Book Review: Gospel


“The gospel has done in my heart what religion never could.”  J.D. Greear’s new book Gospel is a powerful reminder that Christians carry the gospel…something much more powerful than anything our churches could manufacture.  I have heard some of Greear’s messages over the years, but his book resonated with me in a way that I didn’t really expect.  His book was challenging, authentic, and revolutionary.

The book is a welcome relief from the “do this do that” lists that some pastors and churches put forth as the way to grow in your faith.  Greear proposes that the only way to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ is to truly saturate yourself in the gospel.

Here are some thoughts that I highlighted while reading…

  • The Puritan Jonathan Edwards likened his reawakening to the gospel to a man who had known, in his head, that honey was sweet, but for the first time had that sweetness burst alive in his mouth.
  • The gospel has done in my heart what religion never could.
  • Being able to articulate the gospel with accuracy is one thing; having its truth captivate your soul is quite another.
  • A Christianity that does not have as its primary focus the deepening of passions for God is a false Christianity, no matter how zealously it seeks conversions or how forcefully it advocates righteous behavior.
  • Love for God is commanded in Scripture, but the command can only truly be fulfilled as our eyes are opened to see God’s beauty revealed in the gospel.
  • Love for God grows out of an experience of the love of God.
  • Spiritual giftedness, doctrinal mastery, audacious faith, and radical obediences do not equal the only thing that actually matters to God–love for Him.  Without love even the most radical devotion to God is of no value to Him.
  • Only in the truths of the gospel can a heart turned in on itself burst alive in love for God.
  • The gospel has done its work in us when we crave God more than we crave everything else in life–more than money, romance, family, health, fame–and when seeing His kingdom advance in the lives of others gives us more joy than anything we could own.
  • Religious activities fail to address the “root” idolatries that drive our sin.
  • True worship is obedience to God for no other reason than that you delight in God.
  • True religion is when you serve God to get nothing else but more of God.
  • When our acceptance is based on our performance, we exacerbate two root sins in our heart:  pride and fear.
  • The insecurity of always wondering if we’ve done enough to be accepted causes resentment of God, not love for Him.
  • What religion is unable to do, God does for us in the gospel.
  • Christ’s obedience is so spectacular there is nothing we could do to add to it; His death is so final that nothing could take away from it.
  • Satan’s primary temptation strategy is to try and make us forget what God has said about us and to evaluate our standing before God by some other criteria.
  • In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make You love me more, and nothing I have done that makes You love me less.
  • Gospel change is the Spirit of God using the story of God to make the beauty of God come alive in our hearts.
  • Your presence and approval are all I need for everlasting joy.
  • Idols promise fulfillment but deliver disillusionment.
  • The amount which you understand the gospel is measured by your ability to be joyful in all circumstances.
  • He is the treasure worth forsaking all else to obtain.
  • Doctrine helps describe the God we must see; application helps us see how to love the God we have seen.  But both are useless if the eyes of the heart have not been opened to see and savor the beauty of God.
  • Awe combined with intimacy is the essence of Christian worship.
  • Believing the gospel is not only the way we become Christians, it is the power that enables us to do, every moment of every day, the very things Jesus commands us to do.
  • As You have been to me, so I will be to others.
  • Those people who really believe the gospel show it by becoming like the gospel.
  • When you have tasted the grace of the gospel, no relationship, no matter how wrong or hurtful or annoying, looks the same to you.
  • The most fundamental question every disciple of Christ must ask himself is which kingdom is his primary pursuit.
  • Jesus did not come to make slight alterations to our lifestyles.  He called us to live for a completely different kingdom.
  • As I pray, I’ll measure Your compassion by the cross and Your power by the resurrection.
  • God sometimes answers our prayers by giving us what we would have asked for had we known what He knows.
  • Spiritual disciplines must be accompanied by a deep saturation in the gospel.  The gospel changes the desires and cravings of the heart.
  • The presence of a healthy local church in a community is the greatest catalyst for the evangelization of that community.
  • Truly believing the gospel produces in us a concern for the poor, a love of Scripture, a desire to be in authentic community, a love for holiness, and everything else that is part of the Christian life.
  • Mastering the theory of gospel-centeredness is not the point.  Loving the God of the gospel is.

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