Book Review - "Your Jesus Is Too Safe" by Jared Wilson

Jared has written a very solid book. He seeks to lay out in twelve short chapters, twelve essential facets of the person and work of Jesus Christ. It's essential Christology for every believer.

My first impression of this book was that it would be a great tool for discipleship. It's not hard to read, but Jared certainly dives into some concepts that are deep, yet very important for every believer to understand. He unpacks them in a way that is readable, informal, but not shallow or lacking.

I like the way that he does not shy away from the ways we make Jesus into someone that works for us rather than dealing with him simply as the Bible presents him to us. He calls us to identify our false understandings of Jesus that serve our our selfish purposes, repent of those, and then seek to rebuild our view of Jesus based on what the Bible gives us. None of us will do this perfectly. We all have so much to learn, but Jared has provided a great book that will greatly aid us in that pursuit.

Two examples that I appreciated where his discussion of the full humanity of Jesus, and the judgment of Jesus. Jared helps us understand that we have to embrace the full humanity of Jesus where most of us oftentimes want to lean towards a view (docetism) that says that Jesus only appeared to be human. Did Jesus understand what it meant to be sexually tempted? Did he go to the bathroom? Did he get tired from a long day at work? We have to answer "yes" to these questions and embrace them or we lean towards heresy. Jared more fully, helps us understand why.

We also don't like to think about Jesus the Judge. The book of Revelation clearly presents this, but we usually would rather prefer to meditate on Jesus as the one who tells us to turn the other cheek, don't judge, and be generous. We like the ethics of Jesus, we just don't like it when those ethical standards are used to judge us. Thank God for the Judge who also bears the guilt for those who are judged. Jared does a great job show the glory of the Gospel through the judgment of Jesus.

My only point of small critique would be Jared's use of informal phrases and language. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not really a stuffy type, nor am I a guy who can't appreciate informality in books, but at times Jared's use of certain cultural phrases and words seems a bit odd and probably will sound rather funny to those reading the book 10 years from now. It's not a big deal, and certainly shouldn't keep you from reading Your Jesus Is Too Safe, but was simply a way that in my view, the book could be improved for the 2nd edition.

You can purchase it here.

If you would like, take a minutes and see what others have written about Your Jesus Is Too Safe:

Monday, Aug. 10

Trevin Wax, Kingdom People

Shannon Lewis, For What It's Worth

Phil Wade, Brandywine Books

Paige Moreland, Reves Plaisants

Winston Hottman, Gospel Minded

Jason Kovacs, Abba Fund Blog

Chad Estes, Captain’s Blog

Gavin Richardson, Hit the Back Button to Move Forward

Jeff Patterson, deTheos

Cadmus Sorrell, Cadm.us


Tuesday, Aug. 11

Brian D., Phoenix Preacher

Warren Kelly, View from the Pew

Justin Holcomb, Mockingbird

Sherry Early, Semicolon

Catherine Martin, Adventures in Domesticity

Dan Cruver, Together 4 Adoption

Mike Leake, Borrowed Light

Phil Wilson

Jamal Jivanjee, Illuminate

Dave Winter, Ordinary Commentary


Wednesday, Aug. 12

Glenn Lucke, Common Grounds Online

Zach Nielsen, Vitamin Z

Ben Reed, Life & Theology

Caila Murphy

Shauna Rumbaugh, Shaunarumbling

Michael Kelley, Forward Progress

Kris Estep

Daniel Ross, The CCJ Blog

Rob Harrison, The Spyglass

Aaron Westerman, Aawest.net


Thursday, Aug. 13

Darryl Dash, DashHouse

Bob Spencer, Wilderness Fandango

Jen, Lintefiniel Musing

Wickle, One True Believer

David Bish, The Blue Fish Project

Jeremy Rose, Thoughts of a Young Pastor

Michael Puhala, Controversial Christian

Doug Schaefer, Salguod.net

Daniel Viezbicke, Then Face to Face


Friday, Aug. 14

Travis Prinzi, Rabbit Room

Milton Stanley, Transforming Sermons

Bill Streger, KaleoBill

Chanda Canup, Thursday’s Child

Aaron Telian, Sojourner’s Song

Jimmy Davis, The Cruciform Life

Justin Woulard, Life on Mars Hill

Brandon Milan, I’m Still Thinkin

Mark Kelly, Grace Dependent