Read below for information about winning a free copy of The Challenge of Jesus, by NT Wright.

It is the rare book that leads me to tears. I cannot actually remember the last book that did so. But today, as I finished reading The Challenge of Jesus by NT Wright, I wept. As I tried to read the last few pages through blurred vision, I kept silently shouting to myself, “This! This is the Gospel! This is the Jesus I am looking for. This is the Jesus the world wants, but doesn’t know they need. This is the Jesus the church has locked in the attic, out of shame—or possibly fear—for what might happen if we let him loose.”

In this book, NT Wright has put my soul to words.

Let me briefly explain what the book is about, and then summarize why I found it so compelling.

In The Challenge of Jesus, chapters 1–5 are essentially a summary of one of Wright’s other books, Jesus and the Victory of God, and chapter 6 is a preview of a book that at the time of writing had not been published, but which is now available, The Resurrection of the Son of God. In these six chapters, Wright consistently amazes the reader not only with his insight into the Jewish backgrounds of Jesus, but also his conservative stance on the historical reliability of the Gospels. It is so rare to find a world-renowned New Testament scholar who actually believes that the New Testament is accurate and reliable.

The mixture of Wright’s historical knowledge and conservative stance lead to some challenging and surprising insights into the life and mission of Jesus. Ultimately, Wright paints a picture of Jesus as being the one in whom all the plans and promises of God to Israel are fulfilled. This reading of Jesus helps remove the age-old animosity between Calvinism and Arminianism, the debates about faith and good works (p. 43), election and free will, the meaning of the Kingdom of God (cf. p. 36), and the ongoing battle between Dispensationalism and Covenant theology. In Wright’s reading, these debates become almost nonsensical. They are cases of asking the wrong questions. Such debates are beside the point (p. 73).

Wright’s reading of the Gospels (and the entire Bible) emphasizes the central theme of the people of God in exile (p. 36f), and that the Bible is a story in search of actors and an ending (pp. 43, 159). Jesus is the pivot point in the story, and brings into himself the people of Israel, the Temple, the Torah, the Land, and the Covenant (pp. 55f, 110f). The purpose for all these are now repurposed in and through Jesus. The resurrection showed that this was the purpose all along.

As fantastic as the first six chapters were, the last two chapters are where my tears were shed. Using the story from Luke 24 about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus as a framework, Wright shows how the startling news about the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb transformed and re-imagined the mission and purpose of the early church, and how it can do the same for us.

In these chapters, he shows how the reality of postmodernism is actually a blessing for the mission of the church, not something to be attacked or fended off with ever-lengthening doctrinal statements. Postmodernism contains a good critique of modernism, for which the church should be grateful. I wish I could explain his reasoning on this, but you really must read the chapters for yourself to grasp the full weight of his argument. The part that led me to tears is on pages 172-173, but I cannot reproduce it here, as once again, ripping these paragraphs from their context causes them to lose their force. I will, however, conclude with a small excerpt—a message, I felt, was straight from Jesus, through NT Wright, to me (make of that what you will):

“Foolish ones,” replies Jesus; “How slow of heart you are to believe all that the Creator God has said! Did you never hear that he created the world wisely? And that he has now acted within the world to create a truly human people? And that from within this people he came to live as a truly human person? And that in his own death he dealt with evil once and for all? And that he is even now at work, by his own Spirit, to create a new human family in which repentance and forgiveness of sins are the order of the day, and so to challenge and overturn the rule of war, sex money, and power?” And, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, and now also the apostles and prophets of the New Testament, he interprets to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

If you are looking for a book to prepare your heart, mind, and life for Easter, you could do no better than read The Challenge of Jesus. I, for one, am going to read it again.

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If you would like to be entered in a drawing for a free copy of this book, please post a thoughtful comment below about this post, NT Wright, Jesus, the Gospels, the resurrection, or anything related. The drawing will be next Friday, February 25.