Top 10 Reads of 2011

Each year I post the top ten reads of the year. These aren't the top ten published in 2011, nor are they books I would necessarily recommend for everyone. They are simply the top ten books I enjoyed reading this year. In no particular order:

• What Did You Expect? by Paul Tripp - This is probably now my favorite marriage book! Tripp is an extremely gifted communicator and knows the human heart well.

• Reading Paul by Michael Gorman - Michael Gorman is one of my favorite NT scholars. His book Cruciformity made my top ten list last year. This is a very good introduction to Paul. I definitely do not agree with him on everything, but this little book (188 pp) was a delight to read.

• The Triumph of Abraham's God by Bruce Longenecker - I loved this book because I love all things Galatians. Again, just in case someone wants to throw a label on me, I didn't like everything in this book. I am not a New Perspective guy, but this book was rich with exegetical insight.

• The Law and the New Testament by Frank Thielman - Thielman is a PCA guy, but his exegesis is more New Covenant Theology than PCA. Great little book showing the discontinuity of the law of Moses.

• New Covenant Theology by Wells and Zaspel - I first read this one in 2004. It was my second book to read on New Covenant Theology. I remember sitting at the coffee shop in Hastings, thinking "This is it!" I re-read it this year and was just as encouraged (probably more so since I now understand the issues better).

• The Trellis and the Vine by Marshall and Payne - This is a fantastic book on Christian ministry. Read it and give copies to your church leaders. Disciples are those who make disciples.

• A Light to the Nations by Michael Goheen - I had been waiting for this one for 3-4 years. The book that is written by Goheen and Bartholomew called The Drama of Scripture may be my favorite book, period, so I was very excited about this one. It is about the missional church and the biblical story. It is a nice combo of missional ecclesiology and biblical theology.

• New Covenant Morality in Paul by T.J. Deidun - Another very technical work, but really good. Probably the best book I have read on Paul's ethics, though John Barclay is a close second and I have yet to read all of Furnish.

• Covenant and Community by William Klassen - This book is about the life, writings, and hermeneutics of Anabaptist leader Pilgram Marpeck. It was the first work I have read about Marpeck, and I plan to get to know this man very well in years to come.

• Gospel by J.D. Greear - This is a great book on gospel centrality. Out of the many "gospel-centered" books I have read lately, I think this one is most balanced. Full of practical, heart-level application.

I would like to add an 11th for the year. I don't include it because it is not yet published. It is a book called Jesus, the Reason for Everything, by Doug Goodin. It is a very accessible call to live a "Christ-obsessed" life. It will be a book you will want to hand out to friends and family. Keep an eye out for it.

Related:
Top 10 in 2006
Top 10 in 2007
Top 10 in 2008
Top 10 in 2009
Top Ten in 2010

Douglas Moo & New Covenant Theology 1

"Paul does not depict the Christian as one who is under obligation to the specific stipulations of the Mosaic law. The Christian is no longer 'under the [Mosaic] law' . . . . but under 'the law of Christ." (170)

"As in John 1:17, then, 'law' and 'grace' [in Rom 6.14] contrast the old age of bondage and 'tutelage' (cf. Gal. 3:25) with the new age of freedom and 'sonship' (cf. Gal. 4:1-7; Rom 8:14-17)." (389)

"To be 'under law' is to be subject to the constraining and sin-strengthening regime of the old age; to be 'under grace' is to be subject to the new age in which freedom from the power of sin is available." (389)

--from his Romans (NICNT).

The Gospel Strips Us of our Delusion

"Thinking deeply about the gospel is both necessary and beneficial because we are all so prone to self-sufficiency and self-reliance. The gospel serves us by stripping away vain-glorious delusion we harbor about our innate goodness and ability to please God though our self-generated effort. When I forget that the only way that God could stand to have me in his family was by crushing the Son he loves - that without the perfect record of someone else I could not stand before his judicious holiness, that on my own I do not have within me either the desire or the power to please God - I am tempted to believe that I'm really pretty good. And although I might need a nip or tuck, if I try hard enough, I can accomplish all he has called me to. It's when we forget the gospel, when we think we're not really all that bad, not so much in need, not so far from Christlikeness, that pride, arrogance, and the inevitable guilt crush hope and faith."

-Elyse Fitzpatrick, Because He Loves Me, 122.

Jesus Plus Nothing Equals Everything?

I read Tullian Tchividjian's new book, Jesus + Nothing = Everything a month or so ago and was uncomfortable with it. I was intrigued to read it by a sermon he preached with the same title. It was from Colossians 1, but there wasn't much exposition of Colossians 1 in the sermon. It was mostly eloquent waxing on law/gospel type stuff. I experienced similar discomfort when reading Michael Horton's books The Gospel-Driven Life and Christless Christianity, as well as when I read Gerhard Forde. I experienced this same discomfort in Dr. Mark Seifrid's New Testament Theology class. Don't get me wrong, there is lots of good stuff in all of these books and Dr. Seifrid is a phenomenal NT scholar. My discomfort is basically with an over-elevation of justification. Again, I am all about the doctrine of justification! I love this doctrine! But it is not the major emphasis of the NT. In fact, it is really only explicated in two of the 27 letters. I believe justification is foundational, but there is a lot more in the Bible than forensic justification.

It seems to me that this Luther/Forde/Tullian/Horton brand of "gospel-centeredness" is imbalanced. The NT teaching on the transformation of new covenant believers, the empowering presence of the Spirit, the reality that our behavior pleases/displeases the Lord, and genuine warnings to believers are downplayed or muted in their writings. This version of the Christian life doesn't due justice to a lot of the teaching in the NT.

This brings me to the point of this blog post. David Murray has written three excellent and gracious blog posts interacting with Tullian's book:

• Does Jesus + Nothing = Everything?
• The Danger of Making Our Experience the Norm for Others
• Does Jesus Respond to Our Obedience with Love?

As this movement gains popularity, I think voices like Murray are greatly needed.

One of the best resources on this whole discussion is a book called Christian Spirituality: Five Views of Sanctification edited by Donald L. Alexander. In it, Gerhard Forde represents the Lutheran view. Horton and Tullian love to quote Forde and similar Lutheran theologians. I think Sinclair Ferguson, who does the Reformed view, does a superb job showing the weaknesses of this "Lutheran" view of sanctification. His chapter is much better (though wouldn't agree with all of it since I am not a Covenant Theologian).

Related Post: Justification, Sanctification, and Moral Effort

Craig Blomberg on the Christian View of Titles

Here.

Already/Not Yet

Dane Ortlund shares two excellent quotes on inaugurated eschatology:


-William Manson, 1953:

"When we turn to the New Testament, we pass from the climate of prediction to that of fulfillment. The things which God had foreshadowed by the lips of His holy prophets He has now, in part at least, brought to accomplishment . . .

The supreme sign of the Eschaton is the resurrection of Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Church. The resurrection of Jesus is not simply a sign which God has granted in favor of His Son, but is the inauguration, the entrance into history, of the times of the End. Christians, therefore, have entered through the Christ into the new age . . . What had been predicted in Holy Scripture as to happen to Israel or to man in the Eschaton has happened to and in Jesus."

--William Manson, ‘Eschatology and the New Testament,’ in Scottish Journal of Occasional Papers 2 (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1953), 6

-Joachim Jeremias, 1971:

"There is nothing comparable to the resurrection of Jesus anywhere in Jewish literature. Certainly there are mentions of raisings from the dead, but these are always resuscitations, a return to earthly life. Nowhere in Jewish literature do we have a resurrection to doxa as an event of history. Rather, resurrection to doxa always and without exception means the dawn of God’s new creation.

Therefore the disciples must have experienced the appearances of the Risen Lord as an eschatological event, as a dawning of the turning point of the worlds."

--Joachim Jeremias, New Testament Theology: The Proclamation of Jesus (trans. John Bowden; New York: Scribner’s, 1971), 309

Christopher Hitchens has died.

I thought these four posts were worth reading:

• Justin Taylor
• Douglas Wilson Obit
• His Last Article in Vanity Fair
• Russell Moore

Tebow mic'd up against Chicago

Satirical Reading

If you are Emergent or Reformed, you should read these two books by Ted Cluck and Zach Bartels:

Kinda Christianity: A Generous, Fair, Organic, Free-Range Guide to Authentic Realness

Younger, Restlesser, Reformeder: A Good Natured Roast

Both will have you rolling if you are familiar with these movements. Note that the Kindle editions are significantly cheaper.

If you are a Dispensationalist, you really must read N.D. Wilson's Right Behind. 

If you are a general evangelical Christian, Acuff's Stuff Christians Like is hilarious.


If you are not a fan of satire, don't get any of these!

Eschatology Books

Dr. Moore from Southern Seminary shares his eschatology reading lists here.

Crucified or Magnified?

"The satanic powers are watching you. They're peering into your life to see what catches your attention, what puffs up your ego. They're evaluating what kind of Babylon you want to build for yourself, and they'll make sure you get it. Satan is as ambitious for your goals as you are, maybe more so. He'll give you the power you want, the glory you crave, as long as you will fall down and obtain it his way. The powers don't care if we are respected or influential or moral or conservative, as long as we'd rather be magnified than crucified. Satan doesn't mind if our values are right side up, so long as our crosses are upside-down."

-Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried, 161.

2012 John Bunyan Conference

The current issue of Sound of Grace announced the speakers for the 2012 John Bunyan Conference:

• John G. Reisinger
• Steve West
• Blake White
• Fred Zaspel
• Thomas R. Schreiner

It should be a lot of fun. If you have never sat under Dr. Schreiner's teaching, he is a masterful exegete! I plan to talk about love and new covenant ethics. The date is April 23-25. The location is Reformed Baptist Church in Lewisburg, PA. Come if you can!

Awfully Strange

"What would it mean if the leadership structures of our churches weren't as predictable as the leadership structures of every other organization in our communities? What would the outside world say if they saw, in the pictures of our Christian publications, people who would be rejected by the advertising industry for being too fat or too pimply or too awkward? What would our neighbors think, to see that our chairman of deacons has Down syndrome or that a minimum-wage janitor is mentoring the millionaire executive of the hotel chain where he cleans toilets? It would look awfully strange. But it would look no stranger than a starving, homeless wilderness wanderer turning down the opportunity to rule the world."

-Russell D. Moore, Tempted and Tried, 160

Pope Don Carson & his Magnum Opus

I love D.A. Carson's work. Obviously, he is not my pope, but I take everything he says and writes seriously. He is a unique gift to the church. I have learned about Postmodernism, the new perspective on Paul, exegesis in ST, evangelism, biblical theology, and obviously NT studies from him.

One of the ways I have been most helped by Pope Don is the whole area of the NT use of the OT. He himself has taught, preached, and written on this subject often, and he is editor of the Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament along with G.K. Beale. He is also editor of the New Studies in Biblical Theology series. Pretty much every volume in that series is worth reading. I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Carson one time in Ohio. Knowing he was busy, I just thanked him for that series. It has been a blessing.

In Andreas Kostenberger's biographical sketch on Carson, he mentions a major volume dealing with the NT use of the OT (p.3). I can't remember who or where, but I recall someone saying that he wanted to do more exegesis in preparation for this volume so he was going to pump out several more commentaries before writing this one.

In a recent article on Carson's theological method, Andy Naselli mentions this volume. He says:

"His magnum opus will be a two-volume ‘whole-Bible’ BT. He explained to me that he needs about twenty more years to do this well. He first desires to finish his commentaries on John’s letters, Galatians,
Hebrews, Revelation, and Ezekiel. Carson is one of those exceptional figures who is equipped to contribute an outstanding integrative BT that would serve as a reliable foundation for ST that is more genre-sensitive
and aware of the Bible’s storyline."

This is exciting! If you care about such things, pray for this project. I think it will be quite significant for the church.