Book Review

In the Great Commission our Lord asks us to do three things: go into all the world and make disciples, baptize them in the Trinitarian formulation, and teach them.  One and two are pretty straight forward and executed on fairly well by the church today.  However, teaching can be something called in to question.  Are we as the body of Christ proficient in this area?  Or to be more specific, is what we are teaching what our Lord had in mind?  D.A. Carson has written, "I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight.  Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry" (The Cross and Christian Ministry).

In the The Cross Centered Life CJ Mahaney explains the centrality of the cross in Christianity then explains how this is lived out daily.  He offers suggestions to better assist the believer by memorizing the gospel, praying the gospel, singing the gospel, consider the gospel's impact on you, and study the gospel.  Why the heavy emphasis on the gospel?  It's like Carson said, it is imperative that we keep the central things central so that it doesn't get replaced by the peripheral. 

Never the less The Cross Centered Life is a good book and well worth the read.