Getting Jesus Wrong: Giving Up Spiritual Vitamins and Checklist Christianity
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Jesus is not a life coach, a movement leader, a cultural visionary, or a blessing dispenser but you might not know that by listening to many Christians talk about their faith. Feel-good slogans promote a caricatured Jesus made in our own image who cannot save us and leave us feeling guilty for not saving ourselves. Following the wrong Jesus disappoints us and produces anxiety, pride, and despair.
The first half of Getting Jesus Wrong recounts pastor and author Matt Johnson’s personal encounters with a string of false saviors that many, especially young adults, will recognize. Johnson’s humor and transparency in recounting his own painful experiences will appeal to those who have tried a brand of Christianity and found it lacking.
The truth is, we all want something from Jesus. Some are just hoping for a little help to get through life a new direction, a purpose that will get us up in the morning, an exercise plan, a way to get organized. But that approach to Jesus doesn’t result in real faith or love.
Whether we’ve followed a false Jesus or attempted to coopt the real Jesus, Getting Jesus Wrong ultimately offers us hope because it helps us see Jesus as he is. Getting Jesus Wrong shows that the message of the Bible is about Jesus coming to us as we are which is good news for exhausted and disillusioned disciples. It shows us that getting Jesus right means a whole new way of thinking (the way up is down) and a whole new way of life (daily dependence on the one who knows the beginning from the end). Getting Jesus right gives us more than spiritual vitamins or a blueprint for living; it gives us a full, rich life spent exploring the depths of gospel love together.
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- Recounts personal encounters with false saviors that many will recognize
- Shows that the message of the Bible is about Jesus coming to us as we are
- Offers hope by helping readers see Jesus as he truly is
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- The Problem
- Part I: Life Coach Jesus and Other False Gods
- Chapter 1: Life Coach Jesus
- Chapter 2: Checklist Jesus
- Chapter 3: Movement Leader Jesus
- Chapter 4: Visionary Jesus
- Chapter 5: Pride and Despair
- Part II: The Antidote to Pride and Despair
- Chapter 6: God’s Law
- Chapter 7: God’s Gospel
- Chapter 8: Humility and Hope
- Endnotes
What kind of ‘Jesus’ do you believe in? Is he the Jesus you and others around you have imagined for your own life stories? Or is he the radical Savior-King who messes up your life and saves you—really saves you, not only from his judgment but from yourself? This is a fun book to read. More than that, it’s spot-on, filled with the Bible’s central message. Tired of chicken-soup-for-the-soul spirituality? Then read this book!
—Michael Horton, Professor of Theology, Westminster Seminary California; cohost, White Horse Inn broadcast/podcast
We live in an age when people aren’t so much interested in what is true as they are in what works. And to their minds, what doesn’t work is the boring same-old-same-old story of Jesus, God’s perfect Son who fulfilled all the Law in our place, died the death we all deserve, and then rose to new life again, so that we can know we’re lovingly forgiven, adopted, and cherished. Because we’ve yawned at the gospel, Jesus has been refashioned into a person who offers more practical help: he’s given to you so that you can love yourself more, be a really great you, and be part of our really great movement. Matt Johnson struggled under the tyrant of that sort of Jesus until he discovered the wonder of the real Jesus—the One who dispenses both Law and Gospel. This book is a strong antidote to all the ‘wrong’ Jesuses out there. I encourage you to read it and share it with friends. You’ll be glad you did.
—Elyse M. Fitzpatrick, Author of Because He Loves Me
Apparently it was Voltaire who originally quipped that ‘In the beginning God created man in his own image, and ever since, man has been trying to repay the favor.’ What sounds like a clever witticism is actually a devastating truism, the all-too-real consequences of which Matt Johnson unpacks here with both courage and a great sense of humor. Getting Jesus Wrong is a terrific—dare I say, ‘glorious’!—resource for anyone who’s ever thought about (let alone believed in) Jesus, and one that I plan to hand out with abandon.
—David Zahl, Editor of The Mockingbird Blog; author of A Mess of Help; coauthor of Law And Gospel