Book Review: Jesus Is

Relationship over Rules.
Love over Judgment.
Grace over Everything.
Jesus Is.

Jesus Is by Judah Smith is one of the most compelling looks at the true meaning of grace in light of the gospel message.  I would recommend this book to new believers as a foundational look at what true Christianity is all about…and longtime believers that need a reminder to clear away the clutter and get back to what the gospel is truly about.  I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those below…

  • A giant chalkboard in our church lobby now reads, “Our mission: to show you who Jesus is.”
  • God doesn’t share our rating system.  To him, all sin is equally evil, and all sinners are equally lovable.
  • Jesus is not your accuser.  He’s not your prosecutor.  He’s not your judge.  He’s your friend and your rescuer.
  • We need to abandon our scale and adopt God’s because our misguided labels keep us from the right kind of interaction with people.
  • I find that righteous indignation comes a lot easier than humility and compassion.  Mentally chastising the bad deeds of other people is more comfortable than dealing with my own.
  • So now I have to ask myself, how come I assume I’m near the top of that food chain?  And on a related note, who is looking at me and using my mistakes to prop up their self-esteem?  Just the thought puts me on the defensive, but it’s a fair question.
  • I don’t mean to insult anyone.  But freedom starts with honesty.  We aren’t doing ourselves any favors by defining ourselves as good and others as bad.  Let’s just agree that we all ned help, that we are all in this together.
  • Jesus befriends the worst of sinners, so Jesus befriends me.
  • No sinner is irreparable or irredeemable.  No sin is so great that the blood of Jesus cannot cover it.  His love is so deep and wide that he can, in one moment of our faith, forgive our past, present, and future sins.  Sin is simply not a problem for God.
  • Love is.  Grace is.  Mercy is.  Jesus is.
  • Webster’s top definition comes closest to the biblical meaning of grace: “Unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.”
  • Spiritual birth happens by grace when we believe.  Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through with, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (NKJV)
  • Grace is more than a principle, more than an idea, more than a doctrine or dogma, more than a cover-up for sin.  Grace is a person.  And his name is Jesus.
  • When we meet grace, it becomes the fuel of our faith.  We pray, we read our Bibles, we worship, and we live the purest lifestyle we can because we love a person.  Allegiance to a doctrine can only last so long, but relationship trumps everything.  We’ll do anything for someone we love.
  • Rules are meant to lead us to relationship, not to replace relationship.
  • Grace is God-given power to live differently.
  • Once you savor God’s goodness, sin holds no lasting appeal.
  • We don’t have to earn anything.  We don’t have to pay anything.  We don’t have to deserve anything.  That’s what grace is all about.
  • Don’t cheapen Jesus’s sacrifice by trying to pay him back.
  • Our righteousness doesn’t depend on our present performance but on Jesus’s finished performance.
  • “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” (Romans 5:20 NKJV)
  • Grace is so simple that we have a hard time believing it could be true.  But I’m convinced that unless it’s too good to be true, it’s not grace.
  • “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17 NKJV)
  • Grace is supernatural by definition, so it transcends our ability to reason and comprehend and calculate.  It’s bigger than our minds.  It’s bigger than our understanding.  God’s ways are higher than our ways.  His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  He is God and we are not.
  • “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13 NKJV)
  • Jesus is the point of life.
  • “You love justice and hate evil.  Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.”  (Hebrews 1:9 NKJV)
  • One of the greatest indictments against Christians is not sin or hypocrisy.  It’s our lack of joy.  Something is wrong when we call ourselves Christians  but we practically have an aneurysm just trying to crack a smile.
  • “Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!” (Nehemiah 8:10)
  • “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.”  (Psalm 51)
  • Religion says: “Behave, believe, and then you will belong.”  That’s the order many of us have known our whole lives.  “First I have to act right, think right, and talk right, then I’ll fit in.  Then I’ll belong.”  The gospel says the opposite. “Belong, then believe, then behave.”  Another way of saying that is: “Amazing grace, great faith, and good works.”
  • “For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  (Ephesians 2:8-10 NKJV)
  • God is with us, and he is for us.  This is the gospel.
  • God saw us, dead in our sins, and he couldn’t sit still.  His rich mercy and his great love propelled him to provide a way to bring us back to life.  That’s why he sent Jesus.  In Jesus, every person can truly live.
  • “So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  (Romans 5:21) Sin, death, and the devil hold no threat when we know who we are in Jesus.
  • Jesus gave me a new way to be human.  At the core of my being, I am holy, righteous, godly, compassionate, generous, loving, and sensitive.  I have a new nature, and it mirrors the God who created me.
  • We have to stop seeing ourselves as sinners.  In heaven there is no concept of us as sinners.  As far as the east is from the west, the Bible says, that is how far God has removed our sins from us.  He does not remember them.  When God sees us, he does not see a sinner.  He sees a saint.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *