is why I’m thankful for books like Counterfeit Gospels by Trevin Wax.

Wax wrote Counterfeit Gospels to address what he feels is a threefold crisis facing the church: 1) A lack of gospel confidence (believing that the gospel message has power by itself); 2) A lack of gospel clarity (our ability to articulate the truth of the gospel and why people need to hear it); and 3) A lack of gospel community (no distinctions between the church and the world, or, worse yet, feeling the church is unnecessary).

To address these issues, Wax proposes a three-legged stool metaphor for the gospel, and this makes up the structure for the book. For each leg – Story, Announcement, and Community – Wax explains the biblical truth of the gospel as it pertains to that area in one chapter, then he takes two chapters to examine two counterfeits that distort or outright deny that truth.

I was a big fan of the structure of the book as it allowed for easy compartmentalization of the ideas being discussed. The format clearly sways towards reductionism at times, and some will balk at the terms and broad brush strokes with which distortions are painted, but these instances are pretty minimal, and overall I think Wax was fair to the different views of the gospel he discusses.

My favorite discussions centered around the distortions of The Announcement, The Moralistic Gospel and the Quietist Gospel, as these are the two I tend to lean towards when I begin to lose sight of the true gospel. The Moralistic Gospel says we can manipulate God and earn his favor (or at least succeed in improving our behavior with His help) by law keeping. This is a dangerous counterfeit that shows up in many conservative, evangelical churches today as many sermons are preached about moral improvement with no mention of Jesus Christ who gave us his righteousness. It’s a subtle counterfeit but very powerful and destructive. The Quietist Gospel, on the other hand, reduces the message of the Kingdom to only individual salvation and creates an “us vs. them” mentality within the church. This is also very prevalent today.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation to all who believe (Romans 1:16), and it’s extremely important that we get it right. Books like Counterfeit Gospels are needed resources to help believers think through the different distortions of the message that look very similar to the real thing, but will lead us down dangerous paths if we’re not careful.



This book was provided for review by Moody in exchange for a review. No expectation of a positive review existed.

Book Review: Bryan M. Litfin - The Gift

Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Crossway
Publication Date: March 31, 2011

Last year, Crossway released Bryan Litfin’s first novel in the Chiveis Trilogy, The Sword. That book introduced readers to Teofil, a noble army guardsman, and Anastasia, a beautiful peasant woman 400 years into our future. Civilization was destroyed by a nuclear holocaust, and many things from our culture were lost, including the Bible and Christianity, for the most part. In The Sword, though, Teo and Ana find an ancient copy of the Old Testament and come to believe in the Creator God described in its pages, a God known to them as Deu. The Sword ended with the main characters forced from their homeland and into exile because of their faith.

In the second installment, The Gift, Litfin picks the story up right where he left off, and we join Teo and Ana on their search for the missing New Testament, which they know will fill in many of the gaps they see in the Old Testament. Of course, there are powers at work that will do anything to keep this from happening, including the Exterminati (I know, subtle), an organization of shamans who oppose the Christiani and who rid the “civilized” world of “defectives,” those who they deem less than perfect due to mental or physical handicap.

(Side note: Litfin clearly wanted to communicate ideas about certain issues within this story, such as the value of all humans, including the disabled. There’s also a subtle discussion of homosexuality and how Christians respond to that. Occasionally these things feel forced into the plot and can be pretty abrupt.)

The most fascinating part of this book to me was watching the characters think through what the New Testament might say. With their only knowledge of Deu coming from the Old Testament, their knowledge is incomplete and simply wrong some times. They know that Iesus Christus, the “pierced one” from the cross, was likely the suffering servant talked about in the prophets, but they don’t know how his death helped the Promised King. They know much about the character of God and have a sincere and real faith in Him, but they agonize over not knowing the whole story about the King. This drives their search for the New Testament.

This provides a great context to consider what it looked like for people before Christ who were waiting for him, but weren’t really sure what they were waiting to see. Many had no idea that the Suffering Servant and the Promised King were one and the same. There are very interesting thoughts to consider at times in The Gift.

Despite the interesting premise, as a novel, the book does lack at times. The dialogue feels a little stilted at times, and Litfin clearly wants to communicate a worldview that comes with a vocabulary that feels unnatural in the book’s setting. The action sequences are quite good, however, and as with The Sword, the attention to the detail of the real-life settings is spectacular. I just couldn’t get passed some of the dialogue that jolted me out of the story occasionally.

Overall, though, I would recommend the first two books of this trilogy. Solid Christian fiction that seeks to portray a biblical worldview within fiction is pretty lacking in the marketplace (unless you happen to enjoy stories about the Amish). Although these books suffer from some of the same problems that plague Christian movies (forced plots and dialogue, lack of subtlety and nuance at times), it’s still very nice to see talented authors attempting to embed biblical truths in a fictional story that will draw readers who might not sit down with a systematic theology, but might be positively influenced in their views of God by a solid epic story.



This book was provided for review by Crossway in exchange for a review. No expectation of a positive review existed.

Music Video of the Week: Shawn McDonald

Shawn McDonald - "Closer (Live Acoustic)"